Matt Grimes Interview: Swansea captain on the upbringing that made him Mr Dependable | football news

Matt Grimes is briefly shocked when reminded that the 10th anniversary of his move to Swansea is just a few days away on January 2.

“To be honest, I don’t really know how I feel,” he says. Pak Gazette. “I feel like I blinked and everything was gone, very quickly.”

Technically, the midfielder is not a one-club man; He started at local club Exeter and spent time on loan at Blackburn, Leeds and Northampton after a slow start to his time in South Wales. But since then he has become part of the furniture: it is clear that there is only one club for him.

Since joining the Swans at the age of 19, he has made 324 appearances in all competitions for the club. In the six seasons prior to 2024/25, he had only missed four league games. Forty-one more games and he will be among the 10 best players of all time.

“I feel like the Championship is so busy and there’s always so much going on, you just take it game by game and each season goes into another season, into another season and I find myself with 10 years of experience.

“I just start every season thinking I want to play every game. I feel like that’s how you are when you’re a kid. You just want to play and play and play and I haven’t lost that.

“Especially in the last two seasons, I’ve been determined to play every minute of every game. It’s something I’m pretty proud of.”

Many call Grimes a legend, unusual for a player who turned 29 in July, but he’s not convinced he’s anywhere near worthy of that status yet.

“We have a Hall of Fame wall in the stadium, with club legends like Wayne Routledge, Nathan Dyer, Alan Curtis, Garry Monk, Ashley Williams – all the big hitters are there,” he says.

“When I see the appearances and it’s 350, 360, 400, I think, ‘Yeah, I’m not far from that now!’ But the most important thing for me is the honors those boys achieved here. They have taken the club from League Two to the Premier League and that is what gives them legendary status, that is why people remember them.

“I feel like, at the moment, I’m just a player who has played a lot of games for a club. My goal is not so much to play as many games as them, but to achieve what they have and leave the club in a better place than when I joined.” here for the first time.”

It is certainly on the way. A look at his stats illustrates exemplary passing ability. A look at the sheer volume of appearances he has made over the last eight seasons illustrates the reliability that many managers can only dream of.

Including his season on loan at Northampton in 2017/18, Grimes has made 342 league appearances, the most of any player in the top four divisions of English football.

The numbers are staggering and his education has been fundamental to this, he says.

“It’s become that way because of the way I was raised; my mom and dad always wanted the best for me. You can’t go out on a Saturday if you just played or have a game on Tuesday.” .

“Anything that would hinder performance was discouraged and I’ve incorporated that into my life and how I live now. “I won’t do anything that will put me in a bad situation or mean I can’t train or anything like that.

“If I play on Saturday and I have another game on Tuesday, I just think, well, I played on Saturday, now I have to play on Tuesday and then I have to play the following Saturday, and that just showed up in hundreds of games.

“It’s just about living well; eat well, sleep well, rest as much as you can. Most footballers know what is good and what is bad for your body, so do as many good things as you can and do as little as possible. “bad.” things as you can.

“There are exceptions from time to time and everyone likes to let their hair down from time to time and that’s completely normal. But if you’re 90 to 95 percent perfect – not perfect, but living right – then you’re not going.” . very wrong.”

Grimes has worked under nine permanent managers in his decade at Swansea, and four have had a notable impact on him. “To be honest, there aren’t many things that faze me in any way now,” he adds.

“Graham Potter was incredible. He gave me my chance, he let me break through and he’s done fantastic things. Steve Cooper made me captain which was an honor and I learned a lot from him. He continued to do that incredibly.” Well, with Forest. Again, a senior manager.

“Russell Martin was fantastic with me. He really brought out a side of my game that I had been working on over the years, but he brought it out of me and allowed me to control the game in the way the Swansea players want. He gave me a great understanding of a different dimension of football; very possession-based.

“Now we have a manager [Luke Williams] that, for me, is among those names. I think it’s absolutely phenomenal. At some point he will head 100 percent into the Premier League. Ask anyone who has worked with him; “His detail and his obsession with winning are second to none, so we are in a good place with him at the helm.”

Despite the caliber of coaches who have passed through the doors of the Swansea.com Stadium in recent years, Swansea are still in the Championship, exactly where they were when Grimes arrived. This is their seventh consecutive season in the second division.

They reached the play-off semi-finals in 2019/20 and the final in 2020/21, but were beaten by Brentford on both occasions and have not finished higher than 10th since.

“To be honest, since those play-off campaigns, they’ve been transitional seasons,” Grimes acknowledges.

“Our president [Andy Coleman] It’s absolutely incredible. “He is obsessed, as is the manager, with getting this club back to the Premier League and I think this is the most settled and best place we have been in for quite some time.”

Swansea sit in 10th place ahead of their trip to Hull on Saturday – live Air sports+ at 12:30 p.m., with a difference of seven points that currently separates them from the play-off places.

Saturday, December 21, 12:25 p.m.

Start 12:30 pm

Talk of where they might end up is out of the question as the halfway mark approaches, but Grimes knows he wants to add more to his four Premier League games, whenever possible.

“As I have said before in interviews, I owe everything to Swansea and what the club has given me in my career.

“Returning the club to the Premier League would be a dream come true and we are all fighting for that.”