Book Review: Matt Jansen

I was always fond of Matt Jansen back in the day. Not many players outside of United used to properly catch my eye, but he always did; there was a bit of an X factor about his game and often he delivered whenever Blackburn were on Sky Sports, usually with some super goals too.

I was immediately interested to read his autobiography when I learned it was coming out just before Covid hit. For someone who reads a lot of football autobiographies, the best ones are usually from players who didn't quite have the most illustrious of careers. Jansen didn't, but the reason why was tragic.

Right away Jansen addresses the accident that happened in the summer of 2002. I can still remember hearing about that on SkySportsNews and it really was a career of two halves for the former Blackburn forward. Sadly, before the accident he turned down moves to United and Arsenal but did so with the belief that he would one day sign for a top team, however the accident undid all that.

Throughout the book there is a theme of sadness, not self pity though... the fact that he was making his England debut until a virus hit him, the fact that he would've been an England player until his accident, the fact that he was told he made the 2002 WC squad until Sven bottled it, the fact that top teams wanted him until the accident happened and so on and so forth. I wouldn't say Jansen feels sorry for himself, it's all quite matter of fact and he isn't lying when he talks about some of the 'before' parts of his career.

It is also a revealing insight into how mental health can affect a player and Jansen comes across as brutally honest as he talks about how the 2002 incident affected not only his game, but his relationships and levels of depression. He speaks openly about how he started binge drinking and not even wanting to play football anymore that it got so bad. It got to the point where if a manager told him he was starting, he would genuinely not want to play because he didn't believe in himself anymore. Quite sad.

I found the Steve Peters stuff very interesting also. For those who don't know, Steve Peters is now a leading sports psychiatrist and Jansen was one of his first footballer clients (back then Peters wasn't well known, but he is now) after he had his accident. Peters contributes extensively throughout the book and even shares his post-session patient notes which are very revealing and honest. For the record, Peters considers Jansen one of his failures that didn't respond to his treatment. Again recurring sadness.

Others things to note are that key figures during Jansen's career all write passages in the book about him, which allows you to understand how highly he was rated and why managers like Fergie (yes he contributes) wanted to sign him.

Overall a very good book and I would say it's an absolute must for Blackburn fans and would still appeal to a wider footballing audience due to the 'rise and fall' element of the story.

My rating: 7.5/10


Info on Steve Peters:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Peters_(psychiatrist)#:~:text=Steve%20Peters%20(born%205%20July,The%20Silent%20Guides%20in%202018.