We Catch Up With Matt Davies-Adams, Notts-Based Host of the Straight Outta Cobham Podcast

Imagine it. You have your dream job. You get to talk about football for a living. But… you’re not talking about your own club. Does that ruin the magic, or does it help you to stay objective? 

Matt Davies-Adams, Nottingham Forest fan but host of The Athletic’s Chelsea FC podcast, Straight Outta Cobham, knows the answer better than anyone. And, while there’s obviously nothing quite like watching your club, Matt claims that analysing, reporting on, and being immersed in the world of another can quickly win over your heart. “I always say that I’m a Forest supporter and a Chelsea sympathiser,” laughs Matt, who has commentated for Chelsea TV since the 2011-12 season. “I’ve worked for them for over a decade, and I’ve seen every game they’ve played for ten years - so I think it’d be weird if I didn’t care. It’d certainly make the job a lot more difficult if I didn’t. I often have to remind myself to be objective when I’m on other shows that aren’t totally Chelsea-focused.”

Have I, myself a tormented Chelsea fan, booked in this interview solely to chat about my beloved Blues, though? Of course not - that would be wildly unprofessional. And, besides, chatting Chelsea is hardly a fun activity these days. No, I wanted to sit down with Matt because football, at least for me, ain’t what it used to be. As ironic as it is for a Chelsea fan to say (what, with us basically inventing the idea of a club buying its way to trophies), the heart of the sport - from the outside, at least - appears to have dissipated somewhat. The growing prevalence of multi-club models, the sky-high (pun intended) price of watching a match on TV, the even sky-higher (it’s a term) cost of going to games - it’s all very easy to feel disillusioned. But how does it feel as an insider, as someone whose entire career revolves around the sport? 

“I still love football as much as ever,” Matt, also host of the What The EFL?! podcast, asserts. “A lot has changed in the time I’ve been covering it, and there are lots of things about it that I really dislike - in the way that it’s run, and how club owners operate, and how it’s all marketed. There’s plenty to be critical about. But I always come back to the fact that I’d spent a long time not working in football, and I had lots of other jobs - at Capital One just down the road, for example - and I was rubbish at all of them because I didn’t have any passion for them. It’s hard working in football because you work every weekend and you work late, which isn’t easy when you have a young family, but I’d still rather be doing this over anything else, and it’ll always be a massive privilege to be able to do it.” 

Yes, that’s even the case when the team you’re spotlighting are down on their luck, low on morale and, let’s be honest, a bit of an embarrassment. “It can be difficult to cover a side that’s in a bad spell. It’s certainly taught me diplomacy skills,” Matt smiles. “But you’ve got to be as honest as you can, otherwise you lose people. If it just becomes all about cheerleading, then that doesn’t really serve anybody. And there is usually always something to discuss. It’s been a bit of a grind talking about the league, where there really hasn’t been anything to play for, but there’s always something you can pick out - whether that’s an individual or a performance. The good thing about football is that there’s always another game, so you can dwell on one thing for a bit, but then you can instantly look ahead to what’s coming next.” 

For those out of the loop, Chelsea - once a mega-force on the English and global stage - have barely scored a goal this season, let alone won a trophy. On top of that, the new American ownership have… struggled to adapt to the beautiful game (to put it mildly). Four managers have taken to the dug-out, countless players have arrived at the club, and masses of supporters have made their feelings known at matches, booing players and coaches alike after runs of bad results. Writing this down as a Chelsea fan might be painful - but it does at least keep those reporting on the side on their toes. 

“There’s always something ridiculous that happens at Chelsea, whether it’s them winning a trophy they shouldn’t win or some unexpected drama that no one expects. Last year was a bit of a curveball, with them being sanctioned,” muses Matt. “That was obviously horrific - I lost a lot of work because of that - but there’s constantly something interesting happening at the club. I always say there’s no team I’d rather cover than Chelsea, because you’re never short of stuff to talk about.” 

That’s all well and good, and Matt’s passion for his adopted second team is certainly genuine, but if the chance to cover his club came about, would he really turn it down? “Of course, Forest are in my mind,” the World Feed commentator admits, “but it’s a very limited area - when I left BBC Radio Nottingham in 2007, Colin Fray and David Jackson were still working there, and they do such a fantastic job. Yet it’s not realistic to say I’ll never be the Forest commentator; I’d love to do that, and I’ve done a few little bits with the in-house media team. I do think it would be different taking on Forest because, when we talk about working on your passion, that’s probably a little too close to home...” To use the old cliche, though, never say never. Whether objectively or not, you Reds may one day hear Matt Davies-Adams narrating a screamer at the City Ground. But, until then, us Blues will continue to make the most of his entertaining quips and sharp analysis - even if said analysis is a bit of a downer right now… 

Straight Outta Cobham is available on all podcasting platforms

@MattDaviesAdams