Matt Williams resignation: Chief executive admits shedding tears

The Shrewsbury Town chief executive is leaving the club after 18 months to become general manager at Burnley to return to his native north west.

To many, the 41-year-old is a tough negotiator, ruthless at times with sarcasm as sharp as a knife and armed with a ready, waspish wit.

But the father-to-be also has a heart, and is as soft as they come.

"I shed a tear in Roland's office when I gave him my resignation, I found it so difficult to do," said Williams, who leaves the Greenhous Meadow at the end of January.

"It was a really tough decision but I had to put Hannah (his wife) and the baby first.

"I said to him 'I don't want to leave, but you can't make Shrewsbury an hour closer to the Fylde coast because if you could, I wouldn't be going'.

"And it purely is down to the fact I want to be in my own bed every night with a new-born baby.

"I'll always be grateful to him for giving me the opportunity here.

"I said to him 'you've put more faith in me than Karl Oyston (Blackpool co-owner) ever did', and I get on really well with Karl, because Roland trusted me to put his business and his football club in my hands, and I cried.

"He found that difficult, a big 19-stone bloke blubbering in his office - he didn't know what to say!

"But for all his foibles and quirkiness, he's a genuine person and he's so passionate about Shrewsbury Town."

It's not the first time Williams feels he's let the chairman down after turning down a similar job a few years ago.

"He forgave me for letting him down when I was going to come here in 2007 and I kept in touch," he said.

"So in my letter, I said 'I'm sorry for letting you down for a second time'. I'll miss his quirkiness. He's a decent guy."

So what is his legacy? Well, it's more a case of where do you start?

For many it will be the bringing about the return of the loggerheads club badge.

Williams is still surprised at the depth of feeling towards that, but in his view, it's the improvement he's overseen of the whole club - with last season's promotion the pinnacle.

"To be chief executive of a club that got promoted after only having five players at the start of June, with a new squad and new manager, is a stand-out achievement," he said.

"I like proving people wrong. People said 'you won't get the loggerheads badge back' and we did.

"People said 'you won't get the new shirts in for the last game of the season' and we did.

"I've had some great emails saying 'your legacy is bringing the loggerheads badge back' but I don't think it is.

"I worked with the chairman to change the badge and then to deliver the kit and make sure that was available.

"I'm not an Alan Sugar-type genius - what chairman wouldn't want the following year's replica shirt on sale at the final home game of the season? It's an absolute no-brainer.

"My legacy here would be we're an even better football club than when I walked through the door.

"I've improved it through certain systems I've put in place such as more stock control, an order process - basic things.

"We changed the badge, we put a new ticketing system in which allows people to print tickets at home and allows us to advertise Shrewsbury Town on the biggest ticket platform in the country - Ticketmaster - and enables us to do proper 'e-shots' to fans.

"I'm challenging Greg (ticket office manager) to find how many Under-16s are on our database so when it's their birthday, we can generate an email to them that says 'happy birthday'."

For Williams, that engagement with the community is the lifeblood behind a club such as Town.

"When I came in, to be told the football staff didn't embrace the community and didn't see it was their job was something I completely disagreed with.

"It was important when we appointed Micky Mellon we got a manager who embraced the community side.

"We're doing more than ever and that's something I want the club to carry on doing.

"Players are privileged to be footballers and they're contracted to do three hours' community work a week.

"If you're a pound short in what you give them in their contracts, they'll come to you and complain; we say 'you haven't done your community work'.

"Training doesn't start until 9.30am, so you can go into a school assembly on your way in.

"No club enforces it, but I said to Jamie Edwards, who was a crucial appointment as community manager, he'd have the full support of the manager and myself to access to players.

"I'd like to see players almost adopt a school or a junior club and spend at least one afternoon or evening a month with that particular group and work with them.

"We've got injured players who come in early on a Saturday for treatment or whatever, but we can get them in at 11am so they can coach kids.

"We can say, 'you're not in the squad, but here's 40 tickets, go to this school, go and coach and do a question-and-answer session'. Not a problem.

"Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro delivered a French lesson at Meole Brace School and has since coached the girls football team.

"Those kids will remember that forever and these are the supporters of tomorrow."

Key to the engagement is to win over fans on their doorstep, away from the clutches of bigger clubs down the M54, or up the A49 and M6.

"Shropshire has an ageing population, and, while there isn't another League club for 40 minutes in any direction, we've got competition from Wolves, West Brom, Villa, Birmingham, Stoke, Liverpool, Everton and the Manchester clubs, and there's always a game on satellite TV," said Williams.

"I remember as a kid two six foot four, square-built Aussies who played rugby league for Oldham turned up at our school for a talk and that night I went out and bought a rugby ball and started playing the game, having never picked up a rugby ball in my life before.

"So you never forget the time when that player turns up at your school.

"We need to do more of that and Micky is fantastic at that - we used to joke about Ian Holloway would go to the opening of a crisp packet, well Micky's exactly the same.

"Initially it won't make money, but the secondary element is they'll come here, buy a ticket, a programme, a shirt and food.

"We're desperately trying to get more junior supporters and people need to know about the fantastic work Shrewsbury Town are doing.

"The decoration of the concourse for the family stand is now complete and there's the loggerheads and graffitti art of the players.

"We all want heroes and we want schools to spend the morning here - Jamie's got education packs for Key Stage One and Two for them to learn geography, history and maths - there's so much they can learn through football.

"We're in the process now of finalising a joint venture between the club, the Shropshire FA and a couple of stakeholders in Ludlow to take over their club's facility so our community department will manage the facilities and deliver all the coaching programmes in the south of the county.

"So there's a lot going on still which I've pushed for."

Williams is as transparent as possible and prides himself on the improved communication links with the fanbase.

"Improving communication is massive for me," he said. "If we sit down with fans we can get them to understand why we made a decision.

"I hope when I've gone this sort of engagement will continue, whether that's with the fans' groups, who I met last week, or a wider audience.

"The Supporters Parliament was already in place when I came in but the only time we've had what I'd class as a good forum was when we gave out the free pies and coffees - the 'Pie Idol'.

"But the fans are passionate about Shrewsbury Town and they're invaluable because without them there's no club, and every penny they spend here, and more, goes to the manager to spend on football.

"In the absence of some rich Arab billionaire wanting to spend billions here, it's going to take a lot of hard work from everyone to push it forward.

"It means the football staff have to work with the players, because we're always going to be a selling club that has to identify rough diamonds and sell them, and this club has done fantastically well in doing that."

Williams has continued to oversee the funding of Town's academy, and, after banking the thick end of £2m - all through sales of homegrown talent - in the August transfer window, he's convinced that's a lifeblood to the club.

"I spoke to a club the other day which spends £2m a year on its academy and development squad but it's not produced anyone," he said.

"We spend £200,000 on the academy a year and we gave chances to those - a couple a year - who we think can make what's a massive step up from the Under-18s to the first team because we don't have a full development squad.

"So keeping the youth set-up is massive and keeping and developing those links with clubs in the north west and the Midlands is massive.

"You want contacts at all levels; Micky knows every manager and coach and Mike Jackson (assistant manager) knows every coach and the chief scouts, I know people at boardroom level such as chairmen, chief executives and secretaries.

"But we also need Steve Reece and Ian Dawes (academy managers) to be almost that annoying to Wolves, West Brom, Villa and Birmingham, that when they've got a player at 16 who they're not sure about, we get the call to have a look at him."

Those relationships extend to local non-league clubs, including AFC Telford United.

"We have a good relationship with Andy Morrell (manager) at Tamworth, and in Shropshire we set something up with AFC Telford, and to a lesser extent with Market Drayton and Ellesmere.

"We all need to work together. I promised Tom Farmer (late chairman of the Shropshire FA) I'd get Lee Carter (Telford managing director) in for a coffee and share ideas and we did that.

"Sharing knowledge and good practice can only be beneficial to both parties."

For some, Williams's biggest success is his in negotiations, and the club has benefitted hugely in financial terms from this, banking around £2m from the sales of Connor Goldson, Ryan Woods, Harry Lewis and Josh Ginnelly in the August transfer window.

So what's his secret? "I learned from the toughest, hardest and most ruthless negotiator I've ever met in Karl Oyston (Blackpool chairman)," he said.

"Fortunately other than getting Bobby Grant, I haven't had to deal with him, but I certainly wouldn't like to be an agent dealing with him.

"He's the most stubborn man I've ever met

"When I used to do negotiations at Blackpool, I was always 'good cop' to his 'bad cop', so I learned a lot from him.

"You have to have a good poker face and stick to your guns. It can be a case of 'who blinks first?'

"At times I've been blunt and regretted saying things - I certainly regretted saying 'I had to check the calendar in case it was April Fool's Day' in response to Swindon's offer for Connor Goldson!

"While it made great copy for the press, it wasn't the best thing to say and when I next see Lee Power (Swindon chairman), if he doesn't knock my head off, I'll apologise to him for that.

"We'd just turned three times what Swindon had offered from Leeds, so it was a case of 'don't waste my time, don't waste your time'.

"But I don't regret the way we've done any of our deals."

And it's the Goldson deal he rates as his best, after securing a staggered deal that will eventually see Town earn around double the original £400,000 Brighton offered, most of it up front.

"The Brighton one stands out, even though a lot of it was done by text and even on the Wednesday evening, we'd still not agreed everything.

"They wanted me to return to the ground to sign the paperwork and I was telling them where to go and saying seeing my wife was more important.

"They said 'you think watching Coronation Street with your wife is more important than the Connor Goldson paperwork?' and I said 'absolutely. You'd had all the transfer window and we didn'twant to sell'.

"But with Connor, it became apparent he was desperate to go and you can't run the risk of having an unhappy player.

"Brentford ended up offering significantly more for Ryan Woods than their first offer.

"I was with our chef (Ryan Leonard) looking at one of the concourse buffet bars and Woods's agent rang and caught me at a time when I didn't really want to discuss the deal.

"I 'lost it' with the agent and Ryan Leonard had never seen me like that before.

"There were a few insults exchanged each way. A few days went by and the agent rang back and said 'they're coming back with a better offer' and it got done.

"But you live and learn. I wouldn't say I was the best negotiator in the world, but I'm certainly not the worst.

"I like to think I'm quite cheeky - I'm not frightened to pick up the phone to speak to any chief exec or secretary at any club if they can do us a favour.

"We got away with begging quite a few last season through sometimes paying nothing or a miniscule amount or performance-based pay, when we were almost at our Financial Fair Play ceiling.

"We got away with it because Shrewsbury Town is a nice, warm, friendly club in a great environment where the players are always well looked after - this is a 'proper' club, certainly in comparison to how they were treated at Blackpool - and they're well coached by Micky and 'Jacko' and the team.

"So it makes those negotiations easier when you're pleading poverty.

"That can be difficult when you're in the top three of the division like last year. Fortunately people helped us for all those reasons."

Unfortunately for Town, Williams won't be leaving his bulging contacts book in his top drawer and this where the club has a huge hole to fill.

The value of having contacts was shown in the loan signings of Sullay Kaikai and Larnell Cole from Crystal Palace and Fulham respectively.

"I'm lucky because I know Steve Parish (Palace co-chairman) very well as they took Ian Holloway and Tom Ince from Blackpool and I was the 'good cop' in the protracted negotiations," said Williams.

"I've known their chief exec Phil Alexander for years after Blackpool played Palace early in my time there.

"Keith Millen, their assistant manager, was development coach at Blackpool for a short time and I gave Liam (Sweeting), their analyst, a job at Blackpool.

"So they knew the environment the player was coming into was good because of the people here.

"It was the same with Fulham and Larnell Cole - Jack Grimmer was treated so well when he went there and to an extent Josh Passley after that.

"The chairman here knows Alistair Mackintosh (Fulham chief executive) - they worked together on the Joe Hart deal - and I know Alistair from Manchester City, I know Darren Preston (Fulham secretary) really well, Danny Coyle (Shrewsbury goalkeeping coach) played with Kit Symons for Wales and Micky had played with the head of sports medicine (Mark Taylor) there.

"So they came to us and said 'we've got these three players, do you want any of them?'

"We said 'brilliant' but it was a case of 'Darren, we've got even less money than last year, all the players have had pay rises' but you come to a deal that benefits both."

But for all of Williams's achievements at the Greenhous Meadow, he hasn't finished yet and he's determined to bring about more improvements before he leaves.

"I still want to do things here - the pre-match entertainment isn't where I want it to be," he said.

"I want something different going on every game. We have some great charitable things going on on matchdays, but it comes down to promoting the good stuff.

"For the Gillingham game we've got a promotion against domestic violence so everyone will be wearing white ribbons.

"That's something I'm really passionate about having been involved as a kid with my mum being subjected to domestic violence by my late step dad, so it's close to my heart."

But for Williams, it's always been about engagement, and there's no bigger 'people person' at the club than him.

"It will be a sad day when I leave because I'm leaving behind some great people, some great characters I'll miss," he said.

"I'd not played seven-a-side football for at least 10 years but we play every Friday night before a home game.

"I confess I'm dreadful - I take walking football to a new level - but we win every one because the front three of Williams, Mellon and Wycherley is ruthless!

"There are a lot of good people here. When I've gone, if I can help with anything, I'm only a phonecall away.

"They might get someone even better than me, but I hope whoever it is, or whether they go down a different route, that they can continue the good work we've done."

Don't we just.

For more exclusive thoughts from Matt Williams, buy a copy of today's Shropshire Star.