TALK to anyone in the game about Dominic Matteo and the soundbites are always the same. “Decent player, never really fulfilled his potential at Liverpool, did well at Leeds though... what's he doing now?”

Well, let the man himself explain. “I'm in the middle of writing a book,” he says, sat in the plush Rock Bar that he co-owns in Leeds city centre. “I started writing it in January and have been really honest with it, probably to the point where some people will think I was a bad professional because of the way I lived my life.

“But I'm not going to lie about it. I read too many autobiographies and think 'that's not true'. So I'm being a bit ruthless and I'm actually saying that I could have done better if I'd lived my life better as a footballer.

“I'm having a go at myself. Yes, there were some good times with Leeds and occasionally with Liverpool but it's going to be a brutally honest book about a footballer who didn't quite get to the top but maybe should have.”

So that's what happened to Matteo. He never quite got to the top because he lacked the dedication and focus to get there. Matteo, by his own admission, liked a drink and a night out. It is only now when recounting his career on paper that such introspection has allowed him to see the error of his ways. That the lifestyle he and many of his contemporaries enjoyed was not conducive to the demands of Premier League football.

The Southport lad, 37, boasted an undeniable talent that prompted Kenny Dalglish to sign him from Birkdale United as an 11-year-old, the same day a certain Robbie Fowler joined the Reds (wearing an Everton shirt).

Matteo made his debut under Graeme Souness in 1993, but his versatility often worked against him in a Liverpool side that promised so much but delivered very little during the mid-90s.

A Coca-Cola Cup final win over Bolton Wanderers was scant return from a group of players arguably every bit as talented as their Manchester United counterparts but who lacked their sworn enemies' hunger for silverware. Or at least that was how the theory went.

Matteo was born in Dumfries but grew up in Southport, where he became a regular face on the nightlife scene in the town along with Reds team-mate Neil Ruddock, among others.

“It was tough to be a Liverpool player then, playing for a club who had won everything and were trying to get back to where they used to be,” says Matteo. “I still believe that I was the last of a generation in that era. We liked a drink and we liked playing football. I was brought up that way.

“I'm not saying it's anyone's fault - it's my own fault - but I think that's just the way it was back then. You would go training and have a few pints afterwards. You then played at the weekend and had a few pints after the game. I don't think that helped us much; I think it would definitely hinder anyone's career.

“Anyone who drinks and plays football, it's not the right thing to do. It's totally changed now. Some of my mates now who are still playing football, you try and get them out for a pint and you can't. It's once a month maybe but when we played it was two or three times a week.

“I don't think we were the only team doing it, though. You look at Arsenal, ourselves and Man United, who were renowned big drinkers at the time.”

Yet while United partied hard, they played even harder and had the trophies to prove it. Liverpool, sadly, did not. The media gave Roy Evans' men the infamous Spice Boys tag – and it stuck. Did United have the discipline and collective desire that Liverpool lacked?

“You're probably right,” Matteo says with more than a tinge of regret. “Off the field they were probably slightly more disciplined than us. They had just started winning things and had a great crop of lads who had come through together.”

There were good times for Matteo during his time as a Red. He made over 150 appearances and scored two goals, including a memorable strike during an FA Cup tie at Huddersfield. Yet if unfulfilled potential became a theme at Liverpool during the 90s, then Matteo's own Anfield career followed a similar pattern.

“There was a season when we should have won the league in 1997,” he recalls ruefully. “I remember halfway through the season we were talking on the team bus about how we were going to win the title.

“Not in cockiness; we just felt we had a good enough team to win it. We played Blackburn at home in February and drew 0-0. Colin Hendry cleared everything off the line and was absolutely unbelievable. I don't know what happened that day but I do believe that if we had beaten Blackburn we would have gone on to win the league. Our bad run started then.”

Matteo, for his part, was used in a number of positions: left-back, centre-back and also in midfield. It did not help him. He reasons: “If you speak to anyone who knows anything about my career, then when I was playing in one position I had my two best seasons at Liverpool. I had two years at left-back before I left and maybe the season where I played sweeper, my form was very good.

“It's very difficult to be a utility player. To play in a different position week in, week out, everyone thinks it must be easy. But I must have been on the bench for Liverpool about 200 times and never got on. It was definitely a hindrance but you look back and you cannot change what was.

“I played left wing and got some stick from the fans, but I`ve never been a left-winger in my life. I'm either a sweeper, centre-half or a left-back. When you are playing in another position people don't realise how difficult it is to go from centre-half to left-wing.”

And it all came to an abrupt end in 2000 when Gerard Houllier effectively informed him his time at the club was up, despite Matteo having enjoyed a fine campaign during the previous season.

“I had just signed a five-year deal at Liverpool and wanted to stay,” he says. “Houllier then rung me up and said they were signing Christian Ziege and he was going to play. Didi Hamann actually said to me 'don't go, you're a better player than him'. I actually believed I was better but with Houllier telling me that Ziege was going to play and I was going back on the bench, after I'd had probably my best season for the club, I didn't see that as fair.

“I just thought we would do pre-season together and whoever was the best player would get into the team. But for him saying to me 'he's going to play, you will be on the bench', I didn't like that. And that's when I made the decision to leave Liverpool and join Leeds.

“The one thing I didn't like about Houllier was him trying to tell me about Liverpool Football Club. I had been there all my life. I had been to the games since I was a boy and some French guy - a schoolteacher, a dictator like him - was trying to tell me about my football club.”

Yet leaving Liverpool breathed new life into Matteo's career and allowed him to flourish in a vibrant young Leeds side led by David O'Leary. Matteo's first season at Elland Road saw him help the Yorkshire side to the Champions League semi-finals, where they lost to Valencia

To say the move across the Pennines was the making of Matteo would be an understatement. Matteo remembers: “David O'Leary said to me 'look Dom, work hard, get in the side and if you play well you'll stay in the team'. In the main I played centre-half and it was nice to have a manager who had faith in me and believed in me. My career kicked on from that point because I was playing regularly and O'Leary was a defender himself so I think he understood me a little bit better.

“Leeds was great for me, as a person as well. Sometimes it's good to get away from home. I didn't want to leave Liverpool but when it came about I loved it because I was playing regularly. The Leeds fans liked me, I liked them and there was a great rapport. I never had that at Liverpool, whereas a lot of the other players did.”

From listening to Matteo's frank and honest views, it is clear he still has red blood pumping through his veins. He admits: “While I knew when that phone call came from Houllier that there might be trouble ahead, I was honoured to play for Liverpool. They're a massive, massive club and an institution. To stand on the pitch and look at the Kop when it was terracing was an amazing feeling as a player.

“I was also very lucky to captain one of the great teams in British football in Leeds United. I say to people all the time, just to have been a professional footballer was brilliant. It's the best job in the world because you get paid money - lots of money - to run around playing football.”

Matteo ended his playing career with spells at Blackburn and Stoke, but he remains a cult figure in Leeds. Their fans still sing about his famous goal against AC Milan in the San Siro, which ensured Leeds` progress to the next stage of the Champions League during 2000-01. When Rio Ferdinand left Elland Road, Matteo was handed the captaincy.

Matteo, now based in Hale in Cheshire, makes regular appearances at Leeds on matchdays, is the club's Sporting Bet ambassador and also writes a regular and highly opinionated column about Simon Grayson's men in the Leeds-based Yorkshire Evening Post.

Although a back operation has left his “body in bits”, forcing him to shelve his plans to finish his coaching qualifications, football remains his greatest passion.

“I'd love to see Liverpool and Leeds playing each other again in the Premier League,” he says. “Simon Grayson is doing well at Leeds. He comes in the bar and has a drink with us every now and then, and I think he's got a great chance to maybe take Leeds up again.

“They had the record amount of away fans at Arsenal last season and it's definitely a club with a Premier League infrastructure and fanbase. It's a one-club city and everyone would benefit from Leeds being in the top flight again.

“It would be amazing to get Man United and Liverpool back here because of the great rivalries between the clubs.”

Matteo is currently working to expand his Ibiza-themed bar in the heart of the city, which is proving a resounding success. How did he become involved in the Rock Bar?

“After I retired from playing I had six months off, took my kids to school but it was all a bit of a blur,” says Matteo. “I then had a meeting with a couple of businessmen from Leeds and they offered me the opportunity to get involved in this bar. I just thought, why not? I love Leeds as a city. The bar is doing very well and we're looking to make it slightly bigger.

“It's been interesting. I've learnt a few harsh lessons about business but I've enjoyed it. I try and do as much media work as possible, plus I work at Leeds on matchdays, just basically going around saying hello to the fans. I wouldn't say it's what I want to do, and I would love to go back and finish my coaching badges, but at the moment I'm happy with life and I've got plenty going on.”

Matteo still sees his old Liverpool colleagues on an infrequent basis but the former Kop team-mate he admires most is still wearing the famous red jersey. Matteo says: “Jamie Carragher reminds me a lot of myself in that he's had to work hard for what he's achieved.

“He went on to do a lot better than I ever did. Lads like Robbie and Michael Owen were naturally gifted but Carra works so hard at his game and keeping himself fit. “He's a brilliant defender and is probably the best talker in the league. Out of all the players who've come through the ranks and done well at Liverpool, I think Carra is the one I'm most proud of.”

This interview first appeared in issue seven of Well Red. Issue nine is available to buy now - click here.