Pete Matthews "has never felt better" since being offloaded by his boyhood club at the beginning of this year. The disgraced AAAs fraudster was allowed to leave Blackburn Harriers on a free transfer in the January window and - despite reports of the northerner struggling with the pace of London life - claims to have settled down nicely at Blackheath and Bromley.
"I guess that they appreciate me more" said Matthews from his tanning base in Portugal "I outgrew Blackburn and decided that it was time to move on". Quite a different story is told by the Harriers, who state that they had no choice but to get rid of Matthews as he had quite literally outgrown the club vests. "His behaviour was becoming more and more erratic" said a Blackburn insider "we had a meeting and weighed up what he actually brought to the club. We agreed that he added no value and so moved him on."
The most famous athlete never to have broken 4 minutes for 1500m has not been without his difficulties since joining Blackheath. Mike Skinner branded the red head a "national joke" last month and the club fined him heavily after the echo reported that he had fictionalised his 3km time in order to gain entry to the BUCS Indoor Championships. In spite of these setbacks, Matthews told the echo that he was "really excited" about the forthcoming track season. "I might even race" smiled the former GB International (Mountain Running) "in all seriousness though, I am ready to smash it up".
Matthews also played down rumours of an embarrassing incident in Portugal last week. It is understood that he wasted over 90 minutes talking to a Portuguese stranger who he believed to be an international athlete. When it was revealed that the individual was the head groundsman at the track and had only recorded an "average" 10k time, Matthews was forced into a humiliating U-turn and Facebook deletion.