Reflecting on his five months at Huddersfield Town, Alex Matos believes it was a ‘great experience’ for him with the youngster progressing his footballing development away from Cobham for the first time in his career during the second half of the season.
After making his professional debut for the Blues back in October - coming into our Premier League contest against Fulham as a late substitution for Enzo Fernandez - Alex Matos has gone from strength to strength, continuing his rise up the footballing ladder.
Joining Huddersfield in January on a loan move to the end of the campaign just gone, the 19-year-old was thrown into a tough and testing Championship relegation battle but the midfielder believes the experience has left him a more rounded footballer.
After recently returning to Cobham and preparing for the summer break, we caught up with Matos who reflects only positively on his time as a Terrier where he made 19 appearances, including scoring against newly-promoted Southampton.
‘It was good for me, I played a lot of games, got a lot of minutes and it was a great experience for me,’ Matos opened, speaking to us from our training ground recently.
‘My objective was to go out and play a lot of minutes in a good league in the Championship. Despite the disappointment of relegation, it was a really good experience and I learned a lot.
‘Every point means something, every goal means something and it’s hugely important. It’s a tough environment, but the senior players at Huddersfield helped me a lot and I learned a lot from them. Players like Jonathan Hogg were great and they were very good guys.’
As well as progressing on the pitch, the England youth international also felt he developed off the grass, with moving away from home for the first time proving a unique journey.
He continued: ‘It was tough at the start, but gradually I adapted to my new living environment and learned to live by myself. Fortunately, my family came to pretty much every home game that I played and they were really supportive of me.
‘I really enjoyed my time there. The stadium, the supporters, the people and staff – everyone welcomed me as soon as I got to the club. I’m very grateful for the experience.’
Matos also kept in close contact with a number of Chelsea staff as looked to keep improving.
He added: ‘I spoke to a lot of people at Chelsea during my time at Huddersfield, guys like Ed Brand. They were watching my games and giving me feedback all the time which was really useful.’