Kelly: Let’s try and get to know you a little bit more away from the pitch. Firstly, I always like asking: what were you like as a youngster?
Nathan: If you asked my mam or dad, they’d say I was a headcase! I was just a bit itchy, I always had to move. I could never sit still and relax. I always had to do something. So they had to burn me out. I always wanted to be in the grass or playing football, just running around to drain my energy. I think I was hard work for my parents, I’d say it like that!
Kelly: It sounds like maybe it was quite a chaotic household. How many siblings have you got?
Nathan: I’ve got an older brother, a younger sister and a younger brother. I think it was just a constant battle of me trying to beat my older brother. It was just so hard because the age difference. We all had training at different times and they’d be running out of the house and you’d forget your boots or they’d be taking two cars in different directions. It was a bit of a carnage, but you wouldn’t have it any other way.
Kelly: Are you still close now?
Nathan: Ah yeah, of course. I talk to them more or less every day on the phone. Every chance I get to go home I will. My mam goes to every game – home and away. She watches them all.
Kelly: So she flies over? Are they still in Ireland?
Nathan: Yeah, they live in Ireland, so she flies over and she goes everywhere to be fair.
Kelly: Home and away?
Nathan: Yeah.
Kelly: That is some commitment!
Nathan: I know, I tell her, ‘listen, you don’t have to’ and she’s like, ‘no, I want to’.
Kelly: Not everyone’s got a son that’s a Premier League footballer though… I kind of get the appeal!
Nathan: Yeah, I don’t think that she watches the matches. I think that she just looks at me the whole game and sees what I’m doing. She’ll come after, ‘Why were you scratching your leg so much in the match?’ … ‘I don’t know. How do you know that?’
Kelly: Aw, bless her, that’s really sweet. How would your best friend describe you?
Nathan: I’d like to think that they’d describe me as the same lad I was growing up. The first thing that would pop in their head… they wouldn’t say I’m a footballer. I think they’d just say, ‘ah Nathan, he’s just a good lad like… he’s a bit of craic and he comes out when he can’ … but I don’t think that they’d look at me as a footballer, which I really enjoy. And it just means when I’m with them, I can just be myself and just enjoy being one of the lads.
Kelly: So if the manager gives you a day off, what would you do?
Nathan: It depends. If it’s a weekday and it’s good weather, I’ll play golf with a few of the lads here and we’ll get out in the sun.
Kelly: Are you any good?
Nathan: I’m all right. Listen, I can play. I’m not the greatest, but I’m not the worst.
Kelly: Who do you play with here?
Nathan: The group right now is me, Keane Lewis-Potter, Kris Ajer, Hakon Valdimarsson. It’s a good crew because we have a lot of players and we do a little Ryder Cup-style.
Kelly: Oh nice!
Nathan: So it’s staff v players.
Kelly: Wow!
Nathan: Yeah, because there’s a lot of players. We did that last year. We did 18 holes in the morning, we went for some lunch, and then we did 18 holes in the afternoon and it was really good fun. Players won, so thank God!
Kelly: Oh, that was my next question. Have you got any secret hobbies?
Nathan: I like cooking, so that’s something. When I cook, I think I just forget about everything. I’m just in my own little zone and my head kind of goes quiet, which is nice.
Kelly: Are you a good cook?
Nathan: It depends who you ask…
Kelly: If I was asking your girlfriend…
Nathan: Yeah, she’s actually saying: ‘Ah, you’re getting better at cooking!’
Kelly: That’s a bit patronising!
Nathan: Yeah, and I was like… ‘Does that mean I was bad?’
Kelly: Fair enough. What do people get wrong about you the most?
Nathan: Maybe I get a bit of stereotypical: ‘Ah, he’s just a footballer.’ Maybe they get that and then think, ‘oh, he’s actually pretty nice to talk to… he’s all right… he’s kind of relaxed… he’s chill’.
I always want to be just a good person as well. That’s important for me, just to be a nice person, a good person, a caring person. As much as I want to be the best footballer I can ever be, I also want to be the best person I can be and I think that’s something that I always strive towards as well.
Kelly: What’s the toughest moment of your career been? Has there been a tough moment?
Nathan: I had one game for Brentford against Wolves and I had two mistakes in the game. I gave away two goals, we lost 3-1 or something like that and I got battered off the Wolves fans because I’d just left Wolves and the fans had so much to go against me, so much stick. I was like, ‘oh my God, this couldn’t have got any worse’.
To be fair, that night Thomas Frank rang me and he was like, ‘listen Nathan, that’s probably the worst game you’ll ever have in your career’, and he’s like, ‘so it’s only up from here’.