Former Town skipper Jon Walters has applied to be the next chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA).
Walters, 37, believes the organisation needs to modernise with current chief executive Gordon Taylor stepping down this year. Applications to succeed him close on February 19th with interviews in March. The membership will then make a choice from the leading candidates.
"I’m very passionate about the PFA,” Walters told The Times in a lengthy interview. "I feel I am the right man for the PFA because players can relate to me.
"I’ve played in every league. I’ve captained clubs, I’ve captained my country [Ireland], I’ve been involved on the management committee of the PFA. I like leading.”
Walters, who was with the Blues between 2007 and 2010 as well as a loan spell in 2018 at the end of his career, says he backed his fellow players in his previous PFA role and also defended himself at difficult moments in his career, including at Town.
"As a PFA management committee member, I stood up for players and that put me in a precarious position at certain clubs,” he adds.
"I’ve been frozen out in certain places. I asked to leave Ipswich [for Stoke] because I wanted to play in the Premier League and set my family up [financially].
"There was a frank exchange of views with Roy [Keane, the manager]. Things were said that weren’t right, completely below the belt, very personal, and because of that I wasn’t going to back down. I don’t get pushed over by people easily. I don’t get intimidated.”