JUST sitting with Matt Jansen, talking and drinking tea at his kitchen table on a weekday morning, does more to rekindle the old deep enthusiasm for football than half a dozen afternoons spent watching the incoherent energy that sometimes passes as entertainment in the modern game.

Inevitably, the conversation returns to Blackburn Rovers, and there is nothing forced in his concern for them, the club that has never had a serious rival for his allegiance since arriving at Ewood Park for £4 million from Crystal Palace in 1999.

“Do you know I only got booked once – for ripping my shirt off when I scored the winner at Preston, the night we went up to the Premier League,” said Jansen.

“I ran over to the Blackburn fans and that celebration moment will live with me for the rest of my life.

“I can’t really put into words how incredibly proud I was to play for them, to be part of that incredible club.

“It is devastating to see what is happening now and a complete shambles.

“It was a family club then, good men like John Williams and Tom Finn – and Jack Walker, a guy with his heart in the club, who loved the town and the people.

“Jack would have hated to see the club become a laughing stock like this.

“The owners have dissolved the very core of Blackburn Rovers and the future of the club is at stake.

“The club seems to have lost its soul. None of it makes any sense anymore.”

Jansen is 35 now, happily married with three children, but he has lost none of the boyish looks that made him a Blackburn pin-up and a firm fans’ favourite from the moment he netted on his Premier League debut against Tottenham Hotspur.

“Win or lose, Jack would come into the dressing room after the game and give you a giant hug and it felt like the club was together,” Jansen recalled.

“He had this little coin trick and I remember it always used to make the lads laugh.

“Jack was always striving to drive Blackburn forward, but I’m not sure the Venky’s want to do that.

“Venky’s need to have Blackburn in their heart like Jack Walker had.”

It was a golden spell for Jansen. He was Graeme Souness’ talisman, firing Blackburn back to the promised land of the Premier League and then scoring a goal in the 2002 League Cup final, Rovers defeating Spurs at Cardiff.

A couple of years later he was on the verge. Jansen had been measured for his World Cup suit and invited to a party that David Beckham threw on the eve of the squad’s departure to Japan.

The call never came, provoking a chain reaction that nearly ended his life, and effectively finished his career, certainly within elite football.

Jansen was on a moped with his wife Lucy, waiting at a crossroads in the middle of Rome, when a taxi hit them.

Lucy was unscathed, but Jansen suffered life-threatening injuries and was in a coma for six days.

“For the next two months I recalled very little and from then on I was trying to rebuild my career,” said Jansen.

“With head injuries you suffer depressions, and all kinds of problems, then it was basic co-ordination, and it was a slow process.

“It was tearing me apart, I had sleepless nights, and you get to a stage where you think there is no point continuing the battle.

“I had psychologists, psychiatrists, all kinds of medical stuff. Blackburn were unbelievable and very supportive.”

Yet, remarkably, he was playing for Rovers again within five months and scored twice in an FA Cup tie against Aston Villa.

“I had comebacks, scored goals, and was in and out, but I couldn’t get that confidence back,” he said.

“I kept asking myself, ‘Why me?”

“The goals I scored after that were just instinct.

“It was when I had time to think that I was in trouble.

“I’d get the ball and I’d stopped being a player who would take five or six players on, and became a one or two-touch player because I wouldn’t have to think so much.

“That’s the way my head was working.

“It was a nightmare and it became a vicious circle.”

Jansen even went out on loan to Bolton in an attempt to kick-start his career but the writing was on the wall.

“I knew Sam Allardyce was renowned for getting players back to their best but I had the same problems, still had the demons in my head.

“So I went back to Blackburn.

“I still wanted to keep hold of the dream.

“I was my own worst critic, and everyone would say there was nothing wrong, but I felt there was and I suppose I was part of my own demise really.”

Finally he surrendered to the inevitable – and joined Ewood pal Garry Flitcroft at Chorley, where he is involved today as Flitcroft’s assistant-manager.

“I got so demoralized with the situation, got so angry and depressed, that I’d think ‘right, I’ve had enough.

“I needed something more, something to focus on, and I’m loving every minute of it at Chorley.

“We got Chorley promoted and the gates have trebled at Victory Park.

“People said we were in the frame for the Preston job before Graham Westley and that’s nice.

“I want to be a manager, that’s my goal, and I’d love to come back and help Blackburn Rovers.

“We were both successful there, and I know we could help infuse a new spirit at Ewood Park.

“It would be a proud day for Matt Jansen if that happened.”