When Ryan Deeney started going to watch Solihull Moors with a friend, I doubt either of them imagined it would eventually lead to him becoming one of the most recognisable voices covering the National League.
There wasn’t a grand plan.
In fact, Ryan admitted he didn’t even particularly like Solihull at first.
But there was something about non-league football that kept drawing him back. One game became another, then another, and before long his interest had grown beyond one club to the league as a whole.
That curiosity has taken him to some interesting places.
Today, Ryan is Head Researcher for the National League on Football Manager, writes extensively about the division and is one of those people supporters often turn to when they want an opinion on a signing, a manager or how their club is shaping up for the season.
Like many listeners, I was interested in what Ryan does. I wasn’t expecting to be quite so fascinated by how he does it.
One confession early in the conversation probably won’t surprise anyone who follows his work.
Spreadsheets. Lots of them.
Every squad. Every signing. Loan moves. Likely starting elevens. Team selections. Manager interviews. Anything that might become useful later.
When Ryan mentioned it, I had to laugh because I wasn’t exactly in a position to mock him. I think I admitted to having twelve spreadsheets open while we were recording.
Some people collect football shirts. Some of us apparently collect spreadsheets.
What I found interesting was the reason behind it.
Ryan isn’t trying to impress anyone with the amount of information he stores. Quite the opposite. He openly admits he doesn’t trust himself to remember everything, so he writes everything down.
It sounds simple, but perhaps that’s why his opinions tend to carry weight. They aren’t based on a vague memory of watching someone six months ago. More often than not, there’s a note, a statistic or an observation sitting somewhere waiting to be revisited.
The conversation inevitably turned to Football Manager.
Anyone of a certain age will remember losing entire evenings to Championship Manager, convincing themselves that the next wonderkid would lead Sutton United to Champions League glory. Ryan has somehow gone from playing the game to helping shape one of its most important databases.
He described it as “a little bit of a dream come true.”
I suspect plenty of listeners understood exactly what he meant.
One part of the conversation I particularly enjoyed was talking about players.
Supporters love making predictions. We’ve all watched someone for twenty minutes and decided they’re destined for the Premier League... or the Combined Counties League.
Ryan has to do it rather more carefully.
He spoke about players he’s spotted before they’ve moved into the EFL, but he was just as happy to talk about the ones he got wrong. There was no attempt to pretend every prediction had been a success.
That honesty came through throughout the interview.
Whenever we discussed Sutton’s recruitment, the promotion race or individual players, Ryan rarely dealt in absolutes.
“On paper...”
“I’m interested to see...”
“I’m a little nervous about...”
Those phrases kept cropping up.
In a football world where everyone seems desperate to have the strongest opinion, it was actually quite refreshing to hear someone comfortable admitting there are still plenty of unknowns.
Of course, no conversation with a National League analyst was going to avoid Sutton United for long.
We talked about the last four seasons, where things have gone wrong, Matt Gray’s promotion-winning side, Steve Morison’s difficult spell and the rebuilding job Chris Agutter inherited.
Ryan admitted he had tipped Sutton to finish fifth last season and explained exactly why. It wasn’t blind optimism. He genuinely felt the young squad would kick on after a year together.
It didn’t happen.
Listening to him explain why was far more interesting than simply hearing where he’d placed Sutton in a prediction table. Football is rarely decided by one thing. Recruitment, injuries, confidence, fixture lists and momentum all play their part, and Ryan was keen to explore each of them rather than point to a single reason.
As we moved on to this summer’s recruitment, there was cautious optimism.
He likes Charlie Carter. He likes the two centre-halves. He sees plenty of potential in the attacking options.
His only real concern was availability. If Sutton can keep key players fit, he feels there’s every chance they can be involved towards the top end of the table. If injuries bite again, it becomes a much tougher task.
Like the rest of us, he’ll know a lot more after ten games than he does in July.
Perhaps my favourite comment of the whole interview came when we were talking about the growth of National League coverage.
Ryan said, “The more people that are talking about this level, the better.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Over the last few years the National League has grown enormously. There are more podcasts, more YouTube channels, more writers, more analysts and far more people taking the division seriously than ever before.
Supporters are better informed, clubs are covered in greater depth and conversations about the league extend far beyond Saturday afternoons.
People like Ryan have played a big part in that.
If you enjoy looking beyond the headline predictions and want to hear how someone genuinely analyses the National League, I think you’ll enjoy this conversation.
Just don’t be surprised if you find yourself opening another spreadsheet afterwards.