A-Z of Football with Matt Le Tissier

A is for… Atmosphere

Best atmosphere you’ve played in?

Saints-Pompey in the FA Cup, 1996. That was the only time I started a game against Portsmouth in my whole career. They were in the Championship at the time, and we battered them 3-0. Normally when I came out for a warm-up half an hour, 40 minutes before the game, there were only a few people scattered around, but the place was already buzzing. I’d never seen so many people in so early, and then when we came out at five to three, it was brilliant. I still remember it now – that was the best atmosphere.

Saints 3-0 Portsmouth at a vociferous Dell in 1996

B is for… Banter

Funniest player you’ve shared a dressing room with?

There were a few. Iain Dowie was very funny, and Tim Flowers, but I think Jim Magilton was my favourite. Jim was brilliant, loud as anything, and just constant with it the whole time. He was great for the morale in the changing room.

C is for… Celebration

Favourite goal celebration in football history?

Mick Channon, the windmill. That was iconic, and it’s stood the test of time. When anyone mentions Mick Channon, you think of the windmill celebration.

D is for… Dream

What would have been your ultimate football dream?

Lifting the FA Cup at Wembley. Back in my day, the FA Cup was more iconic than winning the league title. The ’76 final is the first memory I have of any football match in my life, watching on the television. I went to my first FA Cup final when I was 12, in 1981, and ever since that day it was always, ‘I want to do this one day’. Unfortunately I never quite got there.

E is for… Embarrassed

Most humiliating moment?

Missing the rebound after I missed the penalty against Mark Crossley (the only penalty miss of Matt’s career). I didn’t mind missing the penalty, but the rebound was an easy tap-in and I put it over the bar from about seven yards. That was embarrassing. Luckily no one remembers the rebound, but that was shocking!

F is for… Friend

Best mate in football?

Franny Benali. We’ve been mates for over 40 years now, and never a cross word – although there were a couple of times in training when Franny didn’t like it when I nutmegged him! Still to this day we’re really good mates.

G is for… Goal

Best goal you have ever scored?

The one against Blackburn [at Ewood Park in 1994]. That, for me, was my best goal.

H is for… Hardman

Toughest player you have come across?

The toughest I’ve played against would’ve been Stuart Pearce. With or against? Jimmy Case. He was one of the senior pros when I first got into the team at Southampton and he was unbelievable. He would look after the young kids on the team, so if anyone on the opposition tried booting us, Jimmy would take note of that and smash them a few minutes later! He taught me a couple of lessons in training when I was dawdling on the ball a little bit, so I got a couple of whacks from him when he thought I was showing off.

I is for… Idol

Player you looked up to as a boy?

Glenn Hoddle. To this day, he’s still my ultimate football hero. He’s the one I tried to model my game on: the long-range passing, the shooting from distance, all stuff I loved doing. And he was the reason I loved it.

J is for… Job

What would you do if you weren’t a footballer?

Cricketer. I was a decent batsman. I kept wicket and batted, so that would’ve been my next choice after football.

K is for… Kit

Favourite ever football shirt?

Saints, 1988 I think it was, the Hummel kit that was based on the Denmark one from the 1986 World Cup. That was my favourite one. I liked the design, but also because when I was in that kit I was quite skinny, so I looked alright in it!

Hardman Jimmy Case in Matt's favourite Saints shirt

L is for… Losing

What’s been the toughest loss of your career?

The FA Cup quarter-final at Norwich in ’92, a replay at Carrow Road after we drew 0-0 at The Dell. Because it was a replay, the draw had already been made, so we knew the winner would play Sunderland in the semis, who were in the Second Division at the time. We went 1-0 up at Norwich, I got myself sent off and we ended up losing 2-1. Me and Barry Horne got sent off in the same game, so we ended up with nine men. We took it to within a minute of a penalty shootout, and then Chris Sutton scored in the 119th minute. Norwich went on to play Sunderland in the semi-final and Sunderland actually beat them, so Sunderland played Liverpool in the final. That’s the one result I would change, because then I would’ve had a good chance of getting to an FA Cup final.

M is for… Match

Best match you’ve played in?

I think I would choose the one against Liverpool – we beat them 4-1 in 1989. They were the best team in the country at the time, and they were unbeaten that season until they came to play us at the end of October. Even though it was 4-1, it could’ve been seven or eight, comfortably. I think we hit the woodwork three times! That was just such a buzz, to beat the best team in the country. And not just beat them – we absolutely smashed them. They were lucky to get away with 4-1!

N is for… Notable

Football memento you will never give away?

That’s a good question. One thing I wouldn’t give away is the cheque that Matthew Harding sent Lawrie McMenemy in 1995 when Chelsea tried to buy me. Lawrie told Matthew Harding he’s got no chance of buying me unless he bought Southampton Football Club, so Matt said, ‘I’ll buy the football club and change the name to Chelsea-on-Sea!’ He sent Lawrie a cheque a couple of days later, made out to Chelsea-on-Sea, for seven million pounds and signed it! I’ve got that cheque in a little frame at home, which is a pretty cool piece of memorabilia.

O is for… Opponent

Best player you’ve faced?

In the Premier League, Thierry Henry. We also played Juventus in a pre-season friendly back in the early ‘90s and I played against Roberto Baggio. Some player, that boy.

P is for… Pride

Proudest football achievement?

Playing for your country is the pinnacle of football, so I would have to say pulling on an England shirt for the first time. I had two ambitions in life: one was to be a professional football player, and the other one was to play for England, so when I came on at Wembley for my England debut that was pretty special. The ’98 World Cup was probably the closest I came to playing in a major tournament – I scored a hat-trick in an England B game leading up to it, but Glenn [Hoddle] still left me out of the squad!

The England fans had a clear message for Glenn Hoddle in 1998

Q is for… Quote

Something someone said that always stuck with you?

It was from Alan Ball’s first training session at Saints after he took over as manager. We were in the bottom three at the time. He set the team out on the pitch that we were going to play against Newcastle at St. James’ Park and I was on the side thinking, ‘blimey, I’m not going to be in this team, the new manager doesn’t like me’. Then I realised there were only 10 players. He came over to me, put his hand on my shoulder, dragged me into the middle of the pitch, put me in between the midfield and the forwards and said to all the other players, ‘we’re in trouble. Our best chance of getting out of trouble is this boy. He’s our best player. You lot, when you get the ball, the first thing I want you to do is pass the ball to Matt Le Tissier’. I left that training pitch feeling 10 feet tall, because I knew the manager believed in me and had my back. That 18 months from then on was the best 18 months of my career, 45 goals in 64 games under Bally, so that quote will live with me forever.

R is for… Routine

What does pre-match look like for you?

A lot of the players liked to hype themselves up, but I liked to be quite relaxed before games. I liked a calm warm-up – you’d never see this nowadays but I used to go in goal and have all the lads shooting at me from the edge of the box and I’d be flinging around the goal tipping them over the bar! I fancied myself as a bit of a goalie. I had one opportunity to go in goal in a game. We played Charlton away, Jonah (Paul Jones) got sent off and we’d made all the subs, so that was my one opportunity to grab the jersey. But I was on the halfway line and by the time I got to the box to try and grab it, David Howells had already got the jumper on and nicked the goalie gloves!

David Howells dons the gloves for Saints at The Valley in 1998

S is for… Support

Which team did you follow as a boy?

Spurs, mainly because of Glenn Hoddle, and because my dad supported Spurs too.

T is for… Teammate

Best player you’ve played with?

With England, that would be Gazza. He was the best Englishman of my generation. At Saints I always say I had the most fun playing alongside Ronnie Ekelund, and Rod Wallace, who I rate as one of the best players never to win an England cap. I’d put Jimmy Case in that bracket as well. In terms of sheer talent, Marian Pahars was as good as I played alongside in my career – some of the stuff he did in training I was like, ‘wow, how’s he done that?’

Matt embraces Ronnie Ekelund in 1994

U is for… Unbelievable

Something about you we wouldn’t expect?

I’ve never had a pint of beer in my life, and I’ve never had a cup of coffee in my life. I’m an occasional tea drinker, but I never really drank hot drinks until I was about 45, 50.

V is for… Visitor

Favourite away ground?

It would be between two. Growing up as a kid in the ‘70s, I had those unbelievable memories of Liverpool winning European Cups, and European nights at Anfield, so to go and play there was pretty special with the crowd singing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ before kick-off. That was amazing. And then it would be White Hart Lane, for obvious reasons, but also because I scored a lot there!

The Kop in full voice at Anfield

W is for… Worst

Worst thing about being a footballer?

Pre-season. The first two weeks of pre-season was just pure beasting. Every day you would go in and you would be taken to the point of exhaustion. Sometimes you would throw up. I don’t think a lot of people realise how brutal the pre-seasons were back in our day. It’s changed a lot now, but we would often do two weeks at an army camp. The coaches would just go to the PT instructors and say, ‘get them fit’. The PTIs were just beasting us. There were some players that enjoyed it because that was their time to shine, but I just wanted to get through to the day we got the balls out and we could play football. The first two weeks were horrible – it actually used to ruin the last week or two of my summer break, because I knew what was coming!

X is for… X-ray

Worst injury you have suffered?

I shattered my elbow joint playing in a pre-season friendly in Germany. I’ve still got a couple of screws and a bit of wire holding it together. I was just scuffling for a ball, lost my balance, fell backwards and put my hand down, as you do, to break your fall. I heard two clicks, but I couldn’t feel anything, so I went to push myself back up again and that was a horrible pain. The surgeon wanted to take out my entire joint, but that would’ve left me with an arm that just flopped both ways! I left the hospital, got on the next flight home and had to wait a week to see a surgeon here. But the surgeon must’ve done a good job, because that was over 30 years ago now and I’ve never had any issue with it. I still can’t fully rotate my arm though. Whenever I went into a shop and they would give my change back, it kept falling out of my hand! Eight weeks I think I was out, which was not too bad

Y is for… Youngsters

What piece of advice would you give an aspiring footballer?

The most useful thing that will help you on a football pitch is to be able to kick with both feet properly. It opens up so many more options for you, because the defender can’t just send you one way. I would say to any kid now, ‘practice on your weak foot’. It doesn’t have to be as good as your good foot, but just get it to a level where you’re comfortable to go either way when you’re faced with a defender. It really does make the game so much easier. You’d be amazed how many players can only kick with one foot properly.

Z is for… Zzzzzz

Whose banter could send you to sleep?

I haven’t spoken to him for years, but there is one name that immediately sprung into my head: Simon Charlton. I was actually best man at his wedding! But he didn’t have the best patter and didn’t take the banter very well. He was the butt of a lot of jokes in the changing room, and you’ve got to learn to give it back, but he just couldn’t do it. He was just rubbish at the banter.

Simon Charlton

This interview was originally published inside SAINTS, the club’s matchday programme, for Sunday's south coast derby against Portsmouth. Back issues from the 2022/23 season through to the current campaign are available to buy online.

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