[Archived] Le Saux Retires

[dave birch]

If he didn't leave with good grace then it should be pointed out. There's too much of this "I've won something for this club so I am absolved of all sins" attitude amongst footballers these days.

Bryan, you could say that about anybody who left anyones employ.

Let it be known that he did his job, and more, in the year that we were successfull.

I'd be in total agreement if you were pointing your barbs at those that picked up their paychecks whilst acheiving sod all. There have been far too many of those......

[broadsword]

Dave, there's more than one way to leave an employer - cf Berg.

To criticise the way Le Saux left isn't to criticise his contribution, is it?

[dave birch]

Bryan, I wasn't nor have I ever, complained about the way GLS left.

I do note that you haven't commented on the way Berg left the last time. It did seem to have a few grapes of the sour variety, if I remember correctly.

[broadsword]

I think we are talking at cross-purposes here ...

- You do realise I am talking about Berg leaving for Man Utd, don't you?

- I am not saying you were complaining about Le Saux, why did you think that? I am complaining about the way he left (although I recognise what he did while he was with us), but I get the feeling you'd rather people forgot about his narky exit and just remembered him being good. I feel that we should remember him, warts and all.

I really can't put it any more starkly than that.

[Hasta]

His cross for Shearer to score on VE day against Newcastle will live with me forever.

He was very good at digging those crosses out from the left. He used to dummy to cross, take an extra touch to the byeline and chip the ball back. He set up several like that. My fave was the one he set up for Shearer in the 94th minute against Leeds to win 2-1 after a large scummy section of the visiting Yorkshiremen had disgraced the Busby minutes silence.

[SouthAussieRover]

Over-rated southern nonce

As opposed to being a bitter, miserable northener like yourself?

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Trouble is Jim is pandered to because of who he is.

The guy should have been on a yellow or two ages ago.

[Nayef]

The seventh he hit against Forest was European goal of the week

Without playing the video.....I don't think he scored against Forest in the 7-1

He did score a complete and absolute screamer against Brazil though. While playing in an England shirt. Thumped the ball from a good 25 yards/metres out and it flew in the top right hand corner.

318306[/snapback]

I think it was 7-0 but yes he did strike a left foot shot which just seemed to float itself all the way to the top left corner. I have that on video (the next clip is Frank Clark laughing as his unbeaten record came crashng down in spectacular fashion!)

I rememebr shearer scoring a hat-trick and rhapsody scoring two but I can't remember the last scorer. maybe Newell or an own goal...?

[colin]

Without playing the video.....I don't think he scored against Forest in the 7-1

Ooops, I was thinking about the 7 v Norwich. I stand corrected

[PMT]

Good luck, in his future career, to ex-Rover Le-Saux.

Surely as his experience grows, his commentaries will get better.

At least he can string a decent sentence together and not fill it full of a thousand 'you knows'.

[ABBEY]

he used my mates white hard hat for his 1st photo shoot(cue sarcasm lol) and i think andy morrison used mine sat on a dumper truck.

chatted to him for an hour that day he was funny .

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

I had to smile watching the recent England/Columbia game on BBC1, where Owen scored a hat-trick.

Michael was partnered up front by the lanky Peter Crouch.

John Motson was commenting on Crouch's aerial ability, when he said to Graeme Le Saux: "You were with Peter at Southampton. What's he like down below?"

[mrsjansen]

Graeme Le Saux helped us to win the league. I didn't think he did an awful lot wrong when he left, and look at the people who did leave us and how they left. Shearer, Sutton, you can;t still imagine that team playing for us now.

From what I know Graeme has never slagged us off and talks highly of winning the league with us, and always says it was one of the happiest times of his career. How many other people get disillusioned in a job when they know they want to leave.

Cheers Graeme and Good Luck.

[BRFC4EVA]

Brilliant left back and for the 3 yrs at Rovers you would have struggled to find many better left backs in Europe. Was sensational throughout the championship season scoring goals, up and down and also defending. Superb signing to swap with Livingston and later sold for a big profit. Wish him well and hope to see him more on motd 2 next season.

And Jim, he was from some island for goodness sake, so he's not really southern is he??

[grizfoot]

I feel he'll still be rememebered for was when he was playing against us for Chelsea and got Perez sent off after a scrap.

But nether the less he was still i great players for Rovers during the championship winning season.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I feel he'll still be rememebered for was when he was playing against us for Chelsea and got Perez sent off after a scrap.

But nether the less he was still i great players for Rovers during the championship winning season.

322978[/snapback]

Apart from the late, great Keith Newton he was the best left back Rovers have had in my time ,( Bill Eckersley had just retired when I first visited Ewood). He was probably as good as anyone going forward and very tidy in defence, only his temperament let him down, as in the incidents in Moscow and with Perez when he was playing for Chelsea.

What I can't forgive him for is when he had that truly awful ankle injury, ( against Middlesboro I think), he had the best treatment in the world courtesy of Rovers. If the surgery had not been successful and he never played again he would have expected his contract to have paid up to the last penny. As it was, as soon as he regained match fitness contracts were simply forgotten, he wanted a transfer and he was off.

Another one of the Championship winning team that did the dirty on Jack Walker and the Rovers.

[Uxbridge rover]

My best man was at school with him and played against him in a trials match for some jersey under 14's or other (cant remember the actual title) . He turned up with his entourage, with people cooing at the great white hope of Jersey. Two minutes into the game my mate took him out with a good old fashion crop tackle / modern day foul and it was game over for Le Saux (and my mate too).

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

We had two former Rovers players on BBC punditry duties for the England game yesterday.

Alan Shearer, I feel, has improved in recent years as a pundit. He used to come across as slightly wooden and dour - sitting on the fence too much rather like Trevor Brooking. Alan's become a bit more outspoken now - although I feel he was being diplomatic when he described Peter Crouch's performance as "okay".

Not entirely sure about Graeme Le Saux in the commentary box though. Just because he reads the Guardian, goes to art galleries, and can string a few sentences together, it doesn't necessarily make him a good pundit.

Le Saux's Chelsea career was going nowhere in 1993, when Dalglish bought him to Rovers. His first spell at Chelsea was best known for an act of petulance when he threw his shirt at manager Ian Porterfield. The first signs of his temper were evident in an early Chelsea game he played in against Luton. It was an exciting game - Chelsea came back from 3-0 down to draw 3-3, but Le Saux was sent-off for lashing out after being fouled.

During his first spell at Chelsea, the quality of Le Saux's final ball could be erratic - and on Boxing Day 1992, his frustration boiled over when he was substituted in a match against Southampton. He left the pitch in a fit of temper, throwing his shirt in front of the bench and exchanging words with the manager.

He joined Rovers a month or two later and his career was revitalised. Under the coaching of Dalglish and Harford, his final ball at Ewood Park became much better and his left-wing crosses set up a number of goals for Shearer. As well as a Premiership medal with Rovers, he won 36 England caps - which probably wouldn't have happened if he hadn't joined Blackburn.

But was Le Saux grateful for the opportunity Rovers gave him ?

Blackburn nursed him back from injury after he broke his leg in the 1995/96 season against Middlesborough. Rovers continued to pay his large wages and gave him all the medical treatment and facilities he wanted. But then, not long after coming back from injury, he handed in a transfer request.

A bit like Barry Ferguson - who also demanded a transfer after coming back from a serious injury. They say that hell hath no fury like a Rovers fan scorned - and for me the circumstances of Le Saux's departure from Rovers left a bitter taste.

Maybe he felt at home with the more cosmopolitan surroundings of London. He did win a League Cup and European Cup Winners Cup medal in his second spell at Chelsea, but his best footballing period came in Rovers' championship winning side - and he shouldn't forget that.

I wouldn't condone Robbie Fowler's behaviour when he showed his backside to Le Saux - but Graeme made matters worse, I feel, by the way he reacted to it, elbowing Fowler on the head.

If Le Saux had ignored Fowler's childishness - the incident probably would have been

quickly forgotten and possibly not even shown on Match of The Day. Le Saux's aggressive reaction summed up his abrasive temperament.

As I've said before on the M/B before, if I was a Southampton fan, I'd be disappointed with his behaviour last season - when the Saints were relegated from the top flight for the first time in 27 years. Le Saux seemed to be spending much of his time in the week before important relegation matches, travelling up and down the country with the BBC rather than concentrating on his priorities with Southampton.

Le Saux has since admitted that in his last season at St Mary's, he was already thinking of retirement and planning a future media career for himself. Whether he devoted enough time to getting Southampton out of the mess they were in seems debatable.

I hope that in the course of his duties with the BBC, he doesn't ever start preaching about lack of loyalty in football - because as we know, he was all too ready to throw in the towel with Rovers as soon as he felt the grass was greener on the other side.

Below - happier times with Uncle Jack, but a couple of years later, he informed Jack that he'd had enough of us....

[Scotty]

I've no idea why you watch football. You seem to take no enjoyment at all out of any of the players or managers involved, except of course for the obvious enjoyment you get out of slagging them all at every opportunity.

Maybe a nice game of croquet would be more up your street?

[Cowan]

Sure why not? I'm Australian so cut me some slack! Nah We got LeSaux in his primetime i rekon.

[cn174]

Sure why not? I'm Australian so cut me some slack! Nah We got LeSaux in his primetime i rekon.

352515[/snapback]

I think he was referring to AESF, not you Cowan

[OscarRaven]

Le Saux is definatley the best left back I have seen in a Rovers shirt (bear in mind I'm in my 20's), the guy who tried to bring a bit of culture to the dressing room and got a smack in the chops for it!

All the best to him, although commentating does not seem to be his forte.

So who's left? I can only think of two maybe three.

[Billy Castell]

I liked Le Saux until he spat his dummy out and deceided not to put any effort in when he wanted to leave. And that was after we helped through that injury. After that, I thought he was a bit of a childish prat. Similar reasons for why I don't like Tim Sherwood. He was captain, and then decided to publicly denounce the manager as a fool, which is not a good thing for the club captain to do. OK, it was Roy Hodgson, but he should have been more diplomatic at least.

[rover6]

I've no idea why you watch football.  You seem to take no enjoyment at all out of any of the players or managers involved, except of course for the obvious enjoyment you get out of slagging them all at every opportunity.

Maybe a nice game of croquet would be more up your street?

352477[/snapback]

Yeah, why slag off players when you can always go for other mb users?

[Scotty]

Yeah, why slag off players when you can always go for other mb users?

352604[/snapback]

You're a numpty.

[92er]

The story I heard was that Le Saux told the club at the beginning of the season he would be leaving the club later that season. He was going to get married and his bride did not want to live in the North West.

I don't know if the story was true, but at the time I felt my source was reliable.

It also meant I am more sympathetic to him than are some other supporters.