Product Description

A former Southampton, Blackburn, Chelsea and England full-back, the erudite and engaging Graeme Le Saux is far removed from the archetypal British footballer. His distinctive commentary on all the major issues in football, on the pitch and beyond, promises to challenge everyone's perception of the game in this country. Graeme Le Saux made an outstanding international debut for Terry Venables' new-look England side in a 1-0 win over Denmark at Wembley in March 1994, becoming the first Channel Islander ever to be capped for England. After joining Chelsea direct from Jersey, where he used to spend his Saturdays on his father's fruit and vegetable stall, his career flourished under the guidance of Kenny Dalglish at Blackburn Rovers where they won the Premiership title in 1994-95. Graeme transferred back to Chelsea in 1997 for a record fee of GBP5.5 million before joining Southampton in 2003. He retired as a player in 2005. In his book, Le Saux addresses the gay slurs that dogged his career -- including the infamous Robbie Fowler exposure -- how he was vilified by a minority that labelled him a Guardian reader and too smart for football, and life at Stamford Bridge before Roman Abramovich millions changed the club and the game. His thoughtful manner and views on the modern game (he is now consulted for comment regularly by BBC, ITV, Sky and Channel Five) are expanded upon here, with particular focus on the huge amounts of money in top-flight football, players' agents and the spiralling debts of countless football clubs. As a player, Le Saux was always seen as different -- someone who broke the mold, an individual with his own agenda who sought more to life than playing 90 minutes of football. His insight into the game is informed by those experiences.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #149860 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
'Refreshingly honest' Observer Sports Monthly 'An engrossing and candid take on the lot of the affluent Premiership footballer.' FourFourTwo magazine

From the Publisher
His thoughtful manner and views on the modern game (he is now consulted for comment regularly by BBC, ITV, Sky and Channel Five) are expanded upon here, with particular focus on the huge amounts of money in top-flight football, players' agents and the spiralling debts of countless football clubs.

As a player, Le Saux was always seen as different - someone who broke the mould, an individual with his own agenda who sought more to life than playing 90 minutes of football. His insight into the game is informed by those experiences.

About the Author
Graeme Le Saux was born in Jersey in 1968. He started his career at St Paul's before moving to Chelsea in 1987. In 1993 he switched to Blackburn Rovers where two years later he won the Premier League title. Le Saux was capped 36 times for England; his last appearance came in 1999. He played for his country in the 1998 World Cup. On retiring as a player in 2005 he worked briefly as a pundit for the BBC. Oliver Holt has been Chief Sports Writer at The Mirror since April 2002. He collaborated with Stan Collymore on the ex-footballer's acclaimed autobiography, published in 2004.

Customer Reviews

Not Your Usual 'Lad' Footballer
Graeme Le Saux was not your stereotypical footballer. Turning up for training at his first professional club, Chelsea, with his "student look" and a copy of `The Guardian', heightened his awkwardness in a dressing room of laddish cliques. Le Saux was something of a square peg: his book's subtitle is `A Footballer Apart' and it's a great read.

One of the most memorable and controversial incidents in Graeme Le Saux's career came during his second spell at Chelsea. In a match against Liverpool, that club's striker, Robbie Fowler, had fouled Le Saux and continued baiting him by proffering his backside. Le Saux's sexuality had been questioned for sometime, beginning as dressing room banter, but then spilling over into terrace chanting and culminating in that ugly incident at Stamford Bridge in 1999. Le Saux writes about the spiteful (and untrue) jibes that dogged much of his career in the book's opening chapter.

The first two chapters contain the most powerful writing. `A Secret', is the title of the book's second chapter, and here, Le Saux writes movingly about the death of his mother, the profound effect that this had on him, and his anxiety about talking of this part of his life.

Much of the rest of the book is devoted to Le Saux's playing career. He won the Premiership with Blackburn Rovers (still the only club to win that competition outside of the so-called big four) and thirty-six England caps. He is pleasingly candid about certain other players and managers. There's a lot on Glenn Hoddle's tenure as England manager: "A manager for whom I had a lot of respect," but you wouldn't necessarily think that on reading the book. In fact, I had to go back to make sure I hadn't misread that quote. That is not to say that there's anything nasty said against Hoddle, but there's certainly some criticism of his methods.

There's plenty on Blackburn under Kenny Dalglish, Chelsea under Gianlucca Vialli and Ruud Gullit, and England under Terry Venables, Glenn Hoddle and Kevin Keegan. Le Saux doesn't hide his dislike of Sven-Goran Eriksson for whom he never played.

Journalist, Oliver Holt, is listed as a contributor on the book, but his name does not appear on the title pages, so I assume that there was little if any ghost writing involved here. `Left Field' is a well written, fascinating read from a man who did not conform to the usual footballer stereotype.

A little self-pitying
Le Saux is a very smart man and as far from the stereotypical footballer as one can imagine. This is well written and I suspect Le Saux handled most of it for himself. There is not a lot new to learn in the book apart from a bit more detail about the difficulties that Le Saux overcame in respect of some of the brainless colleagues he played with. In particular Robbie Fowler is accurately portrayed as a very unpleasant character indeed. I just felt that Le Saux came across as a little too sorry for himself and perhaps it was as much this side of his approach to football life that fellow players found off-putting alongside his undeniable intelligence.