THE career of Matthew Le Tissier is perhaps best summed up by former teammate Tim Flowers: "Matt Le Tissier signed for Southampton, ate a lot, scored some bloody good goals, should have left".
Flowers should know - Le Tissier, considered by many to be the most naturally gifted player of his generation, once smashed a 35 yard lob into his net after dribbling past two defenders.
English football fans will remember Le Tissier as a gifted player who lit up the Premier League throughout the 90s with his extravagant skills.
They will also remember him for strolling around the pitch looking generally disinterested, before suddenly bursting into life with a late equaliser/winning goal.
Today, the former Saint (Southampton’s nickname) has written a book of self-deprecating wit and outspoken honesty called Taking Le Tiss: My Autobiography.
Wry comments on his lack of fondness for running abound. Upon being told by a referee that playing on a frozen pitch would be fine provided the players only gave 90 per cent, Le Tissier declared that he was not raising his work rate for anyone.
Former England captain Alan Shearer even notes: ‘I wasn't surprised when Matt asked me to write the foreword to his autobiography. After all, I did all his work for him when we were teammates.’
Despite being a football pundit who is still actively involved in the game, Le Tissier is also not afraid to slag off various individuals such as former Southampton chairman Rupert Lowe ('people called Rupert should not be running football clubs'), a man who once tried to appoint a rugby coach as the club’s manager.
There are surprising revelations too - the two England managers who ultimately dropped him (Terry Venables and Glenn Hoddle) actually tried to buy him for Spurs and Chelsea respectively at club level.
Much of Le Tissier’s bile is reserved for Hoddle, who was ironically his boyhood idol and later also his manager at Southampton.
Many thought he had found a soulmate in Hoddle, who had also been considered a highly gifted, yet lazy, player. Instead, he left him out of the 1998 World Cup squad and left him to find out through the media.
11 years on, the memory is still a bitter one: ‘I shouldn't think he regrets it though - people that arrogant are never wrong.’
Le Tissier also denies the common accusation of a lack of ambition, pointing out that he played at the highest level and for his country. But the fact remains that he stayed at Southampton for 13 years while the likes of Shearer and Flowers moved on to bigger clubs.
Despite his forthrightness, the mystery of why a man who scored an astonishing 209 goals in 540 games from a midfield position only played for England eight times is never quite resolved.
Or perhaps the answer lies in incidents such as when Le Tissier fainted in training due to the effects of having had too many sausage and egg mcmuffins.
All in all, Taking Le Tiss is a highly entertaining read, with Le Tissier’s wit, charisma and love for Southampton shining through.