On his birthday it seems apt to take a quick look back at his career.
Matthew Paul Le Tissier was born in St Peter Port Guernsey on 14th October 1968, he was spotted by Saints playing for a Guernsey U15 side playing in Hampshire and the rest as they say is history.
Surprisingly he was not an early debutant unlike some of his contemporaries, he was almost 18 when he came on as a sub against Sheffield Wednesday in August of 1986 and it wouldnt be long before he made a real impact coming on as a sub in a League Cup replay against Man Utd and scoring twice as Saints won 4-1, this defeat saw Ron Atkinson sacked and Le Tiss inadvertently became the man responsible for Alex Ferguson arriving at Old Trafford.
Over the next few years he became a fixture in the side, part of perhaps the most exciting attacking formation we ever put outalongside the likes of Alan Shearer and Rod Wallace.
The low point of his career and perhaps every Saints fan was the Ian Branfoot years, the then Saints boss clearly didnt like his style of play and didnt like what Matt stood for to the fans as they saw the exciting young talent sold off and replaced by Branfoot's journeymen cloggers, he almost left on a couple of occasions but couldnt quite bring himself to go and stayed put, continuing to score some great goals in a playing style that often byepassed him.
The arrival of Alan Ball in January 1994 heralded a golden period for Matt, under Ball, he flourished, the new manager channelled everything through Le Tiss and 8 goals in the last 6 games including a vital 2 at Upton Park on the last day,dragged Saints kicking and screaming out of the relegation mire.
1994/95 was arguably his best in a Saints shirt, Saints were comfortably mid table Matt played 41 of the 42 League games and scored 20 goals an astonishing total for a midfielder, yes some would say he scored a lot of penalties, but equally taking the corners, he missed out on chances from these set pieces so it evenes itself up.
With departure of Ball Saints had a couple os seasons of relegation woe, Matt was still playing most of the games, but goals were getting harder to come by as a team.
Dave Jones was another who clearly felt threatened by Le tiss, In Jones first season Matt played 25(1) scoring 11 times a very good goals to game ratio and he was still joint top scorer, but as 1998/99 aproached you had the feeling that Jones wanted to marginalise Le Tissier to cement his own power base, the signing of Stuart Ripley and the preference to play John Beresford in midfield seemed to point towards this and when on the opening day Bereford ggot injured early in the game and Jones preferred to give a debut off the bench to Wayne Bridge than use his best player, you could see thewriting on the wall.. It wouldnt be a great season for Le God but he started 20 with 10 as sub scoring 6 times, returning from injury just at the right time to save Saints from certain relegation and kick sstarting the great escape.
But injury was now taking its toll as Le Tiss hit his 30's in truth a decade of well publicised problems with his diet and training regimes was catching up with him, 99/00 would see him manage only 9 starts and 9 as sub, Saints fans didnt know it at the time, but his career was effectively finished.
But there would be one swansong when Saints took on Arsenal in the final ever league game at the Dell, Matty had started just two league games that season plus 5 off the bench and was yet to score, the script was written but would it be the final scene as everyone hoped, we all know the answer to that one
2001/02 would be his last, he couldnt seem to get fit and keep fit, his body wouldnt take the levels of training needed, he managed just 4 appearances as sub although thankfully he did get to play at St Mary's the stadium that many say would never have happened without him keeping us in the top flight for so many seasons.
His last evergame was against West Ham in a 2-0 home win on 30th January 2002 although Saints fans were not to know that at the time.
Gordon Strachan did his best to try and give Matt a final goodbye to the fans on the final day of the season against Newcastle, putting him on the bench with a promise to geet him on if the he possibly could, but with Saints clinging to a 2-1 lead and down to 10 men and a drop of two points possibly meaning a drop of four places and a significant amount of money, WGS had to use his subs tactically and Le Tiss had to say his goodbyes from the running track and his testimonial game three days later in which a full hhouse paid fitting tribute.
There has been much spoken about Matthew Le Tissier this year and the inference that he is a free loader, firstly with his work at Sky Sports he hardly has the time to attend Saints games, perhaps maybe 3-4 times a season if he is lucky, I would suggest that there is not a Saints fan alive who would begrudge him a free seat that many times a year, at least not those Saints fans that saw him play.
He continues to be one of the biggest ambasadors this football club and this City have, Southampton FC has a higher profile than its current position due to hiis constant mentions on Sky Sports and to his credit he never has a bad word to say about the club publicly, something that would be very easy to do given his current treatment by it.
I would hope that in the future the Club can embrace Matt again, football clubs are all about history and tradition, MK Dons are derided as franchise fc due to the way they came into being using Wimbledon as their stepping stone and trading on its past as ithad none of its own, you cannot buy history and tradition and you cannot ignore it either, we all look forward to the future of course, but that doesnt mean we cant respect our past.
Matthew Le Tissier
Saints career 1985 -2002
League Appearances 377 (66) Goals 161
FA Cup 30 (3) Goals 12
League Cup 44 (8) Goals 27
Other 11 (1) Goals 9