Something Archers said on another thread has made me think a bit more about this. Do we or have we since Matty retired had a better player in our team? Would you slot in a pre retired Matty to this current team? I think the answer is no and yes. Maybe I should remember that and ignore his Twatter
We’ve had a few who must come close, notably Rickie, for his creativity as well as his goals (and he never missed a pen for us either). But you’re right, the mid-90s Matty would walk into most PL sides, never mind ours. As I said before, that’s how I prefer to remember him. The comparison with the good his mate Franny has done post-football is breathtaking.
If football players were banned for being stupid it would be very quiet. Haven't read many MLT posts recently....because Saints changed their website and I stopped getting updates (can't say I miss it) so not fully up to date, but dropping him from his ambassador role should only be done if he is damaging the club's reputation or doing something illegal. Not sure that the little bits I've read come into either category....just his opinion. A shame, but not sackable.
We've seen lots of entertaining talented players at Saints. The only one who comes close to Matt at his best though, is Gareth Bale, and we didn't get to see that much of him in a Saints shirt. Both are once in a generation players imo, and could have walked into pretty much any team anywhere in the world. Except, in Matty's case, his national side
That was my original point, Mike Channon told me to ****-off kid, once when as a school boy waiting in the Dell car park trying to get his autograph. It did not diminish my opinion of him as a footballer. He was my hero, and that day I found out he was also an ass hole. Today, the slightest deviation from somebodies views has to be spotlighted and questioned with some sort of ramifications. We cannot show cartoons that have a character hunting a rabbit with a gun. children's books being banned because someone believes they have racial overtones. Matt Le Tiss is a Footballing legend amen.
I don’t think Ralph would pick him, because he wouldn’t fit the style of play, tbh. Only Lambert has come close to him, though, in recent years.
Matty of 93-95 vintage plays for any team in the league and I include the current Man City, he was just unplayable. Can't be arsed to run, just ping another in from 25 yrds.
I would hope Ralph would be a little bit more flexible and have his one luxury player, particularly as we struggle to break teams down, but different era I guess
For creativity and technique, I’d say Dusan was the next one in line after MLT. Not in his league, but next in line
No one comes remotely close to Le Tiss. If Matt was a 10/10, then the likes of Tadic and Lambert* are 3/10 and 4/10 at best (respectively). Van Dijk has been the best player since Le Tiss and he only stuck around for a couple of seasons, so he doesn’t count. *Premier League Lambert, that is. League One/Championship Lambert was 9/10
I agree. But (there is always a but ), in natural raw talent stakes, Le Tissier 10/10, Tadic 6/10, Lambert 5/10 - these are using the high bar that MLT set and is not saying Tadic & Lambert were bang average. On this scale 95% of the Premier League max out at a 3 or 4. IMO probably the most naturally talented footballer I have seen. An utter, utter, utter footballing genius.
The only player we have had since Tiss that you could claim was world class whilst at Saints was Van Dijk (surprisingly the one that went for £75m!). If you are talking about what they went on to achieve then without doubt Bale and possibly Mane too. Other than that we have had some fantastic players, Lallana, Schneiderlin for example, but not even worth comparing them to Le Tiss in terms of actual ability.
Was before my time really so don’t remember too much about his playing days, seems like a laugh on Twitter though
MLT's main strength was his deceptive speed....he was slower than he looked. However, he had smarts. I remember one game where he was being man-marked, so he bent down to do up his shoe lace and, when his marker was distracted, he shot away*. *Shot away is relative when talking about Matty....the slowest bullet in the West.
MLT's twitter ramblings have inspired this week's David Squires cartoon... https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...res-on-football-conspiracy-theories-uncovered
