Football: Island son in the running: Ian Ridley assesses the mature talents of a full-back looking to go forward

Ian Ridley
Sunday 27 February 1994 00:02 GMT
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YOU sense that Graeme Le Saux is going to be worth meeting when he tells you on the phone why Blackburn Rovers' temporary training ground at inaptly named Pleasington is not the best place to rendezvous. 'It's next to a cemetery and a bit bleak,' he said. 'It is funny, though, watching all these multi-million-pound players throwing themselves about among the stones and the dog muck.'

You sense, too, that Terry Venables thinks Le Saux is going to be worth meeting. The new England coach has recently been asking journalists about the left-back and the squad named tomorrow for the match against Denmark on 9 March could well contain his name. 'I am hearing a lot of things from a lot of people and I think now I will be disappointed if my name isn't there,' he admitted.

There could be an element of London-bus syndrome to his selection: no Channel Islander has ever played for the national team but with Guernsey's Matthew Le Tissier also pressing the bell, two could come along at once. Le Saux is from Jersey and the pair, only three days apart in age, played against each other as boys, something which he reminded Le Tissier of when they teamed up for England B in Moscow two years ago.

Though it may not always have seemed so - Pat van den Hauwe was a blot on his left- back landscape - Venables has always liked astute players. If astuteness off the field correlates to matters on it, then Le Saux, blossoming personally as Blackburn are collectively, should be a shoo-in.

There is an individuality and roundness of personality about him that you encounter in, for instance, Dutch footballers, but rarely in the 25-year-old English player, who is often reluctant to dare to be different in such a conformist environment. While Le Tissier remains close to his family and home island, there is an independence to Le Saux, possibly because at 13 he had to cope with the death of his mother.

At his previous club, Chelsea, Le Saux sometimes endured team-mates' taunts about his tastes in music and his habit of reading broadsheet newspapers. He also took courses - in sociology at Kingston Polytechnic and in antiques at Sotheby's. His interests are similar to those of his mentor, Pat Nevin, who was still at Chelsea for Le Saux's first nine months there. 'Pat took me to the Tate Gallery and Hungarian restaurants,' he said, recalling the awe he felt having just come to the mainland.

Indeed, Le Saux rarely felt comfortable at the London club. 'I am an honest, emotional person but I felt at Chelsea I had to be callous and cold,' he said. 'I don't want to hold any grudges but I don't think I was allowed to be the player I could be. I was forever being chopped and changed.'

The frustration of arguments over being pitched from left-back to the left side of midfield came to a head when he threw his shirt at the then Chelsea manager, Ian Porterfield, after being substituted at Southampton 14 months ago. 'There is only so much a person can take,' he said.

When Kenny Dalglish paid pounds 700,000 for him, it was a blessed relief. Such is his assuredness, though, that last summer he went back to Chelsea and took their expansive chairman, Ken Bates, out to lunch. 'I think he sees something of himself in me and I see something of myself in him,' Le Saux said.

Having survived calling Dalglish by his Christian name in a first-week kick-about, Le Saux has kept out Alan Wright, the manager's first signing, and revelled in the environment. 'Honesty is the biggest thing up here,' he said. 'You have the freedom to be yourself on and off the pitch. They are good players here, but good people too.

'It is only now I have had a year here that I have become consistent and I think, yeah, I am confident in my ability. What does give you confidence is that you look around at players and think they have paid this much for him and that much for him and you're in there with them, occasionally standing out.

'At left-back you can make things happen while at left midfield you rely on other people. It's down to you to start things off and in today's game probably the full-backs are the only ones who have a bit of time. The quality of our first ball is really emphasised here.'

His pace, ball control and crossing ability are second to no other full-back, but finding a defender who can defend is the real task these days. 'I know I will always have to prove myself defensively, but I played Ruel Fox last week and was really pleased with the way I handled him,' Le Saux said.

In all honesty, he says he can see Blackburn dropping points sooner than Manchester United in their spirited pursuit of the Premiership title. 'They put a fear in other teams that we don't,' he conceded. 'But I know how to play them, and that is to attack them. Too many teams sit back.'

Le Saux is aware of the opportunity available to him in working with Dalglish. 'He has an aura but is also very down to earth. He is not a complete disciplinarian, which a lot of people think he is. He uses psychology. When you are injured he won't speak to you, won't ask how you are. I think it comes from Shankly - 'you're no use to me if you are injured'. Not even with Alan Shearer, at least not in front of the other players. That's football. It's the law of the jungle. It can be lonely.'

He is aware, too, of the Shearer effect. 'You just try to appreciate being around him now because you know he is going to be a legend.' And is he, as it seems, mature beyond his years? 'Yes. It's sad in a way. The club radio station asked for our top five records and 'Sailing' by Rod Stewart was one of his. I thought: 'He's 23 and that's his favourite song?' I wanted to punch him.' Le Saux's, incidentally, included tracks by Pearl Jam and Jamiroquai.

He is more likely to shake Shearer by the hand, however, if they both make the England squad. 'Yes, I think I am ready,' Le Saux said. 'But I will only know if I get the chance. I know my job, my position. If I am not ready now I don't think I ever will be.'

(Photographs omitted)

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