Graeme Le Saux

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Graeme Le Saux
Lesaux.jpg
Personnel
Surname Graeme Pierre Le Saux
birthday 17th October 1968
place of birth Harrow , London ,  England
size 178 cm
position Full-back (left)
Juniors
Years station
1986-1987 St Paul's (Jersey)
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1987-1993 Chelsea FC 90 (8)
1993-1997 Blackburn Rovers 129 (7)
1997-2003 Chelsea FC 140 (4)
2003-2005 Southampton FC 44 (1)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1990 England U-21 4 (0)
1991-1992 England B 2 (0)
1994-2000 England 36 (1)
1 Only league games are given.

Graeme Pierre Le Saux (born October 17, 1968 in Harrow , London ) is a former English football player with French roots. As a strong, fast-paced and offensively oriented left full-back , who could also be used in left midfield and as a winger , the 36-time England international won the Premier League with Blackburn Rovers in 1995 and the European Cup Winners' Cup with Chelsea FC three years later ( in which he was missing due to an injury). At the 1998 World Cup in France , he was used in all four games up to the round of 16 against Argentina .

Athletic career

Club career

Chelsea FC, Part 1 (1987–1993)

Born in the London borough of Harrow , Le Saux spent most of his youth on the Channel Island of Jersey - the French surname was inherited from his great-great-grandfather, who came from Brittany and moved to Jersey in 1875. He gained his first experience in organized football at the Jersey-based club St. Paul’s and in December 1987 he moved to Chelsea . Mainly responsible for this was Chelsea's coach at the time, John Hollins , who discovered Le Saux at a tournament on the island.

For his first professional league use La Saux came on the last day of the 1988/89 season under Hollins' successor Bobby Campbell by substitution for Steve Clarke . After this game against Portsmouth FC, which was of little sporting importance - Chelsea's promotion as second division champions had already been determined at this point - and seven first division appearances in the following season 1989/90, he earned a regular place in the team in the season 1990/91. He mostly started in the left midfield, but was also regularly used on the opposite side. He attracted particular attention in the League Cup quarter-finals against Tottenham Hotspur , when he often embarrassed veteran international Terry Fenwick with his speed. In addition, he scored the 1-0 winner against Aston Villa and in 3: 3 against Luton Town he scored the first goal to catch up after a 3-0 deficit, but was then sent off in the same game for a revenge foul.

At the beginning of the 1992/93 season, Le Saux was absent due to an ankle injury until mid-October 1992 and Chelsea's head coach Ian Porterfield , who has been active since 1991 , was then dissatisfied with his offensive qualities. Le Saux, who was increasingly weak in form and revealed problems as well as a certain inexperience, especially when "playing to the top", was now substituted more often and when this happened again on Boxing Day 1992 against Southampton FC , he openly showed his frustration by playing tossed his jersey on the floor and had a word duel with Porterfield. After a club-internal suspension of one game, Le Saux returned to the team, but the signs were goodbye and so he moved to Blackburn Rovers in March 1993 for 700,000 pounds .

Blackburn Rovers (1993-1997)

Given his reputation as a relatively great talent in English football, the low transfer fee of £ 700,000 was surprising, despite the fact that (little-known) striker Steve Livingstone moved in the opposite direction from Blackburn to Chelsea. Le Saux immediately took over the post of left-back from the injured Alan Wright and quickly impressed with good positional play, tackling strength, speed and precise flanks - this also catapulted him into the English senior team within a year. He was an integral part of the team that won the English championship in 1995 . He scored three goals, including two free-kick goals against Manchester City and West Ham United at the turn of the year , and in the end he was voted into the Premier League Team of the Year (" PFA Team of the Year ").

After the great success, the subsequent 1995/96 season turned into a disaster for Le Saux. She began with a ligament injury in September 1995 that incapacitated him for a month. Shortly after his return, he fought openly with his teammate David Batty in the Champions League against Spartak Moscow , before he got stuck in mid-October 1995 against Middlesbrough FC with a twisting movement in the grass and broke his right ankle and fibula as it were; in addition, ligaments tore in the foot. The season ended prematurely for him and he was also unable to take part in Euro 1996 in his own country .

Le Saux made its comeback at the end of October 1996 and surprisingly quickly regained its old form (and also his place in the national team). In view of the sporting downtrend that put the Blackburn Rovers in the lower half of the table, he was increasingly dissatisfied and as a result he was even temporarily suspended from the team. Although he showed again good performances towards the end of the season on the left side of defense or midfield, but in August 1997 he took the opportunity to return to Chelsea. The "Blues" spent five million pounds on it and, according to press reports, prevailed against prominent competition - including Arsenal FC , Juventus Turin and FC Barcelona .

Chelsea FC, Part 2 (1997-2003)

Celestine Babayaro broke her leg at Chelsea four days before Le Saux's signing and after the previous sale of Scott Minto to Benfica Lisbon , Ruud Gullit's team had a shortage of left attacking full-backs . The newcomer quickly fitted into his old environment and after his first league goal in September 1997 at Crystal Palace (3-0) and successful World Cup qualification with England as a regular player, an elbow injury caused a one and a half month break. At the end of the 1997/98 season he was elected to the first division team of the year for the second time in his career and with the domestic league cup he won the first trophy with Chelsea. He made a significant contribution to winning the European Cup Winners' Cup , but missed the final against VfB Stuttgart (1-0) due to recurring calf problems .

The 1998/99 season was marked by ups and downs for Le Laux. Shortly after a serious foul on him in the game against Arsenal, for which Lee Dixon was sent off, he received a red card himself in the game against the former Blackburn club, which resulted in a three-time suspension. There was also a personal feud with Robbie Fowler from Liverpool FC , who provoked him in March 1999 with obscene gestures and alluded to an alleged homosexuality of Le Saux - although married and a father. From a sporting point of view, he formed an effective duo with Babayaro on the left and he prepared Gustavo Poyet's 1-0 winner against Leeds United , which brought the Champions League qualification, with a cross. Due to a serious ankle injury, Le Saux was only ten times in the starting line-up in the 1999/2000 season and although he could be represented by Babayaro and Jon Harley , his qualities were lacking in the team now trained by Gianluca Vialli . Regardless, the Blues were able to win the FA Cup without him after beating Aston Villa 1-0 in the final .

After these personal disappointments, including the second missed European Championship finals tournament, he returned to the team as a substitute captain under Chelsea's new coach Claudio Ranieri . In the 3: 3 against reigning champions Manchester United at Old Trafford , he prepared all the goals and shortly before the end of the game he saved his team on their own goal line from a draw. A red card against Sunderland AFC and Achilles vision problems caused the next setbacks shortly afterwards , which made him line up in Chelsea's injury list for a long time anyway and which in turn was decisive for the comparatively weak sixth place in the final table. After his return he found his place in the team. Babayaro kept the left defensive side occupied, but in left midfield Le Saux was able to oust the Dutchman Boudewijn Zenden . During the absence of Marcel Desailly , he led the Blues as captain before Le Saux also plagued injuries at the end of the 2001/02 season, which he then had treated in Germany. In his last season in 2002/03 for Chelsea, Le Saux played in various positions and in addition to the traditional left defense and midfield appearances, he also appeared on the right side or directly behind the strikers. When Chelsea FC was taken over by Roman Abramowitsch , Le Saux no longer played a role in the new concept and in July 2003 it was swapped for Wayne Bridge from Southampton FC , with Chelsea also paying seven million pounds.

Southampton FC (2003-2005)

Le Saux succeeded in Southampton straight away to conquer the regular place on the left side of defense before a series of injuries threw him back and he completed only half of the Premier League games of the 2003/04 season. In his last career season in 2004/05, he was able to increase the number of stakes from 19 to 25 league games. He often acted in midfield, especially after the coach change to Harry Redknapp in December 2004, mostly forming a duo with Frenchman Olivier Bernard , without being able to prevent the club from relegating to the second division . As a result, Le Saux announced his resignation in May 2005.

English national team

The arrival of Terry Venables as the new England coach coincided with the start of Graeme Le Saux's international career. Thanks to his defensive and offensive strengths on the left side of the defense, he replaced the former regular Stuart Pearce as a newcomer , who from then on only came on as a substitute. Le Saux started the first eight international matches of the “Venables era” - including his debut on March 9, 1994 against Denmark (1-0). He benefited from the fact that England did not have to play a competitive game in their own country on the way to the Euro 1996 due to the automatic qualification and thus Venables had the opportunity to experiment. It was not until the domestic Umbro Cup in early June 1995 that Venables had Pearce play alongside three debutants in the back four, but Le Saux returned to the team for the last two of the three tournament games. He scored the opening goal against Brazil (1: 3), which was his only goal in his entire career. However, the serious injury in autumn 1995 ensured that he initially missed all preparation for the European Championship and announced that he would resign himself a few weeks before the finals. This cleared the way for Pearce, who took the position of English left-back at the "home tournament" in his place.

Under Venables' successor Glenn Hoddle , the recovered Le Saux returned to the English team in early 1997. As a so-called "wingback" in the middle of five in front of a three-way defensive chain or as a classic left full-back with four defensive players, he played a major role in the successful qualification for the 1998 World Cup in France , including the 0-0 win in Rome against Italy . In this way he secured his regular place and at the finals himself he played all four games until England lost in the round of 16 against Argentina after losing penalties . Above all, his mistake in the second group game against Romania shortly before the end was remembered when he lost a supposedly easy duel against Dan Petrescu with a score of 1: 1 and thus enabled him to score the winning goal.

In the following qualifying round for Euro 2000 in the Netherlands and Belgium , Hoddle initially relied on Le Saux before experimenting with Andy Hinchcliffe and Phil Neville following the defeat against Sweden (2-1) . Shortly thereafter, Kevin Keegan replaced Hoddle and Le Saux returned to the team, before the new coach also called Neville and provided further competition with Sunderland's Michael Gray . Keegan's preference for the classic back four did little to accommodate Le Saux, who played out his strengths better than wingback. When further injury problems arose, the probation opportunities became increasingly rare and he also missed the Euro 2000 due to his injuries. In the 0-1 home defeat against Germany , he completed his 36th and last international match before the new national coach Sven-Göran Eriksson found a new regular left-back in Chris Powell and shortly afterwards in the young Ashley Cole .

Activities after football career

After his retirement, Le Saux worked as a football expert for the BBC and participated in the programs Match of the Day 2 and BBC Radio 5 Live . When he lost his commentary position for the English Games at the 2006 World Cup to Mark Lawrenson , he ended his work for the BBC on March 31, 2006.

In 2009 he took part in the fourth season of the figure skating show Dancing on Ice .

Title / Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Mike Jackman: Blackburn Rovers - The Complete Record . Breedon Books, 2009, ISBN 978-1-85983-709-2 , pp. 232-233 .
  2. ↑ "Graeme LE SAUX - Chelsea FC - Biography (Part 1) 1987 / 88-1992 / 93" (Sporting Heroes)
  3. ^ Lovering, Peter: Chelsea Player by Player . Hamlyn, London 1998, ISBN 0-600-59497-1 , pp. 199 .
  4. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1995-96 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1995, ISBN 0-09-180854-5 , pp. 125 .
  5. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1996-97 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1996, ISBN 1-85291-571-4 , pp. 145 .
  6. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1997-98 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1997, ISBN 1-85291-581-1 , pp. 140 .
  7. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1998-99 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1998, ISBN 1-85291-588-9 , pp. 177 f .
  8. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1999-2000 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1999, ISBN 1-85291-607-9 , pp. 181 f .
  9. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 2000-2001 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2000, ISBN 1-85291-626-5 , pp. 194 .
  10. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 2001-2002 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2001, ISBN 0-946531-34-X , pp. 181 .
  11. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2002/2003 . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2002, ISBN 1-85291-648-6 , pp. 247 f .
  12. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2003/2004 . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2003, ISBN 1-85291-651-6 , pp. 257 .
  13. ↑ "Graeme LE SAUX - Chelsea FC - Biography (Part 3) 2000 / 01-2002 / 03" (Sporting Heroes)
  14. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2004/2005 . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2004, ISBN 1-85291-660-5 , pp. 244 f .
  15. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2005/2006 . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2005, ISBN 1-85291-662-1 , pp. 246 .
  16. ^ "Southampton star Le Saux retires," BBC Sport
  17. ↑ "Graeme LE SAUX - England - Biography (Part 1) 1994 – May '98" (Sporting Heroes)
  18. ↑ "Graeme Le Saux - England - Biography (Part 2) World Cup '98 -00" (Sporting Heroes)
  19. ^ Le Saux kicked off ice dance show , Jan 12, 2009, BBC News
personal data
SURNAME Le Saux, Graeme
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Le Saux, Graeme Pierre
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH 17th October 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH Harrow , London