Graeme Le Saux: Left Field: A Footballer Apart

by Graeme Le Saux

Graeme Le Left Field A former Southampton, Blackburn, Chelsea and England full-back, the erudite and engaging Graeme Le Saux is far removed from the archetypal British footballer. His distinctive commentary on all the major issues in football, on the pitch and beyond, promises to challenge everyone's perception of the game in this country. Full description

Genres: Football, Biography

352 pages, Paperback

First published September 17, 2007

Reviews

[Ben Twoonezero · Rating 4 out of 5]

A interesting insightful chronicle of a footballers career who was not your usual blue collar working class chap, interesting but I get the impression if I met him a may not like him.

[David Lai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frank Skinner once quipped that "A footballer with an O Level tends to get nicknamed 'The Professor'." Graeme Le Saux was even more intellectual, doing A Levels before giving up formal education to try to make a career in football, and being educationally normal in an educationally subnormal world, he found himself the odd one out, socially isolated and subjected to years of homophobic abuse from colleagues, opponents and fans of every stripe. Despite the fact that he wasn't gay but merely had interests and tastes normal in the outside world but deeply suspect in the mental desert that is football.

This well-written account of its effects on him covers his life from birth to retirement, from the highs of winning the Prem and scoring for England to the lows of injury both physical and emotional. Some well-known names come out of it badly -- numerous Neanderthal Chelsea players, Robbie Fowler, Robbie Savage, Gianluca Vialli, Sven-Goran Eriksson and others; while Terry Venables, Gianfranco Zola and (to my surprise) David Batty emerge with credit.

A poignant book by a gentle and civilised but resilient man.

[Mark Beech · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more as I thought I would find Graeme more interesting.

I love the idea of the cerebral footballer, Pat Nevin's autobiography was a great example of this.

It came across that he was an outsider, a lot of the time, of his own making.

It's ok.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good true and honest life story