Why Did We Waste Le Tiss?

JAMES RICHARDS says English football should hang its head in shame for failing to make the most of Matthew Le Tissier’s natural talent…

AFTER every international tournament in which England fail spectacularly to play with the slightest hint of flair, creativity or vision, the pundits and football phone-ins are abuzz with individuals espousing the usual opinions as to why this is the case.

The blame, more often than not, is placed firmly at the door of the grass-roots game that suggests that we, as a country, are incapable of producing the kind of flair players that many of the world’s other major nations’ national sides are built around.

Yet when we do produce a player of natural flair, with the kind of skill that just can’t be taught, we do not know what to do with them.

One of the greatest natural talents of my lifetime was a certain Matthew Le Tissier.

Every week he would produce moments of magic that defied the laws of physics and wowed crowds on the south coast at Southampton, where he spent his entire career.

If he was a player in any other European nation, he would have not only been in their national side but the first name on the team sheet.

Managers would not have just put him in their side, they would have built their side around him.

So what does it tell you about English football when a player of this much talent only made eight international appearances? It tells me that English football at international level has achieved about as much success as it deserves.