Southampton hero Le Tissier on almost joining Oxford United

Le Tissier is widely considered one of Southampton’s best ever players and was a Premier League star in the 1990s, also managing eight caps for England.

Nicknamed “Le God” by Saints fans during his 16-year spell at the club, the 57-year-old scored 195 goals in 520 games as an attacking midfielder, 101 of those in the Premier League.

Le Tissier played at Oxford City’s Mgroup Stadium last Sunday in the DEBRA Charity Cup organised by Liverpool hero Graeme Souness, appearing alongside other big names such as Dean Saunders and Carlton Palmer.

Despite spending his entire professional career at St Mary’s, the ex-England international detailed the fact that he could have shone for the U’s rather than on the south coast.

“Oxford was the first club I was associated with,” Le Tissier confirmed to BBC Radio Oxford.

Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak (right) speaks with former Southampton player Matt Le Tissier (Image: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire)

“I came over as a 15-year-old back in 1984 and I moved to Oxford to live with a friend of my dad’s and went to school here. The idea was that I was going to train with the schoolboys in the evenings and at weekends.

“I didn’t settle in the school that I went to and after a couple of days I was too homesick and went back home.

“I was desperate to become a professional footballer so I wanted to give it a try. I also then had a trial with Southampton just after that and then Southampton decided they wanted to sign me.”

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Graeme Souness on the touchline at Oxford City (Image: Oxford City FC)

Le Tissier’s Oxford links do not end there, however.

“I came back a few years ago when Michael Appleton was manager and Oxford were having a bit of a crisis in the penalty-taking department. I think they’d missed about seven or eight in a row,” he said.

“Dave Jones, the presenter at Sky, was on the board at the time and he said to me: ‘We’re struggling with penalties…come down and show the lads how you did it’. So, I did.

David Jones (left) with Sumrith Thanakarnjanasuth in the directors’ box at the Kassam Stadium in October 2017 (Image: David Fleming)

“I went down on one Friday morning and showed them, and then on the Saturday I was on Soccer Saturday and Jeff Stelling throws to the game at Oxford and the presenter goes: ‘Oxford have just missed a penalty’.

“I was like, oh no, what have I done? Luckily for me, they never took the advice I gave them which was never hit it down the middle because I always went either side.”

The culprit that day was former Yellows forward Kemar Roofe who hit his spot kick down the centre of the goal and saw it saved in a 0-0 draw with Morecambe at the Kassam.