Not Your Usual 'Lad' Footballer - Rated 
Graeme Le Saux was not your stereotypical footballer. Turning up for training at his first professional club, Chelsea, with his "student look" and a copy of `The Guardian', heightened his awkwardness in a dressing room of laddish cliques. Le Saux was something of a square peg: his book's subtitle is `A Footballer Apart' and it's a great read.
One of the most memorable and controversial incidents in Graeme Le Saux's career came during his second spell at Chelsea. In a match against Liverpool, that club's striker, Robbie Fowler, had fouled Le Saux and continued baiting him by proffering his backside. Le Saux's sexuality had been questioned for sometime, beginning as dressing room banter, but then spilling over into terrace chanting and culminating in that ugly incident at Stamford Bridge in 1999. Le Saux writes about the spiteful (and untrue) jibes that dogged much of his career in the book's opening chapter.
The first two chapters contain the most powerful writing. `A Secret', is the title of the book's second chapter, and here, Le Saux writes movingly about the death of his mother, the profound effect that this had on him, and his anxiety about talking of this part of his life.
Much of the rest of the book is devoted to Le Saux's playing career. He won the Premiership with Blackburn Rovers (still the only club to win that competition outside of the so-called big four) and thirty-six England caps. He is pleasingly candid about certain other players and managers. There's a lot on Glenn Hoddle's tenure as England manager: "A manager for whom I had a lot of respect," but you wouldn't necessarily think that on reading the book. In fact, I had to go back to make sure I hadn't misread that quote. That is not to say that there's anything nasty said against Hoddle, but there's certainly some criticism of his methods.
There's plenty on Blackburn under Kenny Dalglish, Chelsea under Gianlucca Vialli and Ruud Gullit, and England under Terry Venables, Glenn Hoddle and Kevin Keegan. Le Saux doesn't hide his dislike of Sven-Goran Eriksson for whom he never played.
Journalist, Oliver Holt, is listed as a contributor on the book, but his name does not appear on the title pages, so I assume that there was little if any ghost writing involved here. `Left Field' is a well written, fascinating read from a man who did not conform to the usual footballer stereotype.
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