Le Saux's free spirit blooms at Blackburn

Premiership countdown: A determined individual tells Phil Shaw why there is life outside football

The much-quoted Shanklyism about football being more important then life or death receives short shrift from Graeme Le Saux. Yet anyone studying him closely when Blackburn Rovers open their defence of the Premiership title on Saturday is liable to be convinced that he is its most ardent adherent.

Few players immerse themselves in the fray quite like Le Saux. The commitment with which the Channel Islander applies his qualities has brought him a championship medal and a cap in all but one of Terry Venables's 11 matches in charge of England. But once training finishes at Blackburn's rural retreat in the Ribble Valley, watching or talking football are not high in his priorities.

According to Le Saux, many managers feel threatened by players with an independent streak. Some of his colleagues consider him "a weirdo" because he is not married with 2.8 children, enjoys cooking, writes his own column (for a Jersey newspaper), and prefers the Inspiral Carpets and Teenage Fanclub to Dire Straits or Richard Clayderman. He sees no conflict, however, between non-conformism and the team ethic.

"Football is very much a collective thing, but I have to be myself," Le Saux says. "The only important thing is that we're together when we're on the pitch or on the training ground. I have a life outside it which is very important to me. It sounds pretentious, but I'm not living for football, I'm living for life."

Le Saux is not the English game's first free spirit, a term more often attached to gifted loose cannons. For his role model, he looked not to the feather-cut mavericks of the Seventies, but to Pat Nevin during their time together at Chelsea. "Pat was somebody I could relate to," he recalls. "He made me realise that you could be yourself and still be a player."

Nevin's extra-curricular interests were viewed with suspicion by some in the Everton hierarchy. Le Saux has found Blackburn's management - now fronted by Ray Harford, with Kenny Dalglish moving upstairs as director of football - more tolerant since his own move north for pounds 450,000 plus a long-forgotten striker two and a half years ago. It helps, of course, that pound for pound, he rivals Alan Shearer as the best buy of the Jack Walker era.

Le Saux's ability to detach himself from his day job did not, he confesses, make him immune to the pressure under which Blackburn nearly buckled as they approached the finishing line in the spring. The last month, especially the final afternoon when they lost at Liverpool as Manchester United battered vainly on West Ham's door, was obviously a traumatic time.

"Everybody built it up so much, especially the media, and kept analysing the situation to the point where the people involved were thinking: 'Hang on, it's actually happening to me and I'm not dissecting it that much'."

After the initial euphoria, Le Saux experienced the anti-climax of which several Leeds players complained after their triumph in 1992. "It'd been such a drawn-out race and it seemed like the games were never going to end. You got so focused that you kept expecting it to go on and on. Suddenly it was all over and we all went our separate ways."

For Le Saux, that meant international duty and a stint in a wide midfield role, away from his preferred position of left-back. His spectacular goal gave England an illusory lead over Brazil, after which there was finally time to reflect on a rollercoaster year.

"It didn't sink in until I was on holiday in the south of France. I was just lying there and I thought: 'We've won it - they can't take it away from us!' My mates said I had this smug smile on my face. Now we're back into the routine again and it all seems forgotten. There's no time to gloat."

Even before Sunday's low-key display and defeat by Everton in the Charity Shield, few "experts" were tipping Blackburn this time. Le Saux feels that has more to do with Harford's low profile in the transfer market than doubts about his ability to succeed Dalglish. In his view, the new manager's coaching ability has played a crucial, if underrated part in Rovers' rise.

"Ray's methods are both functional and enjoyable. When I first came here I was amazed by the standard and pace of training. He believes in shape, in an organised team framework within which individuals can express themselves. He doesn't want 11 robots.

"To be truthful, he has restored some of my faith in managers. All players can ask for is honesty in what is quite a dishonest profession. If Ray has a dour image it's because he lets people know only as much about him as he wants them to know.

"The question I'm always asked is: 'What's Kenny like?' Well, in a relaxed atmosphere, say on the team coach or at training, he's a lot different from the public perception. In that respect, Ray's not unlike Kenny."

What will not change is Blackburn's oft-criticised style, which is characterised by strong defence and swift breaks out of defence via long balls to Shearer and Chris Sutton. On their first day back on the training ground, Harford told his troops: "We won the League with it. If it's not broken, why fix it?"

The Blackburn players are accustomed to hearing their achievement belittled; that they had bought their success or were boring. With a place in the European Cup secure, Le Saux no longer feels the need to defend his team, warning instead that they are confident of further progress.

"We should be going into matches with a certain amount of self-assurance. Winning it ought to make us bigger and better, as it did with Manchester United. Going straight into the Champions' League was a big plus. In fact, this has the potential to be an incredible season, perhaps even surpassing the last one and finishing with the European Championship finals."

Not that he takes his England place for granted, especially with Stuart Pearce around. It is just that Le Saux projects a maturity and self-belief that might surprise those who remember his precocity at Chelsea.

"I'm 26 and this is the first time I have felt confident in what I am doing," he admits. "It is a nice feeling to be in a job that is very insecure, yet to know that things have gone well."

Recognition has a price, and for Le Saux it is lost privacy. "Sometimes you feel like a prisoner. There are certain things I can't do and places I can't go, especially in the evenings. You get guys who've had a few drinks and give you stick.

"I was browsing in a shop in London and this very middle-class lady, a bit Sloaney, was just staring at me. When I looked back, she snapped out of it, apologised and asked if I really was who I am. It brought home to me how the game is changing, that a different sort of people are watching football nowadays."

Bill Shankly also said he preferred his players to have their brains in their feet. Graeme Le Saux might take issue with that one too, but as a new season beckons, he is ready to let his articulate left do the talking.

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