February 27 – Robbie Taunts Le Saux

SUBTLETY has never been one of Robbie Fowler’s strong points. The young scamp from Merseyside has never been the shy retiring type and it seems that sometimes he just can’t help himself.

Today in 1999 was no different as Rob lined up for Liverpool at Stamford Bridge as they took on Chelsea in a Premiership clash. If we tell you that Graeme Le Saux was playing that day for Chelsea you probably know what happened next.

Despite the fact he was married and has two children, rumours had been circulating for years about Le Saux’s sexuality, prompted by his preference for The Guardian over The Sun, his love of reading and antiques, and most likely, because he rose to the bait the first time he was ever teased about it.

Fowler and Le Saux had been clashing throughout the game, and Fowler claims Le Saux was being rather over-liberal with discreet use of his elbow. Eventually Fowler bent over, starting waggling his arse in the direction of Le Saux and pointing at it. No one was in any doubt as to what he was getting at, least of all Le Saux, who, having had just about enough of all this nonsense, shouted plaintively: “But I’m married!” Fowler claims he retorted “Yeah, so was Elton John mate,” but Le Saux contends Fowler made that up later. Either way Le Saux snapped and elbowed Fowler who responded by pulling his shorts down.

Typically, The FA were not laughing at Robbie’s antics and banned him for two matches and banned Le Saux for one match for his elbow brandishing.

Le Saux recounted the incident in his autobiography: “I didn’t go out of my way to stand up for gay rights, but my situation dictated that I did. The way I see it, there are people in the gay community that are going to be football fans and that means there are young people who might be confused about their sexuality. They need support, so when Robbie Fowler attempts to humiliate me in public, all the kids in that position feel pretty s***ty about themselves.

“More than anything in my career, that offended me. What he did was wrong and he has never admitted that. He still talks as if it was a bit of a laugh. I just think there should be someone in his life who says, ‘Robbie, you were out of order’.”

The FA said that again to Rob just a few months later when he further enraged them with his infamous goal-line sniffing celebration at Everton. The little rascal!

If you want to know some of Graeme Le Saux’s innermost thoughts then have a watch of the clip below. If you don’t, have a look at which powerhouse of German football was starting life on this day. If you don’t want to do that, then just come back tomorrow to see what historical snipped we’ll be bringing you then. And if you don’t want to do that, then there is just no pleasing you.