In the good old days of 1990 The Ugly Inside interviewed Matt Le Tissier and he made a stunning confession, so it is apt that the man known as Le God should be the man to open a Bingo Hall.

It has been announced that perhaps the greatest living Saints player is to cut the ribbon at the new Gala Bingo Hall at Antelope Park in the East of the city.

This is very apt as when the Ugly Inside interviewed Matt in 1990 he revealed in an issue with the cover headline "Matty Speaks Bingo Lingo" that his secret vice was attending Bingo and that he had been known to have the odd win or two.

This was not the riveting stuff that we had been hoping for, we at TUI had harboured hopes that Matt would furnish us with tales of debauchery on pre season tours and away games, stuff that could have made us very rich when sold to the national's.

But sadly for us Terry Hurlock had not yet joined Saints meaning that we had to be content with much less sedate material, thus we had to scrap our intended cover " Saints Squad In Mass Drinking & Sex Orgy" and run with "Matty Speaks Bingo Lingo".

Whether Matt continues to grace Bingo Halls with his trademark goal celebration every time he gets a full house is unclear, certainly he hasn't brought it up on Soccer Saturday, but it is certainly a throwback to those halcyon days when footballers were happy to be interviewed in a dodgy pub in Southampton and in some cases strip down to their underpants, but that is another story.

Matt was only a string of interviews all of which we went into hoping for an exclusive that would make us rich, Matt was a thoroughly decent guy as in fairness were all of them, Barry Horne spoke passionately about alternative music and even rang back to request a second interview as he felt he hadn't stitched a few people up enough.

Alan Shearer and Neil Ruddock were good fun and a virtual comedy duo with Ruddock stripping down to his Underpants for a group photo, back then Saints players were approachable and had a sense of belonging to the community that they lived in and perhaps that is the saddest memory, nostalgia isn't what it used to be, but I have to say that players then could hold a conversation and seemed happy to chat etc, now when i see players talking to fans, rarely do I see any interaction, player signs an autograph blankly staring into space wishing he was anywhere but there.

Harsh maybe, im sure not app footballers these days are like that, but the image we see is of multi millionaire footballers barely into their 20's with their expensive headphones who have their World and are not interested in anything out of it.

So do any of you remember the issue "Matty Speaks Bingo Lingo" even better do any of you have the issue so you can scan the cover if so then e mail it over to us with the header "Ex Saints Player Blackmail Fund"

Photo: Action Images

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