Matt Le Tissier is a Southampton legend and one of the Premier Leagueâs original ballers, but his metamorphosis into a latter-day David Icke has produced some of the wildest conspiracy theories youâre ever likely to see.
For all his jaw-dropping talent as a footballer, Le Tissier has spent much of the last three years defecating on his legacy from the height of the Eiffel Tower, ostracising himself from the mainstream and siding firmly with the inhabitants of societyâs fringes.
Weâve trawled through the murky undergrowth of Twitter to bring you 11 of his steaming hot takes.
Communist takeover
Tell us Matt, are the communists in the room with you now?
https://twitter.com/mattletiss7/status/1676132658240274432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1676132658240274432%7Ctwgr%5E590dbd39f027c832b1d1cc68b28a46d3d3bf9106%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.planetfootball.com%2Fquick-reads%2Fmatt-le-tissier-wildest-conspiracy-theories-vaccination-communism%2FCovid concerns
Le Tissierâs views first came under media scrutiny when he posted a controversial tweet about the fast-developing Covid crisis in March 2020.
âWhy scare the entire population with this coronavirus stuff?â asked the former England international. âItâs only the elderly and people with existing conditions that are at risk but youâd expect everyone was going to die by the way itâs being reported.â
NHS actors
Le Tissier has also claimed some of the patients who were dying or critically ill in a hospital in Italy at the start of the pandemic were actors.
When questioned about the images of these patients by The Times in April 2022, he replied: âSome of those were actors, by the way.â Mad, mad stuff.
Ventilators and tests
In that same interview with The Times, Le Tissier insisted that ventilators âcaused harm to patientsâ and PCR tests were âentirely responsible for elevating a flu bug into a pandemicâ.
He also suggested masks, which were proven to stop the spread of the virus, were a sign of compliance. We reason that Le Tissier has burrowed his way thousands of miles into a rabbit hole.
Tanzanian President
Itâs the maddest sh*t youâll read all year; Le Tissier implying that Bill Gates ordered a hit on the President of Tanzania is probably the biggest case in favour of banning heading in football.
https://twitter.com/mattletiss7/status/1372522338600812546?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1372522338600812546%7Ctwgr%5E590dbd39f027c832b1d1cc68b28a46d3d3bf9106%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.planetfootball.com%2Fquick-reads%2Fmatt-le-tissier-wildest-conspiracy-theories-vaccination-communism%2FSky Sports sacking
After years as part of the successful Soccer Saturday set-up, Le Tissier was released from his Sky contract in 2020. He took it as well as youâd expect.
The Southampton legend has insisted Sky âdidnât give a reasonâ for his exit, yet there was significant pressure on the broadcaster to sack him following his tweets about Covid.
âWithin five seconds I was told there was no more work for me at Sky,â he told The Rob Moore podcast in June 2022.
âI had about seven months left to run on my contract but I was told that I wouldnât be needed anymore. They didnât really give a particular reason, they just said âthe show was going in a different directionâ â they were the words I think they used.
âSo I asked the question, does this have anything to do with my posts on social media? To which their reply was, âwell we have to take into account the reputation of the company when making these decisions.â
âAt which point I said âoh thatâs interesting, because at the moment, you are employing somebody who spat at a girl from his carâ. Jamie Carragher, who spat at a young girl through his car. They suspended him for six months and then brought him back into the fold.
âI said âdo you not think that might have harmed the reputation of the company at allâ and I got told âwe canât talk about other people on thisâ so that was it really.â
Anne Frank
Around the time of his Sky Sports departure, Le Tissier outraged many by referencing Anne Frank in an argument against face masks.
He quote-tweeted a post that read: âThe people who hid Anne Frank were breaking the law. The people who killed her were following it.â He added: âRemember this.â The post was initially uploaded in response to a video that showed a police officer challenging a train user for not wearing a face covering.
The 54-year-old was slammed for the tweet, but initially fought back against critics by writing: âThis appears to have got a lot of bots and trolls tweeting me about masks! Yet Iâve just checked again and still I find no reference to masks anywhere in the original tweet!â
But he later apologised and deleted his tweet: âApologies for the recent tweet. Obviously taken out of context so Iâve deleted it so thereâs no confusion.â
Footballerâs heart problems
Incredibly outspoken about the COVID vaccine, Le Tissier has looked for the loosest of hooks to hang his metaphorical hat.
https://twitter.com/mattletiss7/status/1469813906608640007?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1469813906608640007%7Ctwgr%5E590dbd39f027c832b1d1cc68b28a46d3d3bf9106%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.planetfootball.com%2Fquick-reads%2Fmatt-le-tissier-wildest-conspiracy-theories-vaccination-communism%2FBucha massacre
This one was just grim.
There was much shock and sadness when 1000 bodies were discovered in the Ukrainian city of Bucha last April, including 31 children, amid the ongoing war with Russia.
Responding the massacre, a Twitter account posted: âThe media lied about Weapons of Mass Destruction. The media lied about Covid. The media lied about the Hunter Biden laptop. But honestly, they are telling the truth about Bucha!â
The post suggested the massacre was staged, something Russia has claimed after facing an international backlash. Le Tissier quote tweeted the post and wrote: âThis.â
He was immediately criticised by scores of prominent people on Twitter for his bone-headed remark.
Ali Dia
Wait, this actually did happen.
9/11
While Le Tissier has not blessed us with his full explanation, he has made it abundantly clear he is sceptical about the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers on September 11 2001.
âThereâs enough structural engineers I have listened to that have all said there is no way a plane could do that to a building unless there was some kind of controlled explosion,â Le Tissier said to a baffled Ray Parlour and Alan Brazil about a disaster that claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people.
https://www.planetfootball.com/quick-reads/matt-le-tissier-wildest-conspiracy-theories-vaccination-communism/