Le Tissier hits out at Cortese

There has long been tension between Saints chairman Cortese and one of their greatest ever players.

Cortese played an integral role in the now-deceased Markus Liebherr's takeover of the debt-ridden south coast club three years ago - a time in which Le Tissier was part of a rival bid by Pinnacle Group.

The 44-year-old did not pinpoint that as the reason for the pair's strained relationship but made his feelings on the Italian abundantly clear.

"I suppose the only real story will probably come out when he leaves the football club," he claimed.

"He is not a very nice human being. It's as simple as that.

"I think a lot of the stuff will come out about him when he leaves the football club and only when he leaves.

"He has a lot of hold over a lot of people and while the club is doing well on the pitch he will get away with it.

"When it's not quite going so well and the spotlight starts falling on other areas of the football p itch, then that's when he'll come under a little bit of pressure."

Le Tissier was speaking at the Tullow Oil Golf Day, which is aimed at raising more than 150,000 for CLIC Sargent - the UK's leading cancer charity for children and young people.

The former Saints man was amongst a number of famous sporting faces at Sunningdale Golf Club, with the likes of Kenny Dalglish, Harry Redknapp and Alan Hansen also in attendance.

While the aforementioned remain revered at their former clubs, Le Tissier says he feels "that the chairman doesn't want anything to do with anything that happened before he turned up" at Southampton.

However, he insists the fact Cortese is calling the shots has not tainted Saints' return to the Premier League after a seven-year absence.

"No, not at all," Le Tissier said. "Nothing he does to me will ever stop me backing Southampton Football Cub 100 per cent when I am watching them play football."

On the field, it has n ot been the greatest of starts to life back in the big time for Southampton.

Four points from their opening seven fixtures leaves them 17th in the standings heading into Saturday's trip to West Ham.

"It has been tricky but it was always going to be tough with the fixtures we had," Le Tissier said.

"I think we have acquitted ourselves quite well without perhaps picking up the points that some of our play has deserved.

"I don't think we deserved to lose to Manchester United at home and, while four points is not a great total, we're still not in the bottom three."

Le Tissier was also quick to back manager Nigel Adkins, who helped the club to back-to-back promotions but is reportedly already under pressure.

"With what he has done for the us over the past few years, I think he deserves a fair crack at it," he added.

"I think it would be incredibly harsh if he was to lose his job at this point of the season."

No-one at Saints was available for comment when contacted.