Le Tissier: why I don't want Pompey to go out of business

The Dell hero admits he cannot see anything other than a home victory in Saturday’s south coast derby at St Mary’s.

To the delight of many Southampton supporters, that would go a long way to sealing Pompey’s relegation from the Championship this season.

But, when it comes to matters off the pitch, Le Tissier insists Saints fans should be rooting for the survival of their administration-hit rivals.

“I don’t think any right-minded person in the world of football should want to see their closest rivals go out of existence,”

said the man who supporters last year voted as the club’s greatest player of all-time.

“I don’t see what the point is.

“We love the rivalry. We know sometimes it gets a little bit out of hand, but football exists because of those kind of rivalries and because of the competition that has built up between local sides.

“You’ve got the two Manchester teams at the top of the Premier League and you see that game coming up in a few weeks’ time and it’s going to be absolutely huge.

“You don’t want to miss out on games like that against your local rivals because they go out of business.”

Championship leaders Saints will move another step closer to the Premier League with a victory against Pompey this weekend.

And Le Tissier is confident that they will pick up all three points – providing Rickie Lambert recovers, as expected, from the groin injury that kept him out of last Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at Blackpool.

When asked if he could see anything other than a Saints win, Le Tissier, pictured, replied: “No, not really, as long as Rickie’s fit.

“If Rickie’s not fit not only will it detract from us going forward, I think it would give them a real boost if his name’s not on the team sheet.

“So that kind of worried me a little bit.

“But the way things are down there, they’re performing miracles just to keep themselves in touch with a chance of staying up.

“So it would be a major surprise if they got anything out of the game.”