By Simon Peach »

MATT Le Tissier admits he is happy to see the debacle at Portsmouth come to an end and their future secured.

Pompey have been living a charmed existence over the past 12 months due to their precarious financial situation and the club released a statement last week to say they were on the brink of being closed down.

However, Portsmouth's sale to businessmen Balram Chainrai, Levi Kushnir and Deepak Chainrai has seemingly safeguarded the club's immediate future, much to the relief of the man who earned legendary status at their bitter rivals up the M27.

"Nobody wants to see any football club go out of business and I certainly think everybody would agree that you want local derbies," admitted the Saints legend.

"You don't want your local rivals to go out of business, you would want to play them and beat them a couple of times a season and I think that's the way it should be.

"And I've not spoken to a single Southampton fan in the last few days that actually wanted Portsmouth to go out of business."

Le Tissier says he expects the pair to be playing at the same level next season, insisting Southampton have the quality to gain promotion back to the npower Championship despite a turbulent start to the League One campaign.

• Matt Le Tissier was speaking at the launch of Texaco's Teach Your Kids Proper Football Campaign.

For more information click here and tell us what Proper Footy means to you.

For more on Simon Peach's interview, click his byline at the top of this article.