When I was nearing the end of my time at primary school, we had a chant. It went, “Lineker, Lineker, Lineker, Lineker, sussed you badly, sussed you badly.”
It could be used whenever someone had been sussed (badly), which, I believe, in this context, meant they had been shown up, or been proven to be wrong about something — rather than what a more conventional interpretation of the verb suss (to discover, infer or figure out something) would suggest.
Every now and again I wonder what the hell this phrase actually meant, and I ask around and no-one else has ever heard of it.
I believe the “Lineker” referred to Gary Lineker, who had, at the time, recently returned somewhat triumphantly from Barcelona to play for Tottenham, but nothing in his Wikipedia entry sheds any light on the mysterious schoolyard chant.
So today I decided to do a google search for it. No results found for “lineker, lineker, lineker, lineker, sussed you badly, sussed you badly”.
Indeed, No results found for “sussed you badly”.
Which, I guess, means that While You Were Gone is in fact The Internet’s Leading Authority on Sussing You Badly.
I think I have decided the slogan for the front of those tshirts I’m gonna make. Order early to avoid disappointment!
