Other than, ‘Welcome to Old Trafford Mr Djemba Djemba – i’m sure you’ll enjoy your football here’, there is rarely anything else that I disagree with Fergie with. This transfer is no exception either. In Saha we are losing a strong, quick striker with a good left foot – when he is fit. Today Saha decided to leave his injury nightmare behind him and join Everton and see if he can stay fit for more than 2 and a half games. You think i’m joking – have a look at the amount of Premier League games he has started compare to Rooney who signed eight months later. Saha started, in four and a half seasons, 52 games, compared to Rooney who has made 118. Ok you may argue that Rooney is a better player than Saha and obviously deserves a starting berth over the Frenchman – but Fergie splashed out £12.8Million back in 2004, and i’m sure he expected a greater return alongside Ruud VanNistelrooy.
Saha’s best run in the side probably came in the first half of the 2006/07 (and I suppose towards the end of the 2005/06 season with the decline of Ruud) season where he was a first team regular for the first time since his move from Fulham. He scored on the opening day against Fulham and then bagged two goals against Celtic at Old Trafford. He failed to convert a penalty at Celtic Park, which left United needing a win against Benfica – which was achieved…eventually. He also played a part in the 2-0 victory over Chelsea, last season, at home, winning and scoring a penalty in the final minutes. It’s such a shame that he couldn’t have kept himself fit for longer and played more of a part in the teams fortunes. After all, no one is questioning his ability – it’s just whether he can stay fit for long enough. He was never the best of finishers and would sometimes be very erratic in front of goal, but I always felt he tried and wasn’t lucky with injuries. You may suggest he suffered from the same bout of footballphobia that Arjen Robben did but then remember Bryan Robson’s injuries that he suffered throughout his career – I guess some people are just unlucky??
So with Saha out the door are we going to settle for a strike force of Tevez, Rooney and Campbell, with Manucho in the wings when he returns from injury or with the transfer of Pavlyuchenko to Tottenham does this free up a move for Berbatov? Also, how will you remember Saha? A good player that helped us to the 2007 Premier League title? Or as a injury plagued sick note player who wasn’t actually quite good enough for Manchester United?

As an Evertonian season ticket holder I can’t help but think this is another Fergie masterstroke. He has a great track record of moving players on at exactly the right time. Saha can be almost unplayable…when he’s on the pitch. Unfortunately for yourselves, and now us, it happens far too infrequently. I once read that Saha was on around £55k a week. If that’s the case then Fergie has just saved his bosses a tidy £3.360m in my estimation. Nicely done.
Obviously the ideal scenario would be for Loius to prove everyone who doubts his fitness wrong and bang in 20 goals this season, including a couple against Satan’s children over at Analfield, but I won’t hold my breath.
Good luck in winning at least two more titles to topple the Scum’s record.
I think it’s bad negotiating if we get less than £10mil for him. I always liked him and when he’s fit he’s a great player.
He’s a gamble that’s for sure but one worth it for me. This is a guy who once cost 12mill. Every club has had them and then sold them on only to see them deliver what then once thought they were going to originally get.
Good luck on your next double
Apparently Saha is fully fit now (according to Fergie’s comments before the Super Cup last night), so I suppose it’s all about confidence with him.
Decent player when fit but as said in the article and comments since, those moments were few and far between. Hope he does well for Everton, if he signs – a few crucial goals against the likes of Chelsea or the Dippers wouldn’t go amiss.
With Saha going and Hull putting in a big bid for Campbell, I think we need at least two strikers. Surely in Europe there are two players Fergie can sign for £25m?!