When Fulham announced the signing of a striker named Louis Saha in the summer of 2000, there wasn’t much hoo-hah surrounding the 21-year-old’s arrival.
After scoring twice on loan with Newcastle United two seasons earlier, Saha only managed four league goals for Metz in 1999/00, though he was prolific in their Intertoto Cup campaign which took them all the way to the Final, where they were beaten by West Ham United.
Despite the youngster’s apparent inconsistencies in front of goal, Jean Tigana had no doubts about making Saha his first signing as Fulham Manager.
“Louis is a very good signing,” Tigana said after getting his man. “I have known him since he was 17 and he has great ability. I believe he will be a very good player in the First Division and has the right qualities to be a success in the Premiership.
“I am sure he will follow the success of his contemporaries Thierry Henry and Nicolas Anelka.”
Tigana’s faith in the young man ran deep. It’s something that proved crucial in Saha making the move to SW6. Such was his disillusionment at playing out wide for Metz, Saha even considered early retirement – thankfully not an option he took up, and thereby denying the world of his talent.
Speaking to the Fulham Fix last season, Saha explained: “I really wanted to change my position. I wanted to play as a striker, and I felt like Tigana proposed a really good project to me, and would give me the keys to do that.
“I was looking for competition. I’m a competitor, I want to win games, I want to enjoy what I’m doing, I want to score goals, and I was not enjoying my football. That’s the reality.
“My aim as a professional was to improve, and I didn’t think everything was there [at Metz] for me, because I knew I was not a winger. I would have struggled as a winger. I needed a manager who really believed in me to play as a forward or striker.
“I felt like even if I could have gone to a really good side in Ligue 1, I was not ready. The mentality was not right for me. I was really upset about the mentality.
“Really, I was very close to stopping football.
Louis Saha
“Human behaviour and how you act is very important to me, and I wasn’t having it at all, so it was a good setup for me to have someone who understood what I was looking for.”
Saha was played up top in his half a season at St James’ Park, and his brief time in the North-East was enough to assure him that England was the best place for him.
“When I arrived at Newcastle, after a week I was convinced that my football should be in England, for life,” he said. “I felt like I was free, I was me, I was smiling, having banter, even if I wasn’t speaking very clear English!
“Alan Shearer was a big factor. He was captain of the side, captain of England, the most respected player, the best goal scorer. And he was a simple guy, he made things really simple which helped players to adapt.
“Everyone wanted to play the ball forward, and I felt like it was the football game that I wanted to play, so it was a good introduction to the mentality that we all love when you watch Premier League football.”
Fulham favourite Aaron Hughes had recently broken into the Newcastle team when Saha arrived on loan, and quickly appreciated the Frenchman’s potential.
“I always thought he was a really good player at Newcastle and that he certainly had the potential to go on and play regular football in the Premier League, which later proved correct,” Hughes tells fulhamfc.com.
“He was a great lad as well, with a good attitude. He had that hunger to do well. To be honest, I couldn’t work out why Newcastle didn’t keep him.”
With the Magpies thankfully not opting to make the deal permanent, Fulham were able to swoop a year later.
That said, his arrival wasn’t met with the fanfare that – in hindsight – it merited.
“I was aware that he’d gone to Newcastle and not done especially well,” recalls Dave Kidd, The Sun’s Chief Sports Writer, and staunch Fulham fan. “I don’t particularly remember seeing him play for them but I know he only scored one Premier League goal while on loan.
“Now we know he was far too good for the second tier, but I don’t think anybody assumed he was going to be a roaring success. There wasn’t too much excitement, until I went to the Crewe game and then everything changed.”
Saturday 12th August, 2000. Peak opening day conditions with blazing sunshine and a new era beginning at Craven Cottage as we hosted Crewe Alexandra.
Saha was given a Fulham debut alongside fellow new signings John Collins and Luis Boa Morte.
He capped it with the clinching goal in a 2-0 win, demonstrating his movement and raw pace to get on the end of a long raking pass before dinking the ball over the onrushing goalkeeper.
“He was excellent that day,” says Dave. “I didn’t go loads that season because I was a junior reporter and went where I was sent, but I remember vividly the Crewe game and I remember being very impressed with him and John Collins that first day.
“He had it all, didn’t he? He was quick, the burst of pace, but he was also good in the air. He had good link-up play, he was good with his back to goal, he was an all-round outstanding centre forward. The swivel of the hips was the thing I remember most.”
It’s a review backed up by Sarah Brookes, who was the Club’s Head of Communications at the time.
“He was unstoppable,” she reminiscences. “He was like a racehorse, he was built like Red Rum or something. He was utterly phenomenal. He was unplayable.”
What’s nice to hear is that he had the personality to match his wonderful ability.
“He was always laughing, always smiling, much like he is now,” Sarah reveals. “He hasn’t changed, he’s still just a lovely, lovely man.”
Saha went on to bag 27 goals as Fulham romped to the Division One title – 32 in all competitions. After a difficult time in his homeland, he was enjoying his football once again.
“Tigana’s style was to play on the floor, to have some flair players who were able to do that in the midfield, like Sean Davis, John Collins, who could play balls to the strikers,” Saha explained. “It suited me very well. We had speed, we had strength at the back, everything in order to have, I wouldn’t say an easy season, but something close to it!”
Fulham Football Club has been blessed with some wonderful frontmen in our history, but Saha is arguably the one who had the most strings to his bow.
“I think I’d have to say he’s the best I’ve seen, because he’s the most complete,” admits Dave. “Ivor [Gordon Davies] was my hero as a kid, but Louis just seemed to have everything.
“We had a lot of good target men, McBride came in to replace Saha and he’d be up there, I love Mitro, Zamora, Horsfield. A lot of our best strikers have been target men, and Louis had that about him but he was also incredibly quick with a terrific eye for goal, so Louis would be number one for me in terms of centre-forwards for Fulham.
“Dimitar Berbatov was the most naturally gifted player I’ve seen at Fulham, as I didn’t see Johnny Haynes or George Best, but he didn’t have the work rate that Saha had.”
Saha may have only spent three-and-a-half years in South-West London, but he certainly left his mark, not least on the Kidd household where there remains a constant reference to the agile frontman.
“My son’s middle name is Louis, after Saha, so he definitely made an impression on me!”
You’re not the only one, Dave.
