Stop Press: club confirms one-year deal for Saha. Bienvenue, Lo-lo or Petit Louis, hope you enjoy your time with us …
Louis Saha’s own tweet said it: “@louissaha08: I’m on my way to discuss with Sunderland.”
I was at first disappointed to see his name linked with us: 1) his age, just turned 34; 2) his injury record; 3) the fear that this was part of horsetrading with Spurs over Sess although as Doug points out below, he was out of contract and therefore a free agent 4) the simple feeling of being underwhelmed by our transfer activity.
But the age will matter relatively little (SuperKev?) if we can keep him fit and get from him the undoubted quality he possesses as well as his experience and guile. If his acquisition is sealed, and then followed by at least two more, then we may be able to look ahead with more confidence.
Louis also seems a good lad. From his own site – http://www.louissaha08.com/ – here is a small introduction to the man and his outlook:
A career in football is always so short but I am happy to have won more games than lost and scored some good goals. Even if I may have missed a billion of chances and too many games for my liking through injury, I have managed to win a few trophies; Premier League, Champions League and a League Cup with Manchester United.
And questions from readers producing one diplomatic reply, one interesting comparison of greats and one piece of footballing philosophy …
[At] Spurs, which players inspire you the most?
I’m impressed by every player in Tottenham squad.
Who is the best? Messi or C Ronaldo
I think they are two incredible players. Messi has got magic in his feet and Cristiano has got every quality that players of any position would dream to have. I will watch Messi but would buy Cristiano.
You have been a great player for Everton. How did you feel about coming on against them?
It was strange but I want to win every game so I was gutted at the end.
Plus one question posed today and awaiting response. Guess who asked it, in rotten French …
Welcome if all goes well today. If you join, will you take on two jobs: score goals of course but also persuade Sess not to go?
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Ok, well let’s agree, that because there’s always a chance he will break down, its a risk. It’s a risk at no cost, however.
He played 32 games last season.
There is I’m sorry to say, a lot of drivel being talked about with this signing. Some of the lads have picked up on this.
We have waited all summer long for a striker to come in and, well it is hardly the sort of acquisition to make the fans sit up and take notice. Saha is 34 and has been, well………. injured almost as much, or possibly even more than Owen Hargreaves.
Goldy says no fee no gamble. Mmm……….. I beg to differ. We are sitting here with the pop gun attach now supplemented by Saha and nobody else. As things stand at present, unless we sign another two forwards we face the grim prospect of pinning most of our goalscoring hopes on a 34 year old who is more familiar with the treatment table than the penalty area. If that’s not a risk, then I don’t know what is. Plus if MoM was keen to sign Saha, why wait until now, given that he was out of contract some time ago? Yeah, well it beats me.
Some people seem to be trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear with this one and putting a positive spin on signing this lad. They have a stronger constitution than I do, because it reeks of desperation as strong as last week’s fish. Beyond desperate in fact. is this what the scouts are telling O’Neill? “Sign this lad. He’s a fit 34 because he’s hardly played at all for years. His knees must be like an 18 year old.” It’s like getting a 1972 Ford Escort with only 43,000 on the clock, and expecting to tour round Europe in it.
I’ve got nothing against signing a player with experience and a forward with some experience is clearly lacking. However, the timing of this raises some serious doubts about what else we can expect from O’Neill over the next couple of weeks. He’s free though, and along with Cuellar that seems to be fulfilling our transfer policy criteria.
I’m becoming increasingly cynical about all of this by the second, and I’m frankly very disappointed that people don’t seem to want to see through this for what it is. It’s abysmal.
No fee, no gamble. He did very well at Spurs last season, got on the end of crosses which we need someone do do so badly.
People moan at a proven PL striker, at 25, costing too much. Now we get one for free who is surely intended to be a squad player and takes the pressure of as a stop-gap, and people moan he’s not good enough.
I’m happy with it. If Fletcher signs for 13m ish and stays fit al bet anybody he scores more than 15 goals.
Oh merde……. what waste of time signing Saha is.My bet is we will not even remember him by the end of the season as he will be either
a)Injured
b)playing in the reserves.
Yeah, let’s give Saha his head on Saturday and see what he can do. Anything that takes a bit of pressure of Sess, is all to the good.
I think Saha might be first choice starting for us v Arsenal if he’s fit. You know, with experience, that can give you an extra half a yard, and clever positioning. He doesn’t need to be the fastest guy in the world, just positioned well. And his caliber will be appreciated in the dressing room.
Still, lets hope Wolves let Fletcher go.
One problem with Fletcher is that Wolves are pretty good financially and don’t really need the money. They can afford to at least try to keep him where he is and he could be of great benefit to them, disgruntled or not.
I can’t see Defoe moving north. But what about McGeady? Is he still on O’Neill’s radar?
He hasn’t cost a fee and could well be influential in the protracted Wolves saga re Fletcher. Maybe the fact that we are no longer as desperate as we were to sign anyone whose name has been linked with the word ‘striker’ could perhaps convince Wolves that it would be better to sell than to keep a disgruntled player on their books while they need everyone to be behind them in the Championship.
Slightly concerned that no-one else seems to be chasing Wolves for Fletcher?
Could Defoe sign for us? Scoring last night will not have helped. He also seems to be a London boy and training at the wind swept Academy in February on a soggy, freezing Tuesday morning could be a bit of a shock. On the plus side, he should be guaranteed more starts with us.
If this is the best we can do, it’s very worrying. Another free transfer of someone who, for all his “experience and guile,” is past his best-before date and likely to spend more time off the field than on. Seems to me he’s only coming to the SoL because no one else in the Premiership wants him.
Ellis Short certainly urged O’Neill to keep a grip on the purse strings but there’s money in there to be spent. We need, as Colin says, at least two more and we shouldn’t be rummaging through the charity shops to find them.
Couple of points: how can us moving for Saha be part of a trade involving Sess when Saha’s out of contract? No need to trade with anyone! Secondly there’s no transfer fee and he’s obviously far better than the forwards we currently have, and that has to be the bottom line of any player move: does he improve our squad/team? If the answer’s yes then it has to be a decent move. Saha is capable of producing goals and general play of top quality, as a free signing I can think of many worse.
I’m unsure how the comparison with Kevin Phillips makes this move any better. Phillips has not been prolific in the Premiership at 34. You can always think of a few positives when a side signs a player like this but ultimately it is a pure sign of desperation. Much like our attempt at signing Davies in January.
We’re signing a player who has been injury prone for years now (see Wes Brown…again another poor signing imo. Good when he plays but he doesn’t play too often). He probably will be backup but that means we now have the following strikers as “backup”:
– Saha
– Wickham
– Ji
– Noble
– Campbell
I won’t be confident with any of those “strikers” starting up front for us.
At 34 with his best years behind him it is worrying. It’s also worrying that we’re playing Arsenal on Saturday and we’ll have only brought in two players. Both on free transfers, both 30+.
We’ve had since January to prepare for this. Yet again, we are going into a season under-prepared and lacking the quality needed to do anything of any note in this league.