Enjoy all of Louis Saha’s 31 goals in his first season with Fulham

It seems scarcely believable now that Louis Saha was hardly flavour of the month when he arrived at Craven Cottage in the summer of 2000. A young French forward, who had hardly pulled up any trees at Newcastle United when on loan under Ruud Gullit, could hardly compare to the cult hero that was Geoff Horsfield – swiftly offloaded to Birmingham City once Jean Tigana had got comfortable at Motspur Park. Several supporters suggested Fulham had overpaid for Saha on account on his nationality – an opinion that lasted about as long as he took for the Frenchman to score a superb opener at Tiverton Town on his first appearance for the Whites.

The French forward, blessed with blistering pace and beautiful balance, seemed unstoppable in that season when Tigana’s team blew everyone away on their way to the promised land of the Premiership. Saha scored ten in his first eleven league fixtures as Fulham stormed to the top of the table – giving veteran English centre halves nightmares. ‘Petit Louis’ as his friends at his first football club, Soisy Andilly Margency knew him, couldn’t be stopped. He formed a terrifying triumvirate with the archetypal English forward Barry Hayles and eccentric winger Luis Boa Morte, then borrowed from Southampton, and showed just why everyone at Clarefontaine, including Tigana’s perceptive assistant Christian Damiano, had tipped him for the top.

Saha was the new breed of striker built for the 21st century. Now, everyone can list the requirements for a centre forward in 4-3-3 formation: pace, power and predatory finishing, but back then Saha was a revelation. He could score with either foot – memorably alternating between left and right when on penaltiy duty – or his head and had the intelligence and vision to make goals for his team-mates too. His first touch was magnificent and the way he glided away from despairing defenders appeared effortless. The 27 goals that carried Fulham to the top flight were comprised of all sorts of finishes – an astonishingly powerful strike from an acute angle at Tranmere, the mazy dribble through the remnants of a Northampton defence, the bullet header that was the first of three against Barnsley and a brilliant brace at Wolves spring to mind.

Watch as Saha stunned Old Trafford by putting the Premiership new boys ahead twice on their top flight return

It was fitting that Saha would steal the show at Old Trafford on Fulham’s return to the top tier after thirty three years in the wilderness. On an afternoon that was supposed to be all about Ruud van Nistelrooy, Saha took just four minutes to make his mark, striding away from a suicidal Manchester United high line to lift a sumptuous ball from Sean Davis over a stranded Fabien Barthez. Just to prove it wasn’t a fluke, Saha restored Fulham’s lead shortly after half-time, sprinting onto a through ball from Steed Malbranque to slot into the bottom corner with his weaker right foot. August 19th 2001 was apparently the day Sir Alex Ferguson decided to sign Saha, but the way he and Malbranque ripped United apart had ruinous consequences, as the Scot soon parted company with Jaap Stam – the imposing figure at the heart of a usually miserly Red Devils’ rearguard.

Saha ended August anointed as the Premier League’s player of the month, but only showed flickers of class for the remainder of that season, with a sensational strike against Newcastle and a devastating double at Stamford Bridge the highlights of a frustrating first Premiership campaign. He began the following summer with what might have been the last ever goal at Craven Cottage, a scrappy strike against Greek outfit Egaelo ensuring Tigana’s team progressed in the InterToto Cup, but only managed seven in total as the injuries that so ravaged his later career began to take hold. It was when Chris Coleman played him as a lone striker in a side tipped by the pundits to go down that ‘King’ Louis really flourished.

Fulham started like a house on fire and Saha seemed back to the striker that had stunned the First Division. He scored five in his first nine games as Fulham went to Old Trafford sixth in the table with the talking heads again suggesting that the wind would have been taken out of their sails after they surrendered a two-goal lead to lose to Newcastle in midweek. Saha didn’t score on that famous day as Coleman’s charges tore the champions apart but, as Gary Neville later noted, ‘he was totally unplayable’. This time the goals didn’t dry up – his fifteen in 22 appearances had the Whites in the Champions’ League places when Ferguson came calling and, even Coleman’s impassioned ‘over my dead body’ riposte, couldn’t keep hold of Fulham’s prize asset.

For a while, the sadness of Saha’s exit soured the memories of his remarkable three-and-a-half-years with Fulham. But, in the fullness of the time, you couldn’t deny King Louis was world class. The fact that his massive transfer fee reportedly paved the way for a return to Craven Cottage seemed like a good line from Mohamed Al-Fayed’s PR people, but the Whites are still at their historic home. Saha might have gone on to win international honours and trophies at United, but he was never better than during those memorable years on the banks of the Thames.

After retiring, Saha wrote one of the best accounts of modern football I’ve read and has been engaged in efforts to change the game in boardrooms and wrestling with the corruptive power of agents. He’s still a remarkably perceptive analyst and I’m sure every Fulham fan wants to thank Louis for the many memories as he celebrates his birthday today.