 |
Fulham striker
Louis Saha |
|
|
There’s only one star in the Saha household in Epsom, and that is Stanley, aged 1½. “Magic!” is how Louis describes having a son.
“Stanley: it’s a nice English name, yes? I’ve got a friend who went to a wedding whose baby was called Stanley, and all night there were ladies round him saying, ‘Ooh, Stanley, Stanley’. I thought, ‘My son will be called Stanley for sure’. ” Fatherhood has fitted the Fulham striker like a tailor-made pair of boots.
The brimming energy and bouncy humour that radiate from the Frenchman make him perfect for the job. Saha also had a head start on most other first-time parents. He was already used to sleepless nights.
It is hard to imagine such a light-hearted fellow being assailed by demons after dark. Yet behind the smile there is another Saha: a worrier, somebody who tosses and turns in bed. You would think he’d be happy about a start to the season that has seen him score six times in 12 games and lead Fulham’s line in his new lone-striker role. But Saha is not satisfied. “I don’t know about that,” he says when complimented on his form. “I’m looking at the chances I could have scored. In some games I should have had a hat-trick and instead finished with one goal. I go home and think about that.
“I need to improve my finishing. It’s the one thing that bothers me right now. I know I’m playing confidently, but I still need to take my chances more.” Even stories linking him with an £8m move to Manchester United (“It’s good to hear, but for now I’m just playing for Fulham. I’ll concentrate on that and see how it goes”) do not persuade Saha he has arrived. He is still some way, he feels, from joining Thierry Henry and Nicolas Anelka, his old classmates from the French football academy in Clairefontaine, in the Premiership’s top rank. The trio once comprised possibly the most devastating forward line in youth football history, with Saha on the left, Henry on the right and Anelka through the middle in the French side that won the 1997 Uefa Under-18 championship. Some at Clairefontaine rated Saha the best prospect of the three, and it was he who scored the golden goal against Portugal that clinched France’s title.
“Thierry was the same as he is now,” Saha says. “A nice guy who everyone likes. Very confident, very determined. Every year his career gets bigger. Now he’s an unbelievable player. He’s succeeded because of his mental strength. It’s the same with Anelka. Nico’s got so much confidence in and focus on his own ability. Everyone can talk about him and he doesn’t care. That’s why he and Thierry are top players. They have a bad game and move on.”
Saha is different: “It’s getting better, but I’m not the type of person they are. Too much thinking. Too much criticism of myself. Everything for me has to be perfect. I get angry when it’s not. At night I think about the chances I miss. I’m a very bad sleeper.”
Saha is known at Fulham for his routine. After every game he takes the tape prepared by the club’s video analyst and goes home to dissect his performance. His first season made almost perfect viewing, when he scored 32 goals in the First Division and won Nationwide Player of the Year, but his initial displays in the Premiership were mixed. One reason he took time to settle at the higher level was his capacity to let self-criticism spill into self-reproach.
“The problems I had when Fulham were promoted were exactly the same as the team,” he says. “We played brilliant stuff in the First Division, but found the Premiership was completely different. We’re a young side, and maybe back then were a little too young to cope. As for me, every weekend I’d sit at home with my tape and watch my game, feeling bad. That would then make it very hard for me to play well in the next game. I’m learning not to get myself so down. I only watch tapes of my good games these days.”
The United rumours followed Fulham’s 3-1 win at Old Trafford last month, where Saha set up a goal for Steed Malbranque and gave a near-complete display of centre- forward play, burnished with endeavour, strength and guile. Sir Alex Ferguson also favours the lone-striker system, so it was not surprising to see Saha put forward as a potential understudy for Ruud van Nistelrooy.
“I think it’s quite hard, playing as the only forward,” Saha says. “At Metz I was a winger, and on the wing it’s one against one. Now I’m one against three. It gives me a lot of responsibility and I love it. A big part of my game is trying to use space and use my speed. I have the opportunity to play on the counter-attack.”
He has benefited from Fulham’s general upsurge. “The way I’ve played is only a reflection of the team. Some people are surprised about us this season, but you can ask Luis Boa Morte. After the first couple of pre-season games I was already saying to him, ‘I think we can do something this year’. Almost straight away you could feel something different . In every training session it was like everyone was 400% more than before.
“But the season’s only just started, and though we’re doing well against the big teams, we must also start taking three points against the others. Like Portsmouth tomorrow. Opponents have started taking measures against us, and that can be hard. In the last game (a 3-1 defeat) Charlton used some very good tactics to stop us.”
After scoring at Anfield three weeks ago, Saha revealed a T-shirt bearing a tribute to former manager Jean Tigana, but he is also a big fan of his successor, Chris Coleman. When Coleman was recovering from a car crash, Saha scored and displayed the message: “Cookie we miss you.”
“Tigana did a lot for me, so it was a shame to see him go, but Chris has been unbelievable as a manager and our spirit is better now. So, like everything in life, it (Tigana’s departure) was good and bad,” Saha says.
He noticed one welcome difference about the new regime last week. Tigana would continue double training sessions and even arrange friendlies to keep his players working during gaps in the club fixture calendar. Coleman has allowed his players time off to recharge. “We feel fresher these days. The training might be shorter than before, but it’s sharper. Before, we were just tired.”
Saha has not given up on following Anelka and Henry into the full France team. As for who led out of the three when they did sprints at Clairefontaine, he is coy, but his smile suggests modesty could be the reason. “These things depend on distance,” he says diplomatically. “Thierry would win 100m every time and Nico is amazing over short sprints. But you should ask Clairefontaine. They have the records.”
He, Henry and Anelka were friends. Their parents had all emigrated from the Antilles, and the boys would chat together in Creole. “At Clairefontaine it’s friends who help you through,” he says. “The place was hard. I was only 14 when I went. You get homesick and regret not having a normal life. On the other hand, you learn football surrounded by players of amazing quality. Everyone who stayed became successful, if not in football then in other areas of life.”
Life is good now. “I enjoy London very much,” he says. “There’s less jealousy here than in Paris. Paris is a beautiful place, but London is more my mentality. In London you can be quiet when you want and busy when you want. Nobody bothers you. Life’s just nicer, easier here.” He breaks into another smile. Que Saha, Saha.