‘I knew I had to leave Man Utd after talk with manager – it was the worst’

Louis Saha says he was forced to leave Manchester United after a heart-to-heart with Sir Alex Ferguson.

The former France international, now 46, signed for the Red Devils from Fulham – United's opponents tonight (January 26) – for a whopping £12.4million midway through the 2003/04 season. He spent most of the next four and a half years playing second fiddle to the likes of Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez in attack, but still managed a healthy 42 goals scoring in 124 appearances – just 76 of what was a start.

The end came for Saha when he sat out the 2008 Champions League final. Two years earlier he had squandered the chance to play in the World Cup final due to suspension, and he had vowed never to miss such an opportunity again.

But an ill-timed knee injury took the matter out of the striker's hands, leaving him devastated. “It was the worst,” Saha told FourFourTwo in 2019. “I worked very hard to come back from injury, and I also learned from my mistake at the World Cup.”

Saha had only started ten games all season, and the disappointment of missing the biggest game in club football forced him to quit his tenure at United. “After I missed that final I spoke to the manager and said, 'I have to leave',” he admitted.

Ferguson told him he would not stand in his way, and a transfer to Everton was agreed shortly afterwards. Saha says he still holds Sir Alex in high regard, but the pain of missing the Champions League final still haunts him.

“It took me four or five years to realize how painful it was,” he said. 'When I wrote my book, because when I finally tried to explain what it felt like, I realized how much damage it was doing to my self-confidence.

“It became very religious for me when I also missed the Champions League final [as the World Cup final]. I thought, 'Why did God give me these platforms to perform and then take it away from me?' It was the first time I cried about football. I couldn't bear it; I was in pain for two or three weeks.”

On his move to Everton, he insisted: “It was the right move at the right time for me. I loved Manchester United, I had a lot of injuries but the manager was always there for me. He taught me loyalty and respect .Those things remain in me today.”

Saha enjoyed a fruitful three-and-a-half year spell on Merseyside before briefly joining Tottenham in 2012. The ex-Fulham, Newcastle and Metz striker later played for Sunderland and Lazio before hanging up his boots in 2013.