Some Love For Saha | Ole on Current Squad | Tevez

A very good morning to you all. Assuming you did manage to wake up on a Saturday morning, sober enough to read this.

As the days draw ever so close to the Champions’ League final, news comes from Moscow as police from the Russian capital outline their plans for tackling fan violence.

It’s good to see that local police are taking steps for the fans’ safety, but the ban on public drinking and the absence of outdoor TV screens will not sit too kindly with the travelling folk. That said, the club has clearly warned United fans against travelling to Moscow if they had no ticket.

Louis Saha has pretty much resigned himself to the reality that it could be his last season at Old Trafford. The Frenchman has been dogged with injuries throughout his United career and that reputation has made him legendary — only recently rivalled by Tomas Rosicky, who apparently is not even sure if he can recover from his injury. But while we’ve all been left frustrated, breaking several objects in our vicinity every time we saw a starting XI minus Saha — especially in games where his attributes would have helped greatly — a part of us still feels sorry for the lad. Today’s article on the Guardian features his feelings for the club and his own frustrations:

“I know it [the final] could be my last game, and I would understand if the manager went for another striker. It would be painful if he did and it’s painful even to talk about it because I love the club so much. But it’s been very hard for me this season. This is the best and biggest club in the world and the fact is that I’ve had very few chances. I do get miserable when I am injured and it’s very tense for my family because I want to play and I want to win things, so when that chance is taken away from me I can’t help but be in a bad mood. I’m 29 now and I wanted to improve again this year because that’s what you have to do at a club like this. But it’s difficult when you get injured. You are staying in the same place all the time.”

Think about it for a minute. Yes, he’s our balsa boy. Yes he seems at times a bit too fragile mentally to not be able to play through a pain barrier. But we can’t apportion the blame squarely on him. It’s not entirely his fault that he ruptures his tendon while walking his dog. While players blame injuries, Saha seems almost apologetic; almost telling us sorry for staying injured. Perhaps, he feels guilty for not repaying the fans’ and the manager’s faith in him by playing regularly. [Remember it was SAF who dumped Ruud in favour of Saha in what were early days leading to the fluid formation that United possess today, and it showed when Saha played alongside Rooney in the first half of the 06/07 season]

That said, I think he knows and everyone knows that the writing is on the wall as far as Saha’s United career is concerned. The only question is, who’ll be daft enough to take a chance on him.

Meanwhile Solskjaer has drawn parallels with the current squad from that of ’99 in terms of it’s depth.

Carlos Tevez is probably one player Ronaldo could learn from. While it may be a bit premature, considering the direction two other Argentinians’ careers took at United, him saying that he could sign today if a contract was put to him would only make him more endearing to fans. The lion hearted Tevez seems to only get better as the season wears on (just as he did for West Ham) and he’s played himself into contention for a starting place from his performances in recent games. What a player!

And finally — while this is old news — thanks to piss drunk Rangers fans who couldn’t keep a lid on themselves we won’t be seeing a victory parade from the lads anytime soon.

That’s all from me. I’ll see if I can catch a bit of the FA Cup action, and I am sure quite a few of you would be watching it for having a closer look at Aaron Ramsey, who we’ve been heavily linked with.

Let’s see how that goes, before we revert to discussing stuff in general… you know, like life, United and everything.

Cheerio.