There are no other words for it, other than it being a bargain basement move. Spurs were making a creditable push for the top four, had lost three strikers the previous summer in Robbie Keane, Peter Crouch and Roman Pavluychenko, and needed some fresh impetus to bolster their attacking ranks until the end of the season. Instead of scouring Europe for some fresh young blood, however, boss Harry Redknapp turned to a 34 year old Louis Saha, who had one Everton goal to his name for the season, and whose injuries had limited him to just 170 league appearances in his last seven and a half seasons. This was a French centre-forward who had hit double digits just once in the top-flight since his final season at Fulham in 03/04. Spurs supporters were perplexed.
''I dont look at message boards. I would be trusting Harrys judgement, with the greatest respect to people on message boards. Thats their opinion. We think it is good business for us. Overall, you look at Louis and everybody believes he is a really, really good player. He has had one or two injury issues but it is difficult to find top-line strikers. And Louis is a top-line striker. To have people like that in our squad will be really important for us. - Kevin Bond, Spurs assistant manager, January 2012.
Saha was signed up to a six-month contract, and to his credit, he scored three goals in just ten appearances for the White Hart Lane outfit, although they failed to capitalise on a ten-point margin over their bitter north London rivals and slipped out of the Champions League places.
Recent Journalism & New Media graduate. Insatiable thirst for all things football, and hopes to break into the field of sports journalism in the near future.
Have made a significantly insignificant playing career out of receiving several slaps around the head for not passing the ball.
