Home Football Manchester United legend Gary Neville admits he was afraid of Louis Saha

Manchester United legend Gary Neville admits he was afraid of Louis Saha

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Gary Neville has admitted that he wanted Manchester United to sign Louis Saha after he was ‘destroyed’ by the forward for years.

The Red Devils secured Saha’s signature in a deal worth £12.8million from Fulham back in 2004 but the former France international became injury prone in the course of his five-year stay at the Theatre of Dreams.

Neville has even gone as far to say that the impact Saha had on him was similar to Cristiano Ronaldo’s impressive display for Sporting Lisbon in a pre-season friendly which sealed the Portugal captain’s transfer to Old Trafford in 2003.

“What a player, I thought. After the match I remember sending a text to my brother, saying ‘we need to sign him’ and apparently there was a lot of talk about on the coach after the game,” Neville told Sky Sports about Ronaldo.

“Obviously players should never be involved in signings, but he certainly made everyone sit up and take notice.

“I’d never heard of him and I’d never seen him before that night, but there was a huge excitement among the players afterwards.”

Neville has even revealed that he was equally overwhelmed by Saha’s performances against him.

“The only other opposition player I’ve felt like that about was Louis Saha,” said the former United star.

“I remember playing against him as a centre-back when he was at Fulham and he destroyed me three seasons on the bounce.

“I was devastated when I had to play against him and I thought ‘we’ve got to sign him’.

“He was clearly a different type of player to Cristiano, but we spoke about him in the dressing room in the same way.

“After that game against Sporting Lisbon, there was a great admiration and there were no doubt the players were all talking about Cristiano.”

By Drew Darbyshire (@DarbySports)

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