What's up with this. Although he describes RVN's game correctly his comments sound harsh. Could he have been misquoted? http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/3585049.stm "Ruud doesn't take much of a part in the team's collective play. His game is all about finishing." huh? he's a pure striker; I thought that's what he's paid to do.
I read this and was also wondering if maybe he was mis-quoted. Why would you say something like this about your teammate to the press. Weren't their rumors that some United players (maybe Keane) questioned whether Saha was really hurt prior to the match against Porto? Could this be some kind of backlash from that? I'm not looking for a windup but really asking.
Well, everything that is said in the article is true so Ruuuuuuud can only be so pissed regardless of the source. If Saha *did* say these things, I think Al made a huge mistake in buying a player without respect.
Now that I re-read the piece, I think it was spun by the writer and Saha didn't make these comments in a critical way. Besides, as Toga said, it's all true.
Saha is with the French squad at the moment so Henry is his team-mate and RVN an opponent (Holland v France). You`ll find on Friday he`ll be saying how Ruud is better than Henry. Typical footballers double-speak.
As good a player Saha is I think he is nothing more than a whinny little bitch. He acted completely unprofesional during the Fulham-ManU transfer and showed no loyalty to the team that made him a star. Now he slanders a fellow teamate publicly and praises a player on the team he is playing on the eve of ManU's only signifigant game left in the season? I would hardly call that motivating your team. If I was ManU I would sell that scum bucket first chance I got, there are many a fine striker in the world that would love to play in Manchester..Saha is an expendable comodity. It doesn't matter if what he said is true or not, you never critisize your teamates publicly..ever! Thats the job of the gaffer.
Like when he said, after his worst game ever for Fulham, during the transfer mess that he bad performance "might not of been an accident." somethings just don't translate well from French to English I guess
If Saha is making these comments in English, he may need to improve his skills. As for Ruud, he always has a classy response: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=295838&cc=5901
Even though what Saha said was true, the bottomline is that you should never criticize your teammate or claims that your teammate is not as good as your opponent. Saha's comments make me feel that he thinks the French national team is more important than Man Utd. If that's what he thinks, then he has NO FUTURE at Man Utd!
I have to hope that what he said was taken out of context. If it is due to language barriers, well then Saha needs some better tutors/translators. Needless to say I wouldn't bee surprised if in a couple of days Saha changes his statement. Seems the pretty typical thing to do when you badly stick your foot in your mouth.
Gotta agree with Onionsack, Achtung, and bigtoga on this one. No class from Saha on this one, and of course since he's cup-tied on Saturday, Ruud is the one that will be picking up all of the slack against Arsenal. Saha's having a good season, but I'm still very skeptical. We'll see if his form continues. If not...comments like this certainly won't win the Man Utd faithful, and starting for us seems to be the only chance he has of making Satini's squad.
Surely, Saha is smarter than that. I'm willing to bet the reporter simply asked him to comment on Ruud, and he gave a simple analysis of the kind of player he is. Either the translation wasn't so hot, the reporter was spinning it for a story, or a little bit of both.
Just heard Saha denying it on Sky Sports News, can't remember exactly what he said, but just that it wasn't true.
All it says is that Ruud doesn't take shots from far out (true) and he doesn't exactlly 'continue' play (ie he is not a playmaker), IMHO this is much spun out of proportion and there was no 'blasting' going on anyways. thanks
I agree that there is nothing really critical being said, but if such comments were made the timing as has been noted is really poor. To repeat what another person said, for him to say that at a time like this he must really really be very stupid. I have to believe that is not true (being the optimist) and since he has come out and denied it I will give him the benefit of the doubt... the situation is too perfect... we are playing Arsenal, Saha is teammates with both Ruud and Henry (for France) and Saha is not playing in the match... It is the kind of story you would dream of as a reporter (did some of that myself - um reporting, not cooking up stories... lol)
I agree with you. Team including Arsenal and United are known to use the media to unsettle the other side before big games like this. And I think this is an attempt to disrupt the United camp. I mean, this is right before the FA Cup clash with Arsenal. Even if Saha feels that Henry is a better player than Ruud (which is possibly true), why would he choose this worst possible time to say it?
Ruud himself has this to say: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thierry is the complete striker and Arsenal's key man," van Nistelrooy added. "I say that about him because he is an incredible athlete, which allows him to be everywhere on the field. Thierry is not a typical No. 9, in that he takes the penalties, corners and free-kicks yet still scores so many goals. "In other words, this is the complete striker for the modern game and you admire that." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Which I think goes to show that other differences between the two is that Ruud is level-headed, reasonable, appreciates and respects his opponents and has humility
Seriously people, how long have we all been reading stories like this in the media? A player would have to be beyond daft to truely say things in the way the story makes it out to be. To come out to a reporter and rip on one of your new teammates like that? Why the h*ll would anyone do that? Come on people. If you didn't get all worked up over this type of media hogwash, they'd stop printing it!