As Coleman said after tonights 3-1 loss to Newcastle, Saha was sold because of business reasons. Specifically, he said (though not quoted on the FFC site), We are going back to Craven Cottage and that is going to cost a lot of money.
Hes not referring to the rudimentary redevelopment, but to the fact that Fayed had already pre-sold our ground for £50m to property developers, and like the pawn trade that football has become, needed to pay over the odds to get back what was once 100% ours – well 100% owned by Fayed and his offshore companies.
Having accepted a £15m down payment in 2002 on the total, Fayed needs to pay that back before the deadline (September 30 2004) at 12% annual interest (about £18.6m). Thats because having tried and failed to buy another site on which to build a ground, Fayed cannot now sell Craven Cottage to build luxury flats as he had planned behind everybodys back (he was still saying going back to the Cottage is the ultimate aim when hes already agreed to sell it).
Full story from an article on January 15 (prior to the Saha sale being confirmed, but was prescient) from the Independent, which concludes:
Fulham are going home, and on top of £5m for the required, Premiership-standard ground improvements, Fayed, already in for £100m, will somehow have to find £18.6m to repay Fulham River Projects. All of which surely points to a desperate need for money again this summer. That, in turn, makes it almost guaranteed that behind the poker face the club know that they will be kicking off at Craven Cottage next season having sold Louis Saha.