For those Newcastle United fans who remember, Henri Saivet didn’t have the best of times at St James’ Park following his transfer from Bordeaux.
The then-forward was supposed to be the next best thing when he was signed by the Magpies, but injuries and a change of manager didn’t help his cause, which means he only ever made eight appearances in the five years he was contracted to the Premier League club.
He spent time on loan away from Newcastle at Saint-Etienne, Sivasspor and Bursaspor as well, but none of those spells helped convince the Tyneside club that he should be used.
He eventually left during the summer of 2021, when his contract ran out, and spent a year without a club before being picked up by Pau FC in Ligue 2, where he has since scored four goals in his first nine games there.
Saivet is now enjoying himself again, and has been speaking to a few French outlets about his new start and past, already doing so with L’Equipe a couple of weeks ago.
This time, it was So Foot who sat down with him and asked the midfielder about his time at Newcastle.
For Saivet, his transfer to Newcastle was one ‘at the right club, but at the wrong time’, and the arrival of Rafa Benitez didn’t help him in the slightest.
He was relegated with the club in that first season, and the player reveals that he did have a clause in his contract that would allow him to leave if that scenario happened, but the Magpies stopped him.
He said: “Things happened that I didn’t control. They blocked me so I couldn’t leave. Newcastle were asking for indecent future sale percentages. They refused a lot of offers even though I wasn’t playing. Even for my loans, I had to force an exit. Even today, it annoys me because I don’t have an answer.
“I never understood why I wasn’t integrated in the club’s project when there were other players on the pitch who, honestly, weren’t better than me.”
This all came at a time when he was having a good spell with the Senegal national team, and So Foot asked him about that, but he cut them short to reveal Newcastle’s behaviour.
He added: “They don’t respect the AFCON, it’s that simple. When I returned to Newcastle after the lost final against Algeria, they admitted they didn’t even follow my performances, even though I had two years left on my contract. It’s quite simply a lack of professionalism.”
Still, it wasn’t all bad, and he doesn’t regret the choice of going to England on a football level, describing St James’ Park as a ‘magnificent stadium’, which gave him a chance to discover football on these shores.
It also allowed him to have spells at Saint-Etienne and in Turkey, as well as bringing Bordeaux some money when they needed it.
That being said, personally, it did make him doubt himself: “It’s true that during those moments, even if the love for football makes you hold on, you ask yourself questions. I asked myself if I’d become rubbish. Despite everything I’d done, nothing good was happening. During 3-4 days, I even thought about stopping my career.”
