Robbie Savage

For other people named Robert Savage, see Robert Savage (disambiguation).

Robbie Savage

Personal information
Full name	Robert William Savage
Height	1.82 m (5 ft 11+1⁄2 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Team information
Current team	Derby County
Number	8
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 09:41, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Robert William "Robbie" Savage (born 18 October 1974) is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder. He currently plays for Derby County, and formerly played for the Welsh national team.

He gained notoriety for his playing style; in particular, his close-at-the-heels defending tends to wind up opponents, and he is frequently singled out by opposition fans for invective.

Savage is married to Sarah; the couple have two sons.

Early years

Born in Wrexham, Savage attended Ysgol Bryn Alyn, Gwersyllt until he completed his GCSE studies in July 1991. On leaving school, Savage joined Manchester United as an apprentice.

Club career

Early career

Savage started his playing career as a trainee at Manchester United. He played in the FA Youth Cup winning team of 1992, and was later given a professional contract, but never played a first team game for the club and signed for Crewe Alexandra in 1994.

He proved himself as a highly competent young player at Crewe, helping them reach the Division Two playoffs in his first two seasons at the club (a remarkable feat for a newly-promoted club who had only played at this level twice in the previous 30 years) until they made it third time lucky and sealed promotion via the playoffs in 1997. It was the first time that Crewe had reached the second tier of the English football pyramid, but shortly after helping Crewe win promotion, Savage handed in a transfer request to manager Dario Gradi.

Leicester City

Savage was transferred to Premier League side Leicester City, managed by Martin O'Neill, in July 1997. Savage spent five years at Leicester, where he made his name as a reliable, competitive and fiery midfielder. In 1999, Leicester reached the League Cup final against Tottenham Hotspur. In a controversial incident, Savage made a poor tackle on Tottenham's Justin Edinburgh who retaliated by swinging his arm out. Contact was minimal, but Savage fell to the ground. Edinburgh was sent off for raising his arms, and although Tottenham went on to win the final, many Spurs fans still hold a grudge against Savage for the incident to this day. However, a year later Savage reached the League Cup final again, this time winning 2-1 against Tranmere Rovers. The cup win is Savage's first and only winners medal to date.

Savage playing against Barnsley in 1997-98, his first ever season with Leicester.

Birmingham City

When Leicester were relegated from the Premiership at the end of the 2001–02 season he transferred to newly-promoted Birmingham City for a fee of £1,250,000, signing a three-year contract. At the beginning of January 2005 he submitted a written request for a transfer, allegedly wishing to be nearer his ailing parents in Wrexham, and on 19 January he completed a move to Blackburn Rovers for a fee of £3 million.

Blackburn Rovers

His first five months as a Blackburn player proved a success, making 13 appearances and gaining 5 yellow cards.

In March, Savage called an end to his international career after new manager John Toshack dropped him for a World Cup 2006 qualifying game against Austria. His feud with Toshack and the Welsh FA continued long into the 05/06 season as insisted he retired from international football only because Toshack told him he wasn't good enough to play for Wales.

In 2005-06, Savage was a regular performer for Blackburn, making 42 appearances and scoring once. The 2006-07 campaign was another success, but it was cut short by a broken leg in January, which kept him out for the rest of the season.

During the 2007-08 season, Savage endured further problems with his knee, suffering a knock in the 2-1 win at Spurs after being caught by Robbie Keane. Surgery was required which kept him out of the starting lineup for six weeks. Following the return of Steven Reid to the Rovers starting lineup and some good form by David Dunn, he found it harder to get into the starting 11.Robbie was well liked by the Blackburn fans and was given a standing ovation by a near capacity ground by the Rovers fans when he reterned with Derby.

Derby County

On 9 January 2008 Savage joined Derby County for a fee of £1.5 million on a two-and-a-half year contract. As the number 8 shirt, which he had worn at previous clubs, was already allocated to captain Matthew Oakley, he took the number 44 shirt because the numbers add up to 8. He skippered the Derby side in his first match, a 1–0 home defeat to Wigan Athletic. Savage's arrival, however, could not prevent his first season at the club from ending in relegation.

Rumours of Savage leaving Derby came in July 2008 when he was left out of two pre-season matches. In August, Leicester City chairman Milan Mandaric declared an interest in Savage, which was dismissed by Derby.

Brighton & Hove Albion

On 1 October 2008, Savage joined Brighton & Hove Albion on an initial one-month loan. It was the first time in his career to have signed for a club on a loan deal. Savage left Brighton on 29 October 2008, after his time at the Withdean was cut short.

International career

Savage retired from international football in September 2005 having attained 39 caps, saying he wished to concentrate on his club career. However, many people believe the reason he quit was due to a spat with Wales manager John Toshack. On 6 March 2006, he appeared on Welsh radio, partaking in a debate with pundit Leighton James over his exclusion from the Welsh squad. Early in his international career he clashed with former Wales Manager Bobby Gould when he jokingly threw a replica of Paolo Maldini's shirt into a disposal bin before a match against Italy. Savage was initially dropped by Gould from the squad only to be reinstated the next day.

Style of play

Savage's style as a midfield player is all-action and energetic, and he regularly collects yellow cards, holding the dubious distinction of being awarded the most yellow cards in his career of any Premiership player in the league's history. He tends to be disliked by most opposition and neutral fans, and is arguably the pantomime villain in the Premiership as his long blonde hair, high profile and playing style attract attention. Nevertheless, because his work rate and commitment generally seems to help his team, he has been strongly admired by many of the supporters of the teams he has played for.

He received his first-ever red card when he was sent off in Wales' World Cup qualification match against Northern Ireland in September 2004 for reacting to a foul on him by midfielder Michael Hughes. Both Hughes and Savage were sent off, but, on later review, the punishment of Savage seemed harsh to some. Savage was ridiculed for threatening to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights over the decision. His once-impressive statistic of never being sent off in a Premiership match ended on 18 March 2006 when he was dismissed against Middlesbrough F.C. for two bookable offences. Both were controversial—the first for a challenge on George Boateng where he appeared to take the ball, and the second for handball when it seemed unintentional. Savage later admitted that he was probably due a controversial sending off because he had escaped punishment for illegal challenges in the past. Savage is highly regarded by the Blackburn Rovers fans for his commitment and effort.

One famous incident of his eccentric behaviour was while he played for Leicester. In an incident to become known as "Poogate" he used the referee's toilet during a game, after being substituted, claiming he had an upset stomach. The Football Association charged him but he was not fined or banned for the misdemeanour.

Savage is also famous for an incident at Villa Park, while playing for Birmingham City. After a tackle on him by Dion Dublin, a confrontation between the two and several other players occurred before Dion Dublin headbutted Robbie Savage. Dublin was sent off by referee Mark Halsey as result.

During a match against Newcastle United some seasons ago, the referee Matt Messias swung his arm out and accidentally hit Savage in the face as Savage was running behind him. Savage went down to the floor holding his face and Messias called a halt to the game. Messias looked down to check Savage's condition, and Newcastle striker Alan Shearer pulled the red card out of Messias' pocket and showed it to the referee as a joke. Savage shortly got back up on his feet and had sustained no injuries, but fans, players and referees alike took much delight in this comical incident. It has been shown many times on Soccer AM as have many other recordings of Savage being hit in the face by the ball or an arm. One particularly memorable incident occurred at Arsenal's former ground, Highbury, when a ball kicked by Robert Pirès struck Savage in the face, to the delight and loud cheers of the home fans.

Savage has said in the future he would like to finish his career at home town club Wrexham before going on to manage them.

Career statistics

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1994-95||rowspan="3"|Crewe Alexandra||rowspan="3"|Second Division||6||2||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||6||2 |- |1995-96||32||7||1||0||3||0||colspan="2"|-||36||7 |- |1996-97||41||1||4||0||2||0||colspan="2"|-||47||1 |- |1997-98||rowspan="5"|Leicester City||rowspan="5"|Premier League||35||2||2||1||1||0||1||0||39||3 |- |1998-99||34||1||colspan="2"|-||7||0||colspan="2"|-||41||1 |- |1999-00||35||1||5||0||7||0||colspan="2"|-||47||1 |- |2000-01||33||4||4||0||colspan="2"|-||2||0||39||4 |- |2001-02||35||0||1||0||2||0||colspan="2"|-||38||0 |- |2002-03||rowspan="3"|Birmingham City||rowspan="3"|Premier League||33||4||1||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||34||4 |- |2003-04||31||3||4||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||35||3 |- |2004-05||18||4||colspan="2"|-||1||1||colspan="2"|-||19||5 |- |2004-05||rowspan="4"|Blackburn Rovers||rowspan="4"|Premier League||9||0||4||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||13||0 |- |2005-06||34||1||2||0||6||0||colspan="2"|-||42||1 |- |2006-07||21||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||6||2||27||2 |- |2007-08||12||0||colspan="2"|-||1||0||4||0||17||0 |- |2007-08||rowspan="2"|Derby County||Premier League||16||0||1||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||17||0 |- |2008-09||Championship|||||||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 3425||30||29||1||30||1||13||2||497||34 Template:Football player statistics 5425||30||29||1||30||1||13||2||497||34 |}

Honours

Leicester City

• Winner
  • League Cup: 2000
• Runner-up
  • League Cup: 1999

External links

• Robbie Savage at Soccerbase