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Robbie Savage

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Personal information
Robbie Savage
Full name	Robert William Savage
Date of birth	October 18 1974 (1974-10-18) (age 33)
Place of birth	Wrexham, Wales
Height	1.81 m
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Blackburn Rovers
Number	8
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1993–1994 1994–1997 1997–2002 2002–2005 2005–	Manchester United Crewe Alexandra Leicester City Birmingham City Blackburn Rovers	000 0(0) 077 (10) 172 0(8) 082 (11) 076 0(1)
National team²
1995–2004	Wales	039 0(2)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 21:26, 28 December 2007 (UTC). ² National team caps and goals correct as of 28 June 06. * Appearances (Goals)

For the English footballer of the same name who was born in 1960, see Robert James Savage

Robbie Savage (born October 18 1974) is a professional footballer. He currently plays for Blackburn Rovers, and formerly played for the Welsh national team. He has 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.

1 Biography
2 References
3 External links

Biography

Born in Wrexham, Savage attended Ysgol Bryn Alyn.

Early career

Savage started his playing career as a trainee at Manchester United, but was released and moved to Crewe Alexandra's Academy, learning his craft under Dario Gradi.

Leicester City

Savage was transferred to Leicester City F.C. 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 as if he'd been shot. 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.

Birmingham City

When Leicester were relegated from the Premiership at the end of the 2001–02 season he transferred to Birmingham City, who had just been promoted.^[1] At the beginning of January 2005 he submitted a written request for a transfer, allegedly wishing to be nearer his ailing parents in Wrexham. On January 19 Savage completed his move to Blackburn.^[2]

Blackburn Rovers

After weeks of acrimony and stress for all involved, he finally moved to Blackburn Rovers for £3m in January 2005. His first five months as a Blackburn player proved a success, if not a little controversial. He made 13 appearances in the blue and white of Rovers, gaining 5 yellow cards. However, he called an end to his international career in March 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. But on the domestic front, he was a regular performer for Blackburn, making 42 appearances and scoring once. The 2006/07 campaign was another successful one for Savage, but it was cut short by a broken leg in January, which kept him out for the rest of the season. During the 2007/2008 season, Savage endured further problems with his knee suffering a knock in the 2-1 win at Spurs after being caught by Robbie Keane. A scan confirmed the clubs worst fears, resulting in surgery keeping him out of the starting lineup for 6 weeks. Following the return of Steven Reid to the Rovers starting lineup and some good form by David Dunn, he has found it harder to get into the starting 11. During December 2007, Savage was linked with a move to Sunderland, with Roy Keane wanting to add some experience to his squad. Mark Hughes has however refuted the interest. But whether anything will happen in the transfer window is yet to be seen.

International career

Savage retired from international football in September 2005 having attained 39 caps, saying he wished to concentrate on his club career [1]. However, many people believe the reason he quit was due to a spat with Wales manager John Toshack. On March 6 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

His style as a midfield player is all action and energetic, and he regularly collects yellow cards, and holds the unwanted distinction of being awarded the most yellow cards in his career of any premiership player in the league's history.^[3] 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 sections of the support of each team he has played for. Aside from his hasty challenges, pundits generally consider Savage as one of the Premier League's best technical midfield players of the 2000's, combining excellent vision, ball control and passing ability. 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 sending-off of Savage seemed a harsh decision. Savage was ridiculed for threatening to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights over the decision. His impressive statistic of never being sent off in a Premiership match ended on March 18, 2006 when he was dismissed against Middlesbrough F.C. for two bookable offences. Both were seen as debatable - 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 gotten away with debatable 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. In a strange twist during a match against Newcastle United a few seasons ago, whilst Savage was running just behind the referee Matt Messias, Messias accidentally swung his arm out and hit Savage in the face. Savage went down to the floor holding his face and Messias called a halt to the game. Messias looked down to see if Savage was okay, then Newcastle striker Alan Shearer promptly pulled the red card out of Messias pocket and showed it the referee, jokingly. 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. The incident has been shown many times on Soccer AM in addition to many other times when Savage has been 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.