Robbie Savage

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Robbie Savage
RobbieSavage01.JPG
Savage (2008)
Personnel
Surname Robert William Savage
birthday October 18, 1974
place of birth Wrexham ,  Wales
position midfield
Juniors
Years station
Llay United
Bradley Youth
Crewe Alexandra
1988-1993 Manchester United
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1993-1994 Manchester United 0 0(0)
1994-1997 Crewe Alexandra 77 (10)
1997-2002 Leicester City 172 0(8)
2002-2005 Birmingham City 82 (11)
2005-2008 Blackburn Rovers 76 0(1)
2008-2011 Derby County 124 0(7)
2008 →  Brighton & Hove Albion  (loan) 6 0(0)
2019– Stockport Town
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1995 Wales U-21 5 0(1)
1995-2004 Wales 39 0(2)
1 Only league games are given.
As of November 25, 2019

Robert William "Robbie" Savage (born October 18, 1974 in Wrexham ) is a Welsh football player . Mostly used in midfield , the 39-time Welsh international trained at Manchester United spent his best athletic time at Leicester City in the five years between 1997 and 2002 , where he won the League Cup in 2000 . After further positions in Birmingham (2002-2005) and Blackburn (2005-2008), Derby County was Savages' last employer between 2008 and 2011. Both his style of play and his behavior off the pitch have often been a source of controversy. While he was generally very popular with his current fans due to his fighting commitment, parts of the media and opponents accused him of often acting unfairly and trying to provoke red cards and penalties with theatrical gestures.

Career

Adolescence

Born in Wrexham, Welsh, Robbie Savage was a talented footballer early on in school sports, playing on a fourth grader team as a second grader. The first stops in club football were Llay United and Bradley Youth. He set - initially as a striker - at the age of eleven with 74 goals in 28 games for Llay United, a new record in the region. The Bradley youth team was occasionally coached by his father and when he was 13 years old he was offered to attend the youth academy of the English club Crewe Alexandra .

Savage accepted, but it wasn't long before Manchester United caught on with one of the year's greatest Welsh talents. In June 1988, those in charge of the United's youth department invited him to a trial training session, and later (six days before his 14th birthday) Savage signed his first training contract. His first coaching mentors in Manchester included former professional players Nobby Stiles and Brian Kidd and he won the 1992 FA Youth Cup alongside players such as David Beckham , Ryan Giggs , Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt .

Professional career

Manchester United (1993-1994)

The leap into the adult division of Manchester United was withheld from him and in the season after the end of training in 1993 he was always disregarded in the first eleven. Coach Alex Ferguson finally revealed to him that he already had better strikers and therefore suggested a club change. Another misfortune followed when Savage had a serious car accident immediately after the disappointing decision and had to be hospitalized. There, Dario Gradi reported from the ex-club and Crewe Alexandra, who had just been promoted to the third division, which in turn led to a contractual agreement in July 1994.

Crewe Alexandra (1994-1997)

In his first professional season 1994/95 Savage played six third division games and scored two goals, which was comparatively few, as he was already more often in the Welsh U-21 selection and in the focus of the A team . The decisive impetus was then provided by the fact that he was withdrawn from the forward position into midfield in the 1995/96 season, which made his strengths more effective when it came to speeding up with the ball. At the same time he kept his scoring danger and contributed seven league goals in 30 games. The greatest success in the three years in the service of Crewe Alexandra was for Savage in 1998 the promotion to the second-class First Division , which enabled the club to participate in the second division for the first time in 101 years.

Leicester City (1997-2002)
Robbie Savage (pictured right) for Leicester City in the 1997/98 season.

In July 1997, Savage moved to Leicester City in the Premier League for £ 400,000 . There the "right foot" often sat on the bench before he recommended himself with good performances for the first team from coach Martin O'Neill and, in addition to the right midfield, increasingly played the role of the attacking right full-back as a so-called "wingback". The final breakthrough in the English elite class achieved Savage at the latest in the 1998/99 season, where he made headlines in addition to the sporting merits increasingly on and off the field. His unsportsmanlike behavior in the league cup final against Justin Edinburgh from Tottenham Hotspur was interpreted particularly negatively , when he successfully provoked a red card despite only minimal contact . Although he was then massively attacked by opponents himself, he showed a good performance overall, but that did not prevent the 0-1 defeat.

Just a year later came the opportunity for revenge, as Savage moved into the league cup final again with Leicester City in 2000. There the "Foxes" won against the outsider Tranmere Rovers 2-1. He had previously provided the decisive cross for Matt Elliott's 1-0 winner in the semifinals against Aston Villa and during the championship round he was one of the few top performers left in the team that had been decimated by injuries. Meanwhile, Savage had earned the status of a "cult figure" with the annex of Leicester City and after the departure of Neil Lennon his status within the team continued to gain importance, which was expressed in the fact that he was now more often than before in the opposing penalty area . Cartilage damage caused a short break, but to the great surprise the break after the surgery only lasted 17 days. With the sporting decline of Leicester City in the 2001/02 season, Savage's time there came to an end. The club ended up in last place in the Premier League and the form of the Welshman, who had temporarily taken over the captaincy, mostly adapted to the weak level. For 2.5 million pounds he moved to Birmingham City in late May 2002 , which in turn had only just advanced to the top English division.

Birmingham City (2002-2005)

In midfield, Savage was immediately a regular for the "Blues" and a role model for his opponents in terms of commitment and speed. He was rarely unsettled by the occasionally exaggerated harshness of his opponents, led the newly promoted team to secure relegation in the 2002/03 season and won the club's internal player of the year award. As a pass and pacemaker of the build-up game in Birmingham, he was in his second year, despite initial reservations, now the audience's favorite, although his high number of warning cards clouded the positive impression a little. After a good start to the 2004/05 season, the working atmosphere between Savage and the management of Birmingham City suddenly deteriorated. Savage asked in January 2005 to be allowed to change clubs, whereupon he was removed from the squad for the following game against Bolton Wanderers and demoted to the reserve team. Regardless of this, Savage finally won the power struggle and was allowed to sign a new contract with league rivals Blackburn Rovers in the winter transfer period on January 19, 2005 for a transfer fee of 3.1 million pounds .

Blackburn Rovers (2005-2008)

The second half of the 2004/05 season was disappointing for Savage at the new employer. At the beginning he had injured his groin, could no longer work his way back to the usual fitness level and was on the field in only nine league games. Also in the following season 2005/06 Blackburn was not convinced which role he should play in the team of his coach and compatriot Mark Hughes and after further weak performances Savage found himself temporarily on the bench. Throughout this crisis, his combative attitude helped him again, whereby a characteristic of his game was the peculiarity of persistently pursuing the respective opponent and possibly "chasing" him over long stretches of the field. The best performance in Blackburn was shown by Savage at the beginning of the 2006/07 season, when he shaped the offensive pressing of his team with his style of play and scored goals in the UEFA Cup against Wisła Krakow and Red Bull Salzburg . With his broken leg from the game against Watford FC in January 2007, the round ended prematurely for him. Fears of his full recovery received further nourishment shortly after the start of the 2007/08 season when he had to leave the field after 17 minutes after a duel with Richard Dunne . By the end of October 2007 he then lost his regular place to the South African Aaron Mokoena and believing that Savage could no longer build on his fast-paced game, he was allowed to move on to Derby County , which was down at the top of the first division, at the beginning of January 2008 for 1.5 million pounds .

Derby County (2008-2011)
Robbie Savage in Derby County dress (2007/08 season).

Coach Paul Jewell immediately named Savage captain because he wanted to send a positive message by choosing an "extroverted personality". The relegation had already developed into a "mission imposible" and at the end of March 2008 the relegation was sealed early. Savage had made his initially weaker performances so thoughtful that he donated part of the salary to charitable purposes of the association. Once in the Football League Championship , Savage fell out of favor with Jewell after a 1-0 home defeat by Southampton FC - as did some teammates - and in October 2008 he was even deported for a month on loan to third division club Brighton & Hove Albion ". It was only when Nigel Clough succeeded Jewell as coach in January 2009 that Savage returned to the team, building on his experience. When it came time to save Derby County from falling into the third division, the rejuvenated Savage was again a key element. In August 2009, Savage took over the captaincy from Paul Connolly . He missed only one competitive game during the entire 2009/10 season (due to a suspension) and ensured with his level-headed passing game that the team consolidated in the secured midfield of the league . For his achievements, he also won the club's internal election for the best player of the past season. With just one win in the first seven league games of the 2010/11 season , the shapelessly acting Savage immediately got into a sporting crisis again. The end of his time in Derby was now looming and after some thought games regarding a change to the North American Major League Soccer to the Vancouver Whitecaps , he preferred to end his footballing career completely after the end of the season. This decision was shaped by his professional reorientation towards the media as a future radio and television expert. In November 2019 he made his comeback at Stockport Town , which played in the ten-tier North West Counties Football League Division One South .

Welsh national team

Between 1995 and 2004 Savage made 39 full international appearances for Wales , in which he scored two goals. He made his debut on November 15, 1995 under coach Bobby Gould in the European Championship qualification against Albania in Tirana (1: 1). He was used as a substitute for Mark Bowen from the 21st minute. Although he only acted in the third highest English league at that time, further appearances from the bench followed and in his fifth international match on May 27, 1997 against Scotland (1-0) he was in the starting line-up for the first time. Almost three months later he scored his first goal for Wales - meanwhile under contract with Leicester City in the Premier League - when the “Dragons” lost 4-6 in a spectacular qualifying match in Turkey . Similar to club football, Savage was occasionally a source of controversy in the national team. In September 1998, his dispute with coach Gould in the run-up to the game against Italy attracted media attention when he jokingly threw away a Paolo Maldini jersey during an interview , which in turn led Gould to reprimand Savage for disrespect in the early hours of the morning and to be temporarily suspended - but this was lifted after the advocacy of his teammates.

He was denied participation in a world or European championship final because Wales - although under Gould's successor Mark Hughes between 1999 and 2004 a significant sporting development was recorded - always failed in the qualifying rounds. He came closest to his goal in 2003, when Wales were promising in qualifying for Euro 2004 , but then failed in November in the play-offs to Russia . When Hughes was replaced by John Toshack shortly after his 39th international match against Poland (2: 3) on October 13, 2004 , Savage's national team career ended. Before he took office, Toshack had always been one of Robbie Savage's greatest critics. He later publicly accused him of putting character aspects in the foreground instead of footballing qualities and that Toshack was afraid that his teammates would be too influenced by him.

Title / Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b "Robbie Savage: Footballer Robbie is no stranger to controversy." (BBC Sport)
  2. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1995-1996 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1995, ISBN 978-0-09-180854-9 , pp. 187 .
  3. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1996-1997 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1996, ISBN 978-1-85291-571-1 , pp. 216 .
  4. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1997-1998 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1997, ISBN 978-1-85291-581-0 , pp. 241 .
  5. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1998-1999 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1998, ISBN 978-1-85291-588-9 , pp. 267 .
  6. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1999-2000 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1999, ISBN 978-1-85291-607-7 , pp. 265 .
  7. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 2000-2001 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2000, ISBN 978-1-85291-626-8 , pp. 282 .
  8. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 2001-2002 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2001, ISBN 978-0-946531-34-9 , pp. 269 .
  9. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2002/2003 . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2002, ISBN 978-1-85291-648-0 , pp. 366 .
  10. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2003/2004 . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2003, ISBN 978-1-85291-651-0 , pp. 376 .
  11. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2004/2005 . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2004, ISBN 978-1-85291-660-2 , pp. 362 .
  12. ↑ a b Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2005/2006 . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2005, ISBN 978-1-85291-662-6 , pp. 363 .
  13. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2006–2007 . Mainstream Publishing, 2006, ISBN 978-1-84596-111-4 , pp. 361 f .
  14. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2007-2008 . Mainstream Publishing, 2007, ISBN 978-1-84596-246-3 , pp. 363 .
  15. ↑ a b Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2008–2009 . Mainstream Publishing, 2008, ISBN 978-1-84596-324-8 , pp. 369 .
  16. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2009-2010 . Mainstream Publishing, 2009, ISBN 978-1-84596-474-0 , pp. 368 .
  17. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2010–2011 . Mainstream Publishing, 2010, ISBN 978-1-84596-601-0 , pp. 368 f .
  18. ↑ "Derby's Robbie Savage turns down MLS move to Vancouver" (BBC Sport)
  19. ↑ bbc.com: Robbie Savage signs for Stockport Town in 10th tier (November 24, 2019) , accessed November 25, 2019
  20. ^ "Wales - International Results 1990–1999 - Details" (RSSSF)
  21. ^ "Gould: Robbie Savage should have shown respect" (Wales Online)
  22. ↑ "Savage's fresh Toshack criticism" (BBC Sport)
personal data
SURNAME Savage, Robbie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Savage, Robert William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION welsh football player
DATE OF BIRTH October 18, 1974
PLACE OF BIRTH Wrexham