robbie savage - c/d

I follow the crowd on this one, I despise him, and no I wouldn't have him in my team

Ponderous oaf.

depends on what team it is, no? for birmingham and wales he's been tres useful. if he was english, i certainly wouldn't have him in my international team/squad fo sho.

he's an engine. might put him on my fantasy football team.

Everytime Robbie S has played for thinks he's great. Everyone he's played against thinks exactly the opposite. Which says whilst he might not be the grebtest player, he's utterly valuable to those teams, which means he's a classic. He's certainly the ,ost classic player to be a cross between an Afghan hound and Robbie from Eastenders.

It's that old "You'd love to have him on your team" crap, isn't it? As an Italian, I've never forgiven him for that Maldini incident.

but it was funny dom!

not every team would love to have him - he's not good enough for arsenal or whatever - but he's always played at middling clubs, who have done better than expected (leicester and birmingham) and he's been a key part of this, so props.

He's good at what he does, I suppose. Armani tattoo though...

i can't believe he is effectively turning down the chance to play against England, having missed the tie in Manchester.

Maybe he really thinks he wouldn't get the chance. I'm still surprised though, if entirely uncaring.

According to Toshack he called Savage to tell him he wasn't in the squad for the Austria game and Savage promptly said "I'm retiring anyway" and hung up. Seems he's thrown his toys out of the pram because Toshack dared to think he could have a better midfield without Savage in it.

On a more general note: the recent trend of retiring from International duty at 30 pisses me off. Multi-millionaires turning their backs on the chance to play in a World Cup in the hope of lasting a wee bit longer in the game and making an extra few £££s just pisses me off. Pure greed.

Dud.

was toshack letting a personal dislike of savage cloud his judgement?

savage is not the best player in the world, but i think he *definitely* merits a squad place for wales. was toshack fishing for a retirement announcement?

They claimed to have sorted out their differences but in Toshack's place I imagine it would be difficult to forget that one of your senior pros was outspoken in his opposition to your appointment.

I think Toshack had decided to stick with Robinson and Fletcher to see how it developed, that being the case it may well be that he was doing Savage a favour by not making him travel to a game he wouldn't play in.

Yet another example of what's wrong with football now. A mediocre journeyman earning far too much money who thinks he's bigger than his national team.

But I have a bit of time for Savage too - he must have had some fight, some passion once. Rejected by Man U, he started again at Crewe and got himself into the premiership and built a career. That's to be commended. I can even appreciate his relatively skill-free, but battling, ball-winning play, which is invaluable if the likes of Leicster, Brum and Blackburn are to have much of a chance against better teams.

But the money and fame make him think he's actually *worth* something, as opposed to being bloody fortunate. The money and privileges ought to make him try and fight for his place in the Wales team and prove Toshack wrong. Show Toshack (and us) that there's something of substance there - roll his sleeves up and play the best football of his career. But no - give these guys endless money, fame and attention, give them *agents* with access to the media and they think they're somebody special. They actually begin to believe the hype and that's sad.

Good on Tosh for kicking him out of the squad.

but isn't savage already playing good enough football to prove toshack wrong? granted, he's no better than average, but is his current level of form worse than wales' other midfielders? (is he really having a worse season than koumas, for instance?)

i think toshack may have let a personal dislike cloud his judgement.

I think Toshack disliked what Savage said abt his appointment. also apparently when Savage joined up with the first Toshack squad (I think he was injured, but still invited along) he did nothing but whinge. So Toshack feels he can't work with him - probably a good call.

I don't mean to credit Savage with any intellignece, but it looks like an attempt to start an anti-Toshack campaign.

I wish John Toshack would come and see me and talk about himself for twenty minutes. I expect most people would like that, especially footballers. They like listening to people with experience.

He does seem to have a very acute victim mentality, this Savage.

Surely people earn more £££s by being in the international spotlight? Like what Owen does with his Persil adverts.

yeah, i don't understand how playing a few games for your national team can shorten your career!! It's not as if Wales play 2 games every week or something.

Now if/when wales don't qualify for the world cup people will start blaming the manager, plus the importance of savage's absence would be elevated sky high, and thus making him feel important. Double winner in Robbie's books.

Savage claims some of the remaining players are unhappy with the new Wales manager's methods.

"We had fried bananas to start the meals, which no-one's ever heard of. There were no carbohydrates before the game," Savage said.

More:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/4353101.stm

(I was right, then.)

in general, and not just for this, he is a world class dud. in this particular instance, more so.

Haven't bananas got carbohydrates?

I thought they were good for energy.

there certainly are carbohydrates in bananas

Thank you, Ken!

He is a charlie, isn't he?

oh he is, big time.

Maybe he was being sarcastic when he said that thing about carbohydrates.

Possibly. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt.

According to his book, Roy Keane was incensed that the Irish players were eating cheese sandwiches before training. He stormed off to his hotel room.

And ordered pizza.

Maybe he was being sarcastic.

there certainly are carbohydrates in pizzas