Lilly Savage Retires From International Football

[stanaccrington]

"I'm not Pele or Maradona," said Robbie Savage, who has not said anything so sensible either before or since. Loathe him or really loathe him, he has certainly given us plenty of entertainment...

Robbie: The Family Man
Poor Robbie was 'used as a punchbag' this season at Birmingham, who completely unreasonably took umbrage after he requested a transfer just six months after signing a new, long-term, much-improved contract at St Andrew's, where of course he wanted to end his career because he'd never been happier blah blah blah. His reason? He needed to be nearer his sick parents in Wrexham. Except, of course, that Blackburn's no closer to Wrexham than Birmingham.
When everyone twigged this, he then said that his new house would be closer (did anyone not ask 'why don't you just move house, then?') and then completely buggered it all up by turning down Everton, which genuinely is quite close to Wrexham.

If he'd have just said in the first place 'I'd like to join Blackburn because they're offering me more money and I really, really like Mark Hughes - he's cool' we might have had more respect.

Robbie: The Patriotic Welshman
"There's no better feeling than pulling the Welsh shirt on," apparently. Which is presumably why our hero has announced his retirement from international football. In true Andy Cole fashion, this announcement was made just minutes after he was told he wasn't actually in the Welsh squad.
Toshack has explained that he called Savage with the news that he wanted to go for youth in the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers: "I told him I wanted to have a look at something else. He said he was retiring anyway and the line went dead."

(Can I take this opportunity to say to everyone who has ever dumped me, 'I was going to finish with you anyway. Oh and you were a shambles and I still can't believe you tried to make me put bolognese sauce on my salmon'.)
Robbie v Souey
Now that's a fight we'd like to see end in a bloody draw.
Back in October - back when Robbie was devoted to Birmingham - Newcastle and the Blues played out a 2-2 draw at St Andrews and Savage came off the pitch talking about how 's***' Newcastle were, which at the time could probably be filed under the heading of 'fair comment'.

But Souness apparently overheard, took umbrage and pointed out Savage's own history at 's*** clubs'. Savage goaded Souness by saying he was only fifth-choice Toon manager, to which he replied: "Oh yeah Robbie, you are such a good player."

What happened next was that Savage lost his mind and said: "I'm a better player than you were." The answer? "You have the trophies and medals to back that up, do you Robbie?"

At this point Souness presumably got out his medals from five league titles, three European Cups and four League Cups. Which is roughly five league titles, three European Cups and three League Cups more than Savage who, as we know, is not Pele or Maradona.