Savage Signs

[Hasta]

Agree with you on that score Izzi. I'd lump Palace in there aswell,

There's no way 3 of the bottom 4 clubs now will get over 35 points IMO.

[Tris]

as for the april 30th game the owners of bcfc are saying he will not be elegible to play as they want £100k for police presence cos no doubt if savage does play there will be some fans itching to get onto the pitch and give him beating

I personally want him to play cos the atmosphere will be immense, I'm not worried that he could be the deciding factor in beating us come 30th april, i am worried that fans could run on the pitch and get the club into trouble, ie points and fine

Sorry fella, your club is responsible for the conduct of your fans - especially at home. Gold can shove his 100,000 up his rear end.

Previous visits to St Andrews have been laughable. The first time we went since you got back up, there was NO police presence in the stadium at all. On asking why, we were told that this was because your club had failed to agree terms / fees with your local police force following promotion.

There was a barrier on the concourse between the home and away sections of the Railway stand, but it didn't reach the roof. At half time, you idiots were buying pints of lager for nigh on 3 quid and lobbing them over the divide!!

I think that was the same day that your lovely fans made the most disgusting attack on Dwight Yorke, with a chant about the fact that his son was blind. I lost all respect for Blues fans that day, and the ones I know (I have loads of mates from Stourbridge / Kinver) were deeply embarassed.

And then that cup game when the lights went out and we kicked off at 20 to 4. Absolutely pathetic. Your club is a joke and your owners are jokers.

What do you think about Sullivan saying he's sick of the travel and he wants to invest in West Ham or Spurs - does that make you feel proud??

Make the most of your time in the top league - as soon as Sullivan fooks off back down south, and as soon as Bruce sees an offer to tempt him to his 15th club in 4 years, you lot are going straight back to where you crept out from.

And after the events of the last few weeks, I'm not the only one who can't ******* wait.

[Izzitnot]

steve bruce is a nice man, he is very determined and down to earth, he has time to speak to you if you went up to him, infact all the coaching staff at blues are very down to earth,

I witnessed that when we played warwickshire CCC last summer

Gold and Sullivan have very high opinions of themselves but i suppose that is something to do with being very succesful businessmen and being worth around £500 million each,

wouldnt u be opinionated if u had that much money?

even though they are loaded they are very financially aware of premiership football, our wage structure is very low to other teams and we have one of the lowest wage bills in the premiership

Karen brady is a very sharp and intelligent woman, she came to BCFC with high heels and a very short mini skirt, we were losing arund £200k per month and debts of a few million, this was quite substancial over a decade ago!, 12 years on and the club made a yearly profit of £5.6 million for 1994 + £1.6 million for gronkjear and £3 million for savage

I have been informed bruce is bringing 2 more players in on a permenant basis where one will be wayne routledge [palace connection] and the other steve sidwell

one last point if i may, you say our owners have been out to look like idiots over the last few weeks, perhaps in your eyes that is the case but have u forgotten robbie savage is the most hated footballer in england, nearly every fan of every premiership club hates the man and now that includes birmingham city, the owners knew what they were doing and in the eyes of the public robbie savage is still robbie savage

if you go round the various message boards of the premiership clubs how many fans will support savage and how many will think that what he has done supports they views on why he is hated so much

end of the day it is blackburn rovers v the rest of england from now on concerning robbie savage, you should of seen how resentful the leicester fans were of savage when we played em a yr last december

Edited January 20, 2005 by Izzitnot

[Sanny]

if savage gets booed by other fans i don't care, i for one will be cheering him on

[AxesFirstTouch]

I have been informed bruce is bringing 2 more players in on a permenant basis where one will be wayne routledge [palace connection] and the other steve sidwell

palace connection?! wtf why would palace want to sell to bruce after jumping ship?!

[Eddie]

one last point if i may, you say our owners have been out to look like idiots over the last few weeks, perhaps in your eyes that is the case but have u forgotten robbie savage is the most hated footballer in england, nearly every fan of every premiership club hates the man and now that includes birmingham city, the owners knew what they were doing and in the eyes of the public robbie savage is still robbie savage

if you go round the various message boards of the premiership clubs how many fans will support savage and how many will think that what he has done supports they views on why he is hated so much

end of the day it is blackburn rovers v the rest of england from now on concerning robbie savage, you should of seen how resentful the leicester fans were of savage when we played em a yr last december

Do you really think the average football fan who doesn't support us or birmingham cares about this transfer? I don't. I certainly don't think it will have changed their opinions on Savage, he wasn't popular at first anyway, but I think he rather lives on that. If you are true though and the football world has taken notice of exactly what has gone on here and really cares, surely it is your club that has suffered more. After taking up such a strong stance and then throwing about insults I think there can be no doubt that the those at the top were behaving in an extremely unprofessional manner. Not only will other chief executives and chairman have taken note of the way that this has been handled, but supporters of other clubs I'm sure don't think much of a porn man insulting rival clubs simply because they want to buy one of his players.

The deal probably works well for both sides. I think we've just added a very good player to the team, and though I don't think you are looking like replacing him and he will be missed and that your team is now weaker, we probably paid slightly over the odds for him, but that's alright. We'll have to see how good of a deal this was after he's played for a bit.

[philipl]

Gordon Strachan on tapping up with a fleeting reference to Savage.

Izzitnot, in my experience Bruce is not nice. He is mean petty and ungracious. But then I've never been on the same side as him having seen Rovers in opposition to him from Gillingham to Birmingham.

[Duffy]

as for the april 30th game the owners of bcfc are saying he will not be elegible to play as they want £100k for police presence cos no doubt if savage does play there will be some fans itching to get onto the pitch and give him beating

I personally want him to play cos the atmosphere will be immense, I'm not worried that he could be the deciding factor in beating us come 30th april, i am worried that fans could run on the pitch and get the club into trouble, ie points and fine

It is Birmingham's responsiblility to ensure the safety of the crowd for that game, simple as, just as it would be our responsibility if the game were at Ewood. If Birmingham fans cause trouble and end up costing their own team money or points then that shows how daft they are - what would it have achieved except to further dent the image of their club?

At the end of the day there probably isn't a club in the country who hasn't lost a player they didn't want to leave - it's happened plenty to us over the years - Shearer, Hendry, Duff etc etc. Players move on, it's a fact and contracts rarely mean anything these days. At least Birmingham are in a position not to HAVE to sell in order to survive - it's a lot worse for clubs in other leagues who do. Look at Crewe for example, they've survived on bringing players up through the ranks and establishing them and then had to sell them in order to survive. At the end of the day Savage was one player of many at Birmingham - be upset for a bit, fine but don't let it spoil the game in April.

[JamieUK]

17th Jan - Izzitnot

i cant believe how much u lot hate bruce

his son plays for your club

let the football do the talking and i cant wait to play u lot in the coming months

as for yorke he cost £250k, really is pocket money for our owners who are worth around £350 million each

20th Jan - Izzitnot

Gold and Sullivan have very high opinions of themselves but i suppose that is something to do with being very succesful businessmen and being worth around £500 million each,

wouldnt u be opinionated if u had that much money?

Hehe

[brfcshabba]

Taxi for Izzitnot

[Ricky]

12 years on and the club made a yearly profit of £5.6 million for 1994 + £1.6 million for gronkjear and £3 million for savage

It was actually 1.4m that you got for gronkjaer, not that great when you paid 2.2m for him in the Summer. Also each Prem position is worth 500k, you have lost your last 3 league games if i'm not mistaken (these are games that you may have picked up points if you had played Savage). So I guess that can come out of the 3m you got for Sav. Don 't think it looks quite so Rosy then does it.

[Blackpool_Rover]

Hughes 'we have a signed a top quality premiership midfielder in Robbie Savage and he alone will ensure we get more than 2 mins at the end of match of the day'

[Yorkshire Blue]

if you go round the various message boards of the premiership clubs how many fans will support savage and how many will think that what he has done supports they views on why he is hated so much

end of the day it is blackburn rovers v the rest of england from now on concerning robbie savage, you should of seen how resentful the leicester fans were of savage when we played em a yr last december

Water off a duck's back, mate.

[T4E]

you should of seen how resentful the leicester fans were

Whereas you should HAVE paid more attention in school.

[philipl]

This is half an article which appeared on Soccernet about ten minutes ago- doesn't look like peace is breaking out just yet :

Robbie Savage today insisted he will never forgive Birmingham for the way the club treated him before his £3million move to Blackburn.

Savage said he had been deeply hurt by being made to train with the youth team and play for the reserves after he handed in a transfer request.

The 30-year-old, who was unveiled by Rovers this morning, said: 'I have gone through a lot and I think it had gone too far and had become on a personal level.

'The bottom line is that I'm 30, I'm a father and I was being made to train with the kids or on my own.

'To treat me the way they did was something I could possibly never forgive them for.

'The last couple of weeks have been horrible, I have not been eating through all the stress and worry, I have lost about 8lb.

'Birmingham have been coming out with things about me almost every day and I want to pay tribute to the way Blackburn handled this. I just kept my mouth shut for a change, I wanted to say what I felt but I couldn't.'

Savage also responded to criticism of his insistence that moving to Blackburn would make him closer to his parents in Wrexham.

'That was pretty hurtful for people to belittle me and say that Blackburn was further from Wrexham than Birmingham.

'I lived in Stratford-upon-Avon and it took me two-and-a-half hours to get to Wrexham; now I am playing for Blackburn I will find a house in the Cheshire area 35 minutes' drive from my parents.'

The Welshman admitted there had been times when he wondered if he had taken the right course of action, such was the vitriolic response from Birmingham fans.

He added: 'To put in a transfer request was perhaps a pretty bold thing to do. I'm not sure I was adored by the fans at Birmingham but I think I was respected, and there were times I was thinking if I had done the right thing, but now I'm here at Blackburn I know I have.

'Mark Hughes was my hero, I had pictures of him on my wall when I was eight and I think as a manager he is the best.

'Now I just want to prove myself to the Blackburn fans, £3million for a 30-year-old is quite a lot of money.'

[benhben]

Sav has said that the ex- rovers players at Birmingham told him it was the right move and he will love it up here. Does that mean they enjoyed Blackburn more than Blackburn? And as for who is a better club? Birmingham have only signed players who couldnt break into our first team, Johnson, Taylor, Yorke and Dunny towards the end of his rovers career. We have signed one of their most importiant players. This shows alot for the Strength of the two sides and the pulling power the clubs have.

[T4E]

Excellent response from Savage. He has handled himself well in this, particularly in the face of the bile that has come from Bruce & co. He always seemed a pretty determined character to me, there's no doubt in my mind this will make him stronger, which can only be good news for BRFC.

[den]

Savage also said on SSN, that the opportunity to link up again with Mark Bowen was important. He rates Bowen one of the best coaches in the land and can't understand why Birmingham got rid of him.

[Ricky]

Anyone know what squad number he has been given.

[Gav]

What I can't understand though is the way Bruce, Sullivan, Brady and Gold have been in the media virtually every day slagging Savage, Rovers, Bowen, Hughes and anyone else they can possibly think of. How does that help anyone? Do Birmingham fans feel better because of it? Did it mean Rovers had to pay more than they otherwise would have? Do they think they've gained the moral high ground?

The reality is that the Birmingham management have turned an already messy situation into a farce and have ended up looking completely ridiculous in the process. They've behaved like they've not had a clue what to do from the first minute we were linked to Savage, and have just thrown their toys out of the pram instead of acting professionally and doing what's best for their club.

Absolutely spot on Scotty.

What a bunch of amateurs they really are slinging mud in the sun day in day out.

Until those clowns are removed from the club they'll continue to struggle despite being a MASSIVE CLUB!

[rover6]

I can understand why the Birmingham fans are upset, I feel the same about Ferguson, and I can understand why the Brum board didn't want him to leave - especially to us after the history with Bowen.

What I can't understand though is the way Bruce, Sullivan, Brady and Gold have been in the media virtually every day slagging Savage, Rovers, Bowen, Hughes and anyone else they can possibly think of. How does that help anyone? Do Birmingham fans feel better because of it? Did it mean Rovers had to pay more than they otherwise would have? Do they think they've gained the moral high ground?

The reality is that the Birmingham management have turned an already messy situation into a farce and have ended up looking completely ridiculous in the process. They've behaved like they've not had a clue what to do from the first minute we were linked to Savage, and have just thrown their toys out of the pram instead of acting professionally and doing what's best for their club.

Messy? Farce?

Maybe but what's the bottom line? Birmingham have got an exoribitant fee for a 30 year old. I very much doubt that during the rest of the transfer window and even in the summer, many 30 + year olds will be moving for approx 3 million pounds.

Bruce's outburst(s) especially, considering his 'loyalty' record, were unsavoury and comments like Hughes being 'naive' and were simply insults because they were never backed up with proof of Savage being tapped.

But, I have to admit that I can understand where there anger came from after Savage signed a 4 year contract and then decides he wants to move clubs. And it's not as if he's massively furthering his career by moving to us.

[ally]

Anyone know what squad number he has been given.

hasnt been given one yet but will probably be something like 30, 31 or 32 as all the rest have been taken. Number 3 is also available but i doubt he would want that

[roversWASmylife]

Excellent response from Savage. He has handled himself well in this, particularly in the face of the bile that has come from Bruce & co. He always seemed a pretty determined character to me, there's no doubt in my mind this will make him stronger, which can only be good news for BRFC.

Agree with that.

Savage is a good player, maybe not talented as some but he's very similar to Dickov.

Works hard, runs all day and really gets at the opposition. He might be the player to kick start our season.

The prospect of having both Dickov and Savage in our team might mean that nobody likes us, but we don't care.

I read in a paper yesterday that Birmingham have told Rovers that when Savage returns to St Andrews later this season that Rovers should be prepared to pay a six figure sum for Police.

Would be brilliant if Savage scored the winner at Birmingham.

Can't find a link.

[1864roverite]

spot on scotty lad.

birmingham have surely cemented the fact that they are the small club with the ponderous slating of all thing BRFC in the media. Maybe they did it to raise the selling power of the newspaper that sullivan owns eh ?

BRFC and Mr Savage have conducted themselves professionally and have not resorted to the taunts issued from the deep dark blackness of the second city !

Cant wait to play them and really rub their noses in it, I will definately be earing a riot helmet on that day

[Izzitnot]

you should of come down the 2 new den when blues played millwall in the play off semi final, we werent fighting each other, we joined up with the millwall fans and trashed a whole town

blues v villa 2 yrs last october when the likes of broad street and new street were trashed and mass rioting was going on

most excitement u can get in blackburn is watching a deer run across a main road hahaha

as for rubbing our noses in it i hope you understand that your just giving some of our mindless moronic fans an excuse to kick a riot off, the police wont stop a few thousand blues fans going for ya after the final whistle

you act like your normal selves and dont kick up a fuss and you will fine

Edited January 21, 2005 by Izzitnot