Savage knows ‘Brucey’ well from their time at Birmingham, but surely not this well.
The absolute last thing Aston Villa need, after finally appointing a proven, promotion specialist of a manager to revive their expensively assembled squad, is Robbie Savage making one of his jokes. His famous, famous jokes.
It was all going so well. The former Birmingham City player opened with a sensible remark that we can all agree with. Steve Bruce, with three promotions from the second tier under his vastly reduced belt, represents a thoroughly positive appointment for a club where such a feeling has been in short supply in recent years.
For once, the Villa fans had no reason to disagree with British sports’ answer to Nicky Clarke. Initially anyway.
Now, Robbie Savage is an easy target, there’s no doubt about it. And, quite often, he doesn’t help himself. The often bizarre comments that tumble from within his suspiciously white teeth have spawned many a Twitter rant but, to his credit, he is often the first to laugh at himself.
All it took was to listen to his excitable, kid-before-Christmas squeals of wonder as Wales ploughed their way through the European Championship to find some love in our heart for poor, put upon Robbie.
Although, if you’re serious Robbie, we’d recommend changing that voicemail. Steve Bruce may seem like a thoroughly amiable chap, the sort of man who would have no qualms about settling any disagreement of any nature over a local ale and a lovely chat, but that voicemail message would turn Roberto Martinez into John Sitton in a matter of seconds.
For once, even Roy Keane’s response felt rather understated.
“So I got Robbie’s mobile number and rang him,” Keane wrote in his autobiography, according to the Daily Mail. “It went to his voicemail: ‘Hi, it’s Robbie – whazzup!’ like the Budweiser ad. I never called him back. I thought: ‘I can’t be ******* signing that.’”
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