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Pacman to the point

I'll miss pantomime villain Robbie Savage when he's gone

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Jamie "The Pacman" Pacheco looks at the career of Robbie Savage and wonders whether all the bad press is justified as his Derby County side prepare for life in The Championship

A few years ago I wondered if my diet was a suitable and advisable one for someone my age and with my lifestyle. The nutritionist told me I was low on fibre intake and informed me that there was the same amount of fibre in a bowl of bran flakes as in eight slices of brown bread. I told her I'd rather stick with the eight slices of brown bread.

I then wondered if permanently adopting this sort of attitude was normal for someone my age and with my lifestyle, so I visited a psychiatrist. After an uneasy first five minutes I decided to break the ice by cracking a joke and asked Dr. Green if he knew how many psychiatrists were needed to change a light bulb. "How many do you think it takes?" was the reply.

I'd be very interested in knowing what a psychiatrist would make of Derby County captain Robbie Savage. The dyed blonde locks, the "in-yer-face" approach to his opponents on the pitch and the preference to being noticed even if that means being hated, to not being noticed at all. No doubt they would put his behaviour down to a lack of love as a child or a deep insecurity that manifests itself by seeking the limelight on any occasion. Opponents hate playing against him, opposition fans love to hate him, others just simply hate him.

If ever there was a player of whom you could say what Lyndon Johnson said about J. Edgar Hoover: "It's probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in" I think it it would be Robbie Savage. But judging by this quote from Graeme Le Saux, ""I actually knocked him out once with a clearance. A couple of his team-mates, who shall remain nameless, said that it was 'the best thing that had happened all season", maybe that's not quite true. Love or hate him though, the truth is he's a cracking player.

About five years ago I went to watch Birmingham City take on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in a dire 0-0 draw memorable only for the fact that I backed William Gallas to open the scoring at 33/1 only to watch him have a header from a corner miraculously cleared off the line. Actually, that's a lie. It was also memorable for the fact that Robbie Savage ran more, tackled more, completed more passes, won more headers and put simply, was head and shoulders above anyone else on the pitch. He reminds me of a Wayne Rooney or a Jimmy Bullard in terms of his passion and hunger for the game and desire to be involved in it as much as he possibly can. Run around chasing opponents down? Check. Take thrown-ins, corners, free-kicks? Check. Volunteer to take a penalty? No problem. Someone to nip down the shops and buy the oranges for half-time that the physio forgot to pick up? He'd probably be happy to do that as well.

Savage rolled back the years and was absolutely outstanding on Saturday afternoon against Man Utd. I actually watched the entire match and have spoken before about the dangers of judging a player's performance based on a 5-10 minute highlights package http://betting.betfair.com/football/pacman-to-the-point/lampard-is-the-most-overated-player-in-the-premier-171207.html so for those who just watched "Match of the Day" it probably won't be obvious just how well he played and how he was the one player who didn't deserve to be on the losing side (forgive the cliché). Yes, he got booked just like he always does (for the record noone has been booked more often than Savage in Premiership history) for his fifth or sixth foul but I'm of the view that if you don't give away a few free-kicks in the middle of the park as a Premiership central midfielder you're probably not getting involved enough in the game in the first place...

For sure, Savage isn't everyone's cup of tea and he's been guilty of actions that were unsporting like his involvement in Justin Edinburgh's sending-off in the 1999 Carling Cup Final,http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sport/football/300408.stm, ill-advised like the Maldini shirt affair http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-92667216.html and just downright funny, most notably the "Joobiegate" affair where he used Graham Poll's toilet at half-time http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20020425/ai_n12622827, all of which (and many more I haven't mentioned) have probably made him the most-hated player in the Premiership alongside El-Hadji Diouf and the most booed by opposition fans. But as former betting.betfair.com columnist Gary Speed once told me: "Fans rarely boo a bad player".

Derby's defeat at home to Man Utd was typical of a relegated side. They weren't necessarily outplayed despite facing the league leaders, they didn't lack desire or heart, they just failed to take the chances that came their way; there's a lot of truth to the cliché that you're only as good as your strikers. Derby are 1.01 (to lay) for the drop but there are few certainties as regards who will be joining them in the Championship next season . I have a feeling that Birmingham's (4.4) home form could save them and that Fulham's (1.56) trio of Bullard/Murphy/McBride allied to their relatively easier run-in could yet see them staying up by the skin of their teeth. Bolton (2.14) will really struggle due to the absence of a proven goalscorer since Anelka's departure and if Newcastle (5.1) lose to Birmingham tonight they could well end up being the strongest Premiership squad ever to go down, bar West Ham's underachievers under Roeder. Like I say though, none of those are bankers to go down any more than they are bankers to stay up.

If Derby are to be promoted next season, Savage is the man to build their team around and he'll look a cut above anything he'll face in midfield in that league. When he eventually hangs up his boots (apparently he's vowed to return to Wrexham before he does), English football will have lost one of it's most colourful pantomime villains and I'm guessing there will be more that will miss him than would care to admit it.