'The day I became a hate figure' - Shocking new revelations from Robbie Savage
Published 23:00 02/08/10 By Steve Anglesey
The 1999 Worthington Cup Final was the day I became a hate figure, the long-haired blond w****r who turned a showpiece occasion into ‘The Robbie Savage Sideshow’.
It resulted in death threats cut out of newsprint being sent to the club and my home address – and gave me a shock on my summer holiday.
My instructions in the match were to keep David Ginola quiet. I went into him hard, and he didn’t like it.
Then I tackled Justin Edinburgh. It was a fair challenge, but he objected. He swung his arm. He didn’t touch me, but he did brush my hair.
I fell down, claiming he’d caught me in the face. He was shown the red card. Edinburgh had raised his arm, which is a sending-off offence, but I did make a meal of it.
There were words said to Allan Nielsen and Steffen Freund. I didn’t touch Freund, but he went down as though he’d been shot.
I didn’t like him. He had a big mouth. He thought he was hard, but he wasn’t. He was useless.
In the 89th minute the board went up, Robbie Savage off. I sat down and 30 seconds later Nielsen scored.
It was a terrible way to lose a cup final and there were a few verbals after the game.
Unbelievably, the very next fixture was at White Hart Lane. Freund was accusing me of cheating and diving. Edinburgh wasn’t very happy either.
Jeff Powell of the Daily Mail called me a ‘rabid Afghan hound with blond hair’. Tottenham manager George Graham appealed for calm from the fans.
In the first minute, I went into a tackle with Edinburgh and got him, fair and square.
We won the game, inflicting Tottenham’s first home defeat in six months. We had our revenge.
That summer, Sarah and I were on holiday in Spain and went out for dinner.
We were sitting inside, and the blinds were down to shield us from the sun.
As it grew dark, the blinds were raised, and sitting on the other side of us was Edinburgh and his missus!
He didn’t say anything, and I don’t blame him.
Ace Daily Mirror columnist Robbie Savage is releasing his new biography Savage next week - and MirrorFootball will be carrying more exclusive extracts on Wednesday.
Meet The Savages - Exclusive video
More Sav revelations:
