Autobiography

He made himself intolerable to work with and
planned his own departure; he had made a
decision to go to Blackburn, and nothing was
going to change his mind. He told the press it
was closer to his parents’ house and it was
important to him to be near them. Needless to
say, the press do not believe everything they
are told. They measured the distances involved
and found that his parents’ house was closer to
Birmingham than it was to Blackburn. The
truth was he wanted a new challenge, and he
just abandoned Birmingham City. He had an
excellent contract with us but he moved for
more money and because he wanted to be with
his former Welsh coaching team of Mark Bowen
and Mark Hughes, both of whom had moved to
Blackburn.
Had he had the courage to come out and say
as much we would have accepted it more
readily, but he was childlike in his approach.
Yet I loved Robbie Savage; I thought he was a
fantastic character, and he was great for
Birmingham City, however I believe people
who sign contracts should honour them. It
might be said we received more money than
he was really worth but that wasn’t the issue.
He let both Birmingham City and me down by
his attitude, and I find that hard to forgive.
On the face of it, we swapped one problem for
another when we took on the young winger
Jermaine Pennant after he had problems at
Arsenal. We initially took Jermaine on loan
after Robbie’s move to Blackburn, when
Arsenal had become frustrated by his
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