This. Dislike him nearly as much as Steve "face like a shoe" Claridge. Best goal- against Fulham with the outside of the boot. Worst- asking to be substituted like a big girl. Still, will always treasure the season we went up and his contribution to all of that.
Hmm, would you pay to see Barton play if he wasn't, due to some anomaly in the space time fabric, playing for us? People liked watching Savage for the same reason they like watching Barton - hate figure for all but their own teams supporters, pantomime villains. Its just entertainment, of pretty low quality admittedly.
There's nothing wrong with your sense of humour Lala I don't want to come across as a party pooper so........ Best moment: His goal at home to Preston. Worse moment: Avoiding the ball in the last second free-kick v Wigan.
Savage's game was purely built around stopping other people playing (much like Karl Henry). He did it effectively, but it's not entertainment.
Not the point mate, he was a pantomime villain, like Ron Harris or Norman Hunter (actually Leeds had a whole team of them) who people love to hate. I'm practicing my 'he's behind you' chant for Barton on Boxing Day.
Best moment....when he lifted the Championship trophy.....35 years after Gerry should've lifted it..... Oh and that pass to Routledge against Coventry Worst moment.....realising he is wasting his talent.....
I don't get the antipathy towards Savage. I like him. He seems to be the only soccer analyst on British TV who's not afraid to disagree with his co-panelists. The night he disagreed with Alan Hanson on MOTD was funny. Hansen was sliding up and down in his seat so much I thought he was going to catch fire. He went bright red with anger because no-one else had ever challenged his opinions in 20-odd years of commentary. God knows how these idiots who say nothing haven't been hunted off the stage by the licence payer at this stage. We need more people like Savage to tell it how it is.
Clearly the division of opinion on Taarabt demonstrates that entertainment is different things to different people. You find watching an overweight circus clown lose the ball every time he gets it entertaining, I don't. Entertainment is in the eye of the beholder Stroller lad.
Absolutely. I love watching a team unit play. When you have honest players doing what they're supposed to do for the team, it makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts. Each individual is rightly elevating the institution above his own self. Its the Club, its the Club, its the Club. Nothing else should matter to players or fans alike. Taarabt was the total antithesis to that and I could not stand the chap's attitude. Even when COLIN built the team around him, it wasn't good enough for him. Even when we were winning that season I hoped that once we secured promotion we'd ship him out. Am I biased against him? Yes. But give me a team over an individual any day. Now that to me is real entertainment.
Best Nutmegs (all of them) plus the rainbow flick against Reading. Worst The thought that he will not achieve what his ability deserves.
Best - The pass to Routledge for the winner v Coventry and the set-up for SWP against Chelsea, both prove his value if he could be unselfish... Worst - Take your pick, plenty to choose from but I'll go for the cop-out in the wall v Wigan...
But would you rather have a pretty team playing nice football and winning nothing, as opposed to say a George Graham efficient team grinding out one-nils but securing the title? I suppose what I'm getting at here is this. If you could swap QPR's 75/76 total football season and coming runners-up and replace it with a one-nil to the Arsenal GG type team and winning the league, what would you prefer on our CV?
But would you rather have that 75/76 side playing less fantasy football to secure the title, rather than finishing up as runners up?