When I first heard Robbie Savage had joined Derby County I (like many others) was confused as to how I felt about it.

He slowly won many of us over with his cheeky charm - but after another rant on BBC Radio Derby, I am afraid he lost me once and for all.

A season of injuries, mediocre performances and low investment has been hard enough to handle over a long season. But when our Captain decides to demean a club legend on local radio, it was for me, the final straw.

As editor of RamZone, anyone who has read my columns knows that I am tragically inflicted with a permanent case of blind faith. I have always tried to be positive about my beloved Rams even when things have been at there most dire. I have genuine belief we are headed in the right direction - but only if Robbie Savage hangs up the arm-band.

This season has divided everyone’s opinions in many areas, with the most popular being whether the club is headed in the right direction as the owners insist on stabilizing the once near-terminal finances of the club.

Another has been whether Nigel Clough is the man for the number one job, as the team lurched through the season showing little improvement on last year.

Personally, I genuinely believe our owners are trying to grow a strong club and that our manager will prove himself once given the financial backing to do so. That said, if in the next campaign Nigel is not given the funds required to move up the table and in doing so show some genuine improvement, the patience of the fans will fast run out.

The vocal minority is already out in force, and it won’t take long for the quiet majority to catch up if either club or manager slips at the hurdles to come in 10/11.

With all of these issues important issues to deal with and discuss, the last thing I expected to be writing an article about was a petulant interview given by the club's captain after the game on Saturday.

Robbie Savage has given some wildly bizarre interviews to local radio this season which were mostly written off as just part of the pantomime villain’s stage act. However even I, as accepting as I am, thought that these should have been stamped out by the club before he could say anything they would regret.

In Australia, our sports clubs closely guard the relationship their players have with the media. If an incident such as this occurred at such a high level the player would be hauled in, fined and pretty much banished from speaking to the media.

Mind you, I cannot remember a captain of any club acting in this manner, as the repercussions would far outweigh the worth of such utterances to any player deciding to pursue a petty personal vendetta against a journalist in a public forum.

These things are usually dealt with behind closed doors…. or in the car park.

Sadly the club did not see fit to curb Sav's outburst and on Saturday, in my humble opinion, he went too far!

Things are not well with the relationship between Colin Gibson and the Rams Captain - but his wild and ridiculous statements regarding Roger Davies were nothing short of immature.

My 7 year-old daughter constructs a more reasonable and logical debate than the one that Savage rolled out for BBC Radio Derby listeners after the match on Saturday.

To ridicule one of the most positive voices for the club was downright unprofessional and beyond excuse. Roger is a Derby County legend and regularly makes reasonable comment, more often than not defending the club, manager and players, if perhaps (being ruthlessly honest), he would agree they do not deserve it.

Roger's continuing commitment to the club and local media stand him in high esteem with local fans and media but it seems Robbie Savage has decided that he knows better than all of us.

His insinuations that Davies was anything more than a fair player on the pitch were disgraceful and totally irrelevant in fielding the questions being put to him by Mr Gibson. It was obvious as soon as he began the interview that Savage was ready for a verbal stoush, so instead of a considered debate we ended up with school yard name calling.

The club should move swiftly to censor Savage and have him publically apologise to Roger Davies in particular for his outrageous comments and conduct. It was no way for a captain to behave - nor was it the forum for a professional sportsman to air his grievances about a local radio station and its presenters.

The fact he also accused the team of setting up fake talkback callers on phone-ins to criticize the club was downright hilarious. It would be the equivalent of a player being accused of deliberately throwing a game, and there would be far less gain for a broadcaster to do so than a player.

The club allowed Savage some space with his previous rants, columns and even his twitter issues but now is the time to say enough is enough.

Savage has worn out his welcome with most fans in trying to force feed us with his opinion on how the team plays, how radio interviews should be conducted and the way his teams performances are reviewed by pundits.

It is part of playing sport that you will be dissected and put under the microscope. The level of criticism that Radio Derby applies is minor compared to those analyzing the game at the highest level. It does not bear thinking about of how our captain would cope with the level of criticism recently levelled at the likes of Gianfranco Zola or John Terry.

The media will always annoy sportsmen in their analysis, especially when things are not going well - but the first rule of reply is to never bite.

Listening to a vocal minority, or taking public analysis of the game from the media to heart and then reacting, is the type of mistake a junior player would make or perhaps a player whose ego is genuinely out of control.

Robbie has begun to bite and when someone like myself, who had grown to respect his passion and love of the game now believes that he has gone too far, then he has truly lost much of what he worked so hard to earn.

The team at Radio Derby are far from being the most critical pundits, but being in the media role means that you must try to assess the feelings of fans and present as many aspects to the argument as you can.

I myself often swear and curse in disagreement of the commentator’s opinions but I honestly think in Gibson, Bloomfield and Davies they have a good balance of negative / positive / analysis. I have heard far, far worse combinations and no doubt will do again.

Robbie Savage needs to take a step back and realise that most fans are and have always been behind the club, manager and players. But sadly after Saturday there are far fewer - and I include myself in the number - who are now behind him.

The club and manager need to gauge the feeling in the air, as the ill-feeling generated will develop into a much bigger issue, if not addressed sooner rather than later.

An unnecessary footnote, to an already disappointing season.

For those who have not heard the interview, you can still listen on iPlayer by following this link. The Savage interview takes place approximately 23 minutes into the program.
 

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