Robbie Savage is co-hosting a new show on BBC Radio 5 Live entitled Flintoff, Savage & The Ping-Pong Guy, with Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff and Times' journalist Matthew Syed, who is presumably the ping-pong guy. Savage presumably found himself at a loose end after the sad departure of Fletch & Sav.
While he is usually teeth-grindingly irritating, Savage does occasionally come out with something memorable, and he did exactly that on the most recent installment of Flintoff, Savage & The Ping-Pong Guy.
Savage was talking of how insecure he was during his time as a player, and indulged such insecurity to remarkable depths while he was playing with Derby County.
Savage joined Derby halfway through their wretched season in the Premier League, and was appointed club captain when Matthew Oakley was sold to Leicester. Savage struggled, however, and toiled with the rest of his teammates as Derby set a record low for a Premier League performance: ending the 07/08 season with a pathetic eleven points, and finished a remarkable 25 points from safety. The following season did not see much of an improvement: they ended the 08/09 season 18th in the Championship.
Savage revealed on air how keenly he felt his poor performances, and then made a remarkable admission about this vanity:
You know those chat boards? I made up a name, went on them and say, 'Robbie played well today, didn't he?'
Seriously, I was that insecure I used to phone newspaper reporters up if I got a six or a five in the paper and say, 'what are you talking about, what game were you at? I was at least an eight, or nine! I was so insecure.
Flintoff's response is great, in fairness. You can watch the clip below:
