I SHOULD REALLY have called this chapter ‘How I Unwittingly Turned Roy Keane’s Autobiography into a Massive Success’ because that’s exactly what happened.
In October 2014 I got a telephone call from a mate of mine.
‘Hey Sav, have you seen Roy Keane’s new book? There’s a story about you in it apparently. Everybody’s talking about it.’
My first thought was, ‘Here we go. What’s he going to accuse me of?’ Then after mulling it over for a second I realised there wasn’t anything. Nothing I could think of, anyway. Roy and I weren’t mates so there were no social tales to tell. What about on the pitch then?
Well, I’d certainly had a few battles with him over the years, and he’d even got me round the collar once while I was playing for Birmingham, but it was nothing he hadn’t done to virtually every other player he’d come up against.
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I rang my mate back.
‘Have you any idea at all what it’s about?
‘Something about a Budweiser commercial.’
That helped – not!
I wasn’t kept in the dark for too much longer because the moment I logged on to Twitter that morning it all became apparent. Talk about a deluge! It was absolutely everywhere. I was in every newspaper every day for over a week.
Just in case you have been living on another planet for the past year or so, in October 2014 Roy Keane published his second autobiography and inside it there was a story about him trying to sign me while he was the manager of Sunderland in 2006–8. He obviously knows his midfielders then!
Anyway, I’ll let Roy tell you the rest: ‘Sparky gave me permission to give him a call. So I got Robbie’s mobile number and rang him. ‘It went to his voicemail: “Hi, it’s Robbie – whazzup!” – like the Budweiser ad.
‘I never called him back. I thought “I can’t be f****** signing that.”’
As you probably know by now I don’t really follow fashion, I create it, and as soon as people got wind of what had gone on everybody started having that as their answerphone message. It was my gift to the world, if you like!
Anyway, once I knew what had gone on I got straight on Twitter and posted: ‘Oh come on Roy whazzuuuup!!!! Hahahaha.’
I even re-recorded the message for William Hill and that went viral.
Savage and Keane battle for possession during their playing days. PA Archive / Press Association Images
PA Archive / Press Association Images / Press Association Images
You see, that’s the difference between me and the majority of other ex-pros. Most people wouldn’t know what to say if someone like Roy Keane came out and wrote something like that about them. In fact, they would probably go into hiding. I just saw it as an opportunity to have a laugh.
Why not? I didn’t feel embarrassed in the slightest. At the end of the day Roy Keane, one of the greatest midfielders ever to play in the Premier League, had wanted to sign me as a player. As far as I’m concerned that was a massive compliment.
This is an extract from Robbie Savage’s autobiography, I’ll Tell You What, which is published by Little Brown. More info here.
'Whazzup!' Robbie Savage on Roy Keane and that voicemail message
Updated at 10.40
I SHOULD REALLY have called this chapter ‘How I Unwittingly Turned Roy Keane’s Autobiography into a Massive Success’ because that’s exactly what happened.
In October 2014 I got a telephone call from a mate of mine.
‘Hey Sav, have you seen Roy Keane’s new book? There’s a story about you in it apparently. Everybody’s talking about it.’
My first thought was, ‘Here we go. What’s he going to accuse me of?’ Then after mulling it over for a second I realised there wasn’t anything. Nothing I could think of, anyway. Roy and I weren’t mates so there were no social tales to tell. What about on the pitch then?
Well, I’d certainly had a few battles with him over the years, and he’d even got me round the collar once while I was playing for Birmingham, but it was nothing he hadn’t done to virtually every other player he’d come up against.
I rang my mate back.
‘Have you any idea at all what it’s about?
‘Something about a Budweiser commercial.’
That helped – not!
I wasn’t kept in the dark for too much longer because the moment I logged on to Twitter that morning it all became apparent. Talk about a deluge! It was absolutely everywhere. I was in every newspaper every day for over a week.
Just in case you have been living on another planet for the past year or so, in October 2014 Roy Keane published his second autobiography and inside it there was a story about him trying to sign me while he was the manager of Sunderland in 2006–8. He obviously knows his midfielders then!
Anyway, I’ll let Roy tell you the rest: ‘Sparky gave me permission to give him a call. So I got Robbie’s mobile number and rang him. ‘It went to his voicemail: “Hi, it’s Robbie – whazzup!” – like the Budweiser ad.
‘I never called him back. I thought “I can’t be f****** signing that.”’
As you probably know by now I don’t really follow fashion, I create it, and as soon as people got wind of what had gone on everybody started having that as their answerphone message. It was my gift to the world, if you like!
Anyway, once I knew what had gone on I got straight on Twitter and posted: ‘Oh come on Roy whazzuuuup!!!! Hahahaha.’
I even re-recorded the message for William Hill and that went viral.
You see, that’s the difference between me and the majority of other ex-pros. Most people wouldn’t know what to say if someone like Roy Keane came out and wrote something like that about them. In fact, they would probably go into hiding. I just saw it as an opportunity to have a laugh.
Why not? I didn’t feel embarrassed in the slightest. At the end of the day Roy Keane, one of the greatest midfielders ever to play in the Premier League, had wanted to sign me as a player. As far as I’m concerned that was a massive compliment.
This is an extract from Robbie Savage’s autobiography, I’ll Tell You What, which is published by Little Brown. More info here.
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Incident Robbie Savage roy Roy Keane whose phone is that?