Robert William Savage (born 18 October 1974) is a Welsh former professional footballer who played as a midfielder, now a football pundit and director of football at club Macclesfield. During his career he played predominantly as a midfielder, starting off as a youth player with Manchester United before joining Crewe Alexandra when released by the Old Trafford club. He became a regular for Leicester City in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and performed a similar role for Birmingham City and Blackburn Rovers. In 2008, he joined Derby County; after a short loan spell with Brighton & Hove Albion later that year, he returned to captain Derby, with whom he finished his playing career. He also played for the Wales national team on 39 occasions. He is now a pundit for the BBC and regularly presents 606 on BBC Radio 5 Live on Sunday evenings. He also co-presents Early Kick Off on BT Sport. Club career Early career Born in Wrexham, Savage started his playing career with local sides Brickfield Rangers and Lex XI. When he finished school, he joined Manchester United as a trainee and originally played as a striker. He played in the FA Youth Cup winning team of 1992, and was later given a professional contract, but never played a first-team game for the club and signed for Crewe Alexandra in 1994. He switched into midfield early in his time at Crewe and proved himself as a competent young player, helping them reach the Division Two play-offs in his first two seasons at the club; a remarkable feat for a newly promoted club who had only played at this level twice in the previous 30 years. Crewe then made it third time lucky by sealing promotion via the play-offs in 1997. It was the first time that Crewe had reached the second tier of the English football league system, but shortly after helping Crewe win promotion, Savage handed in a transfer request to manager Dario Gradi. Leicester City Savage was transferred to Premier League side Leicester City managed by Martin O'Neill, for a fee of £400,000, in July 1997. Savage spent five years at Leicester, where he made his name as a reliable, competitive and fiery midfielder. In 1999, Leicester reached the League Cup final against Tottenham Hotspur. In a controversial incident, Savage made a poor tackle on Tottenham's Justin Edinburgh who retaliated by swinging his arm