10 of the most memorable transfer related quotes in football history

#5 Robbie Savage on the stresses of the transfer window

Robbie Savage put a different spin on the concept of a transfer saga in 2011

“I sat there by the phone for 13 days, worrying, waiting for it to go through - I lost a stone”

The fans might love a good transfer saga and naturally, so do the media, as they allow for far more newspapers to be sold and online stories to be clicked on. But is that the same for the players who are involved in the potential moves that have everyone talking? If you ask former Wales midfielder Robbie Savage, the answer would probably be no.

When asked about the stresses of Transfer Deadline Day in particular on an August 2011 edition of Football Focus, Savage – by then a television pundit who was approaching his retirement from the game – discussed his January 2005 move from Birmingham City to Blackburn Rovers – a move which went through shortly before deadline day.

The transfer was hardly preceded by a long saga – Savage’s form for Birmingham had dipped, he’d seen the fans largely turn on him, and he wished to link up with his former Wales boss Mark Hughes at Blackburn. Birmingham had turned down an initial bid, but for the most part the move went through smoothly.

In Savage’s mind, though, evidently, things weren’t going quite as smoothly as they seemed. His quote – from six years after the event – shows the toll that even a relatively simple transfer saga can take on a player, and leaves you wondering if it’s all worth it in the end.