The art of innuendo

I know nothing about Robbie Savage apart from the comments that are usually made about his behaviour by self-righteous hacks, so when I saw the headline “Savage fury at criticism of Rams staff” and “Savage fury at criticism of Derby coaching staff” I was interested to hear him speak. Neither do I know anything about the journalist (Colin Gibson maybe, but I didn’t catch the name) so both contestants started off fair and square.


The headline suggested that there would be screaming and abusive language and possibly sounds of violence being done to the journalist. Certainly there was the suggestion of the footballer going postal on the journalist, and yet he came across as quite a reasonable person.


I know nothing about Derby's and Savage's performances this season because I don't follow the club, but I do know that journalists rely on rumour-mongering and sly suggestiveness and petty innuendo to sell newspapers/radio shows and the initial reaction from that journalist (before he rallied later in the interview in the face of Savage’s calmness) proved that he knew that he had been caught out.


And the unintelligent – and just plain wrong – BBC headlines simply underline Savage's point, that journalists use whatever rubbish they want to grab people's attention. Fair play to Savage (and Lampard before him) for challenging the mediocre innuendo-merchants who poison the game.