Bruce keeps role for Savage despite soap opera

Never Mind the furore over tonight's television premiere of Jerry Springer: The Opera. The production exercising West Midlands football is Robbie Savage: The Soap Opera, although the attempt by the region's highest-profile player to forsake Birmingham City for Blackburn Rovers is now more redolent of pantomime or farce.

Savage is suspended for today's visit of Leeds United in the FA Cup, depriving the St Andrew's faithful of another opportunity to hiss the hero they have come to view as a villain.

When it was pointed out that Blackburn was no nearer than Birmingham to the home of his supposedly ailing parents in North Wales - his reason for seeking a move, although sceptics claim it is purely about wanting more money - it was tantamount to being caught, Whitehall-style, with trousers down.

Mark Hughes, his former manager with Wales, tried to break the impasse yesterday by saying he would have to look elsewhere to strengthen Blackburn's midfield if Birmingham were adamant that his offer of £2.7m for the 30-year-old was £800,000 below their valuation.

Steve Bruce, the Birmingham manager, said he remained prepared to pick Savage, despite dropping him for the home defeat by Bolton Wanderers and playing him in the reserves at Solihull Borough on Thursday.

Savage was booed by the small crowd, yet Bruce, who bought him from Leicester for £2.5m in 2002, said: "If we need to win a game and I need to pick him, I'll do so. He's our player - it's as simple as that. I didn't think it was appropriate on Tuesday night against Bolton because of his mind-set after handing in a transfer request."

Bruce added: "I'll look at the situation again ahead of next week's game with Charlton and I'd have no qualms about including him. He has helped me more than most players in the past two and a half years. I just think he has been badly advised and had his head turned by a better offer."

The Savage saga has been characterised by a bitterness that has echoes of Wayne Rooney's defection from Everton to Manchester United (Everton, incidentally, were Savage's boyhood favourites and have previously shown interest in signing him). In particular, the intervention of Birmingham's co-owner, the soft-porn publisher David Sullivan, may have made a reconciliation between player and club more difficult.

Sullivan made it plain he considered Savage's explanation for wanting to leave - months after signing a new four-and-a-half year contract - was less than sincere. He described the player's professed desire to be closer to his mother and father's home near Wrexham as a "sob story".

Villagers, from the post-office proprietor to the pub landlord, have had their rural tranquillity disturbed by reporters trying to discover whether his parents were actually ill (the consensus was that they were not).

Blackburn appear reluctant to increase their bid. Birmingham, with David Dunn and Muzzy Izzet injured, may be cutting off the nose to spite the face. This one, like Savage at his most terrier-like, could run and run.

* Birmingham City yesterday announced club record pre-tax profits. They recorded a £5.6m surplus for the year ending 31 August 2004, representing a 61 per cent climb after posting £3.5m profit for the previous 12 months.