Forest Green Rovers supporters have been urged to stand behind Robbie Savage after a turbulent opening to the season, with former manager Frank Gregan insisting the club’s current run should be viewed in the context of a long campaign.
Rovers began the season with two come-from-behind victories but then suffered three successive defeats. Gregan, writing for Stroud Times, said he had watched both of the weekend’s matches and believed Forest Green could have taken four points from them. Instead, the club came away with none.
That sequence has placed the manager under scrutiny, but Gregan argued that criticism directed at a head coach is often unfair. He said managers are routinely blamed when results go wrong, even though football can just as easily turn on a late goal or an unexpected result.
‘The ones who shouldn’t be are Rovers fans’
Gregan said Savage’s public profile had made him a particular focus of attention. The former Wales international and television personality, he argued, attracts opinions from across the country, including from people who want to see him fail.
But Gregan said Forest Green supporters should take a different view. He argued that Rovers fans should recognise how much the poor run is affecting Savage and should not add to the criticism aimed at him from outside the club.
“Ignore all the noise from the outside. Haters are going to hate, but Robbie Savage is giving it his all.”
Gregan described the current sequence as a “little run” when measured against a season that he compared to a marathon. He also pointed to Forest Green’s performance last season, when the club finished seventh despite sitting 16th in the attendance table.
He acknowledged that some supporters may point to the club’s budget when assessing its results, describing that as a valid argument. However, he added that overall staff wages had been reduced by 17 per cent the previous year, saying the figure could be found through Companies House.
Gregan reflects on his own Forest Green team
The former manager used his own time at Forest Green to explain why he believes money is not the only factor behind success. His squad included a European Cup winner, former England internationals and at least two former England Under-21 players. He also recalled having six or seven former Premier League players at the club.
Among them was a player who had scored a Premier League hat-trick. Gregan remembered that, after a 4-1 defeat, the player went into the Manchester United dressing room and asked Sir Alex Ferguson to arrange for his players to sign the match ball.
Gregan said that, with hindsight, he would have stayed with local players from the M4 and M5 area who had not played above that level. He believes that approach would have preserved the team spirit his side had built, rather than weakening it through an over-reliance on money.
His conclusion was that financial resources cannot create passion on their own. That belief shaped his assessment of Savage, whom he described as a manager with determination and a strong desire to succeed at Forest Green.
Former boss backs Savage to turn things around
Gregan said his years in football had helped him recognise a good manager and that he believed Rovers had one in Savage. He said Savage would be hurting after the weekend’s defeats, but remained confident that the manager and the club could emerge stronger as the season continued.
For Gregan, the response to a difficult spell should be unity rather than division. He said football was about staying together when results were going against a team, believing in the players wearing the shirt and supporting the person on the touchline.
“Because that’s what football is. It’s about sticking together when things aren’t going your way. It’s about believing in the people pulling on the shirt — and the man standing on the touchline.”
Gregan ended with a hopeful reference to Mick Jagger, expressing the wish that the singer’s words would better reflect Forest Green’s fortunes by the end of the season.
Gregan joined Rovers in 1994 after serving as a sergeant major. He led the club to back-to-back promotions and a Wembley final, and is now living in Spain and working as a published author. He credited his period at the club with helping transform Forest Green from non-league minnows, before the progress later continued under Trevor Horsley’s successor, Dale Vince.