Peterborough United manager Robbie Savage will face his son Charlie Savage on Saturday when his side host Reading in the FA Cup first round at London Road.
The 52-year-old manager admitted the prospect of competing against his 23-year-old son is a horrible feeling, with the tie scheduled for live broadcast on TNT Sports.
Both clubs play in League One and were already scheduled to face each other in the league next month at Reading. However, the first-round draw of the world's oldest cup competition placed them on an unexpected collision course just weeks after Robbie left Forest Green Rovers for the Peterborough job.
The FA Cup draw
The draw caught the family off guard while both men were out shopping for groceries. Charlie Savage, a midfielder for Reading, was walking through the aisles of a Marks & Spencer foodhall with his girlfriend when his phone began buzzing with messages.
He quickly realised the first-round draw had just taken place and called his father. Robbie was shopping in a Co-op store on his way back to his rented lodgings, which he described as a little annexe in someone's garden, searching through ready meals for a single serving of spaghetti bolognese.
"The reception in Peterborough isn't great, it kept cutting out," Robbie told Daily Mail Sport. "Charlie said: 'You won't believe the draw.' I thought he was going to say Forest Green. Or Macclesfield. I didn't think about Reading. He said: 'You've got us.' I just went: 'Oh no.'"
Family rivalry and matchday nerves
While both men emphasised that Saturday's tie is strictly about Peterborough United and Reading rather than a family gathering, they acknowledge the unusual dynamic. Charlie pointed out how the fixture has split family loyalties.
"Football is a beautiful game, it brings people together and creates rivalries," Charlie said. "This week it's created a rivalry in our family. I'm not sure who my mum, brother, grandparents and cousins will support but there's no better time for them to have a half-and-half scarf."
For Robbie, the emotional reality of managing against his son brings only tension. "It's going to be horrible," he said. "Every time I watch my sons play, I'm anxious. I'm nervous. I want them to do well. If they give the ball away and the other team attack, I've got butterflies thinking, 'Please don't score'."
"This will be the first time I hope my son doesn't have an impact, which is a horrible feeling," Robbie added. "People keep telling me it's great. I've got to say it's not great, it's horrible. Usually we speak every day and I've not been able to speak to him all week because I don't want to put him in a position where anything gets out and anyone can point a finger at him."
Robbie rejected suggestions that the tie should be billed as Savage versus Savage, though he acknowledged the emotional impact if his son determines the result. "Charlie might not play but if he plays and makes a mistake and we score the winner, so be it," he said, puffing out his cheeks and widening his eyes. "If he plays and scores the winner, well, wow. We've got to win for Peterborough United."
Grassroots coaching and managerial ambitions
Robbie's journey into management began when coaching his sons reignited his passion for the sport. The former Leicester City, Birmingham City and Blackburn Rovers midfielder had stepped away from the dugout to work as a television and radio pundit before returning to grassroots coaching.
He started by assisting with his youngest son Freddie's Under 13s team in the Timperley and District Junior Sunday League. "Standing out at training on a Tuesday and Thursday night," Robbie said. "Sunday morning, putting the nets up. I've been that dad. In the first season we were hammered 13-0, but we built a team and won a lot of things."
Two years ago, Charlie and Freddie urged their father to follow his heart and make the switch from sporting director to manager at Macclesfield in the Northern Premier League. Even during that period in non-league football, Robbie insisted that he would one day manage against Charlie.
"Even back then, he said one day he'd manage against me," Charlie told Daily Mail Sport. "I was in League One and he was in Step Three and I'm thinking, 'Well, give it a few years', but he always gets where he wants to get to."
"He's a competitor. He wants to win, wants to succeed," Charlie said. "Even with my little brother's team it hurt him to lose in Sunday morning grassroots football. That's something inside him and it won't change. He will want to beat us. Unfortunately for him, I'm the same. I want to win. There might be an awkward car journey home."
Manchester United roots and Wales honours
Charlie's childhood memories of his father playing are from Derby County, the final stop of a 15-year professional playing career. Robbie represented seven different clubs and won 39 international caps for Wales after beginning his career in the youth system at Manchester United. "I remember seeing his long hair, scurrying around the pitch," the 23-year-old said. "Throwing his arms up and shouting at the refs."
Like his father, Charlie came through the Manchester United academy, but achieved a senior breakthrough Robbie never experienced. At 18, Charlie made his first-team debut as a substitute against Young Boys in the Champions League at Old Trafford in 2021, while Robbie watched from the television commentary gantry with a lump in his throat.
"He'll always have that on me," Robbie said. "All I ever wanted to do from 14 to 19 was play for one minute in Manchester United's first team. It didn't happen and he's done it. His name is on the wall at Carrington and mine isn't. I'm so glad his name is there instead of mine. You want the best for your sons. I'm proud of both my sons."
Freddie Savage is studying for an economics degree at the University of Manchester, while Charlie left Manchester United for Reading four years ago, choosing senior first-team football despite having three years remaining on his contract at Old Trafford.
Charlie has now made 175 senior appearances and earned three Wales caps. Although he played 45 games for Reading last season, he has yet to start a league match this campaign, an omission his father praised him for taking in his stride.
"He's got a great left foot, passing range and incredible running ability," Robbie said. "He's intelligent. Nine As in his GCSEs. He doesn't drink, he lives his life 24 hours a day, seven days a week to be a footballer. He's a down-to-earth, humble kid."
Robbie contrasted his son's attitude with his own playing days: "He was so brave to go and play senior football when he had three years left at Manchester United, and it's paid off. He played 45 games last season. He hasn't started a league game this season but hasn't sulked. I was a sulker, as Martin O'Neill and Nigel Clough (who coached Savage at Leicester and Derby respectively) will tell you. If that was me, my body language would be negative, but he's got a great attitude. And I've tried to tell him now he has to train harder than ever and conduct himself in the right way."
Modern player psychology and public scrutiny
Robbie explained that Charlie's career has shaped his own managerial methods with his young squad at Peterborough United, emphasising the mental health challenges modern footballers face away from the pitch.
"The mindset of a Millennial is completely different to when I played," Robbie said. "If they're not in the team or the manager has shouted at them, they go home to an apartment where they live alone away from their families, isolated from 2pm to 7am with all that time to think about it. We have to understand their vulnerabilities on and off the pitch. Charlie has been through that so without knowing it, he's made me a better manager. I try to think about what's best for my players, what I'd want a manager to do for Charlie in that situation."
Carrying the Savage surname has also brought heightened scrutiny for Charlie, who has faced accusations of nepotism along with abuse both in stadiums and on social media.
"It's there in all forms of life," Charlie said. "Maybe people subconsciously want me to fail a little bit more because of who he is. I get it. Football is a game and my dad is a divisive figure inside that game. He gives it out and he can take it and, unfortunately, it has become part of his life to be on the receiving end. Sometimes the abuse goes too far. People forget he's a human not just a football personality."
Despite the outside noise and the awkwardness of Saturday's FA Cup clash, Charlie expressed deep pride in his father. "I wouldn't change who he is," Charlie said. "I wouldn't change having him as my dad, I'm very proud of him."
