Many happy returns Macclesfield FC ...hand on heart my biggest achievement in the game

Yes, we have the biggest budget in our league, but it’s not a Saudi fortune

WITH respect to the super-rich Saudis taking over at Newcastle, they are likely to bring success to a famous football club by throwing money at it.

And when there is £320billion in the pot, money is not going to be a problem.

But this week will mark the first anniversary of my business partner Rob Smethurst and me taking over at Macclesfield FC, resurrecting a club that had ceased to exist.

Hand on heart, it has been our biggest achievement in football.

Rob and I took on the carcass of a club that had gone to the wall at Moss Rose but now the numbers speak for themselves.

Top of the North West Counties League after 13 games is only the icing on the cake – four months ago, we didn’t even have a team. Now we have 75 staff – including 25 full-time coaches

– 29 teams, an academy, the women’s team is up and running, a gym, bar and 4G pitch all bringing in income.

Our squad, including 38-year-old

Neil Danns, has an average age of 24 while the average age of our reserves is 19.

In eight home games at the Leasing. com stadium so far this season, our average attendance is 2,678.

More than 3,000 came to the midweek derby win against Northwich Victoria – those are insane numbers for the ninth tier.

Add in 140 kids between 16-18 on a B-Tec programme, and an Under-16 grassroots team who are one of the best in the country, beating Premier League category one academies despite training just once a week.

We have 365 kids aged between seven and 16, of whom 65 are girls. And through the Savage Foundation, we have 270 kids playing for free.

Our head of recruitment is much sought after. For him to drop down and commit to this project is a fantastic statement of faith in what Macclesfield FC is trying to achieve.

Twelve months ago, there was a club with no future. Now the future is bright. We have not just given a town its club back: We have established pathways, from grassroots to first team, for people to play football and we are doing our bit for employment in the region. Despite the jealousy of rivals in our league that we are ‘buying’ promotion by paying wages over the odds, the truth is more enlightening.

We are running the club on a budget and we are breaking even.

Yes, we want to take Macclesfield back into the Football League, but our real success will be developing players and helping them to go on and play at that level.

Our best player this season has been on £120 a week, and not one contracted player is on more than £300 a week.

Yes, under Smethurst (right with me) we have the biggest budget in the league – but it’s not a Saudi kingdom’s budget.

We know of players at other clubs at our level on two or three times our highest-paid earner.

I have never worked harder than in the last 12 months – but I have also never found anything more rewarding.

When Newcastle’s incoming regime appoint a director of football operations, I bet he won’t be cleaning glasses in the bar, sorting out the corner flags on matchday, dealing with stewards, HR, safety certificates, fire regulations, scouting operations, recruitment and contracts.

And I bet he won’t have to hold public trials on Leazes Park to put together a squad in time for the new season.

Before a ball was kicked in August, we had three main objectives on the pitch: A good run in the FA Vase, reaching the FA Cup first round proper and being involved in the promotion shake-up.

We failed miserably in the Vase and Cup, but we’ve hit the front early in the league.

We know when visiting teams get off the bus here, they will come flying at us for 20 minutes because they will be fired up to turn us over.

But we try and do things properly, including a pre-match meal for the players, proper analysis of the opposition and travel arrangements. And above all – something I learned from Sir Alex Ferguson – I make a point of knowing everyone’s name at the club, from our captain to the bar staff.

Good luck to Newcastle fans – they have waited more than 50 years for a trophy, and if they want to dream of signing Kylian Mbappe or Erling Haaland, I’m not going to spoil their dreams now.

But in the past, I’ve been guilty of slating clubs as a pundit without knowing what has gone on behind the scenes. And there are still pundits who take to their soapbox without knowing the full facts of what goes into running a football club, So Happy Birthday, Macclesfield FC.

The rebirth of the club has taught me a massive lesson.

You can throw as much money as you want at a project, but it cannot succeed unless you put your heart and soul into it.