Powerless to powerful? Can Jackie McNamara revive York
POWERLESS. That’s how Jackie McNamara felt as York City cravenly surrendered their place in the Football League.
Defeat after defeat. Embarrassment heaped on humiliation. By the time the trapdoor swung open with two games to spare, a return to the National League had long been grimly inevitable.
York boasted experience and a top-ten budget. Neither could save them. Nor, in the end, could McNamara, the Celtic and Scotland stalwart, who was appointed in October as a final throw of the dice.
In the end, the 42-year-old won just five of his 32 games. For a man whose career was built on willpower and fight, it was a bitter blow.
“I did feel powerless,” admits the former Partick and Dundee United boss. “There’s really no other way to describe what sitting in that dugout was like.
“When players don’t want to be there. When they don’t want to fight. When you’re putting things across, but they don’t want to take them on board.
“What killed us wasn’t ability. We had plenty of that. I maintain we were better than a lot of teams who finished above us.
“What killed us was more fundamental. Things like concentration, discipline, attitude. We couldn’t see games through. I think we dropped 28 points from winning positions, which tells you everything about the mentality.
“The problem we had was that 18 or 20 players were out of contract. The majority knew they weren’t going to be there at the end of the season and, mentally, they were already gone.
“I didn’t really have much choice but to rely heavily on loan players. That’s always a gamble, especially given a lot of them weren’t tried and tested.”
Some worked. Some didn’t. In the end, though, the problems ran too deep.”
Attitude, fight, discipline – what York’s players lacked, their manager always possessed in spades.
Galaxy
As a kid at Hibernian, he broke his leg at 15 and was forced to hobble on crutches as his friends picked up YTS contracts.
Released for being too small, he joined Dunfermline and excelled.
Later, as an unfashionable face among Celtic’s galaxy of superstars, he was dropped by everyone from Wim Jansen to Martin O’Neill. All of them regretted it.
Famously, O’Neill even pulled McNamara aside on the day he left Celtic Park.“Son,” he admitted. “I should have played you more.”
McNamara, who eventually made 358 appearances for the Bhoys, winning silverware galore, said: “I worked under managers who spent millions of pounds on players,, but I won them all over, just by getting my head down and working hard. “Was I the best player there? No. But I became captain under a manager who didn’t fancy me to start with.That’s the head and the heart, not ability.” McNamara also believes life in the Celtic ‘goldfish bowl’ prepared him for life in the managerial spotlight. “I think a lot of the lads in England don’t understand how hard it is,” he explains. “They look at Scottish football and are quite dismissive. “But Celtic and Rangers are unique. They’re expected to win every game. I saw a few players arrive from England with big reputations.
“They expect it to be easy, but it’s a rude awakening because there’s no hiding place.
“In the Premiership, all 20 teams get scrutiny. In Scotland, it’s just the two. The only time English players ever feel that intense focus is when they go away with the national team, and you can see the effect that has.
“At Celtic, at Rangers, that spotlight is on you every day, every week.
“Brendan Rodgers came from Liverpool, but even he’s been shocked. The fall-out from the Lincoln Red Imps game, even though they
cruised it 3-0 at home, was a lot more savage than he was expecting. He’ll soon understand what it’s like in that goldfish bowl, where you have to win every game and do it with style.
“You’re never more than one game from a crisis.
“It’s tough, but you learn to handle little setbacks, to take criticism. As a manager, I feel that has helped me.”
Deserved
Mind you, last season was more than a set-back. With a decent managerial reputation in Scotland, didn’t McNamara feel like cutting his losses? “To be honest, I would have done that at the end of November, after the first two weeks,” he admits. “To walk away at the end of the season would have been the wrong thing to do. By then, we’d dealt with a lot of the problems, a lot of the bad stuff going on behind the scenes. I felt we deserved a go at it. “Did I want to manage in NonLeague? No. “But I came down here to keep York in the Football League. That didn’t work out, so my job now is to get them back there.”
With that in mind – and the clock ticking on York’s move to a new stadium at Monk’s Cross – the Scot has set about rebuilding the Minstermen.
Franklyn Clarke’s arrival from Dorchester means McNamara has signed 18 players this summer, with former Bootham favourite Richard Brodie also among the new arrivals.
“Richard’s body has changed. His circumstances have changed,” said McNamara.“He’s been playing part-time, which has impacted on his fitness, but he knows the division and he knows where the goal is.
“Overall, I’m delighted with the lads we’ve got in.
“Some have come from university, others have left jobs. But they’ve settled in, and to see the spirit in two weeks is very pleasing.
“Watching them has revitalised me.
“I can see they want to fight. I can see a desire to play football.
“This year, I can promise our fans they’ll see a team that represents me.They didn’t get that last year.”