CLEGG LEAVES AN ATH-ER GO HERO
MICHAEL CLEGG says he didn’t take the decision to leave home- town club Atherton Collieries for Ashton United lightly.
The 35-year-old manager has led Colls on an historic run of success winning three promotions in five years to take them from the North West Counties Division One to the BetVictor NPL Premier division.
Clegg and his management staff were approached out of the blue on Tuesday morning following Jody Banim’s departure from league rivals Ashton.
Banim’s side were aiming to bounce back from National League North relegation but have stuttered so far this season.
Clegg celebrated his 300th game in charge of Colls with an FA Trophy upset of Boston United, which set-up a first round draw with National League leaders Barrow.
Clegg and his management team begin their new job on Tuesday and, such is the nature of Non-League football, some players will likely follow.
But he says Colls will forever be in his heart and he leaves proud at all their achievements in an action-packed five years.
“Obviously it’s been so tough,” Clegg said.
“I went to training on Thursday to say bye to the lads. We all go to Dublin on Sunday. I said, ‘Listen, I’ll knock it on the head. You lot go and have your Christmas do and start looking towards working with your new manager’. But they said, ‘No way, you’re coming, it’s our send-off ’.
“I suppose it’s the perfect way to draw a line under everything that we’ve been through.
Formula
“We’ve had some great players in the time there. My staff are just so hard working. I’m relentless behind the scenes to push the club and push the players. So it’s tough and football is a brutal business. I’m saying my goodbyes on Thursday night and exchanging pleasantries with the committee and chairman, who is a wonderful man, and then you’re back on Friday having serious conversations about things they probably don’t want to talk about straightaway.
“But this is football and you move on. I’m from Atherton and I’m never going to escape Atherton Colls wherever I go. My lads will be wanting to go down when I don’t have a game. It runs deep. My family go, my friends go – it’s definitely not a decision taken lightly.”
Clegg and his management team have turned down other opportunities in the past which shows the draw Ashton have proven to be.
And he is excited by the challenge of taking their formula to a new club who are aiming to get back into the National League North.
Hungry
“At this level you can’t put a price on happiness,” Clegg said. “That’s what I spoke to the chairman about. I live across the road from the (Atherton) ground, my kids go to school around the corner, all the kids at their school watch – it’s become a real social event on Saturday afternoons.
“I went to Ashton with that approach:
Look, I am happy so what’s the plan and it’s got to excite me.
It did excite me.
“It’s nice to feel wanted because you can feel a bit forgotten where people say,
‘Oh, he’s never going to leave’. A couple of big jobs have come up lately and your name’s not thrown out there. If we’re being honest, barring Salford City, we’ve got one of the best records in NonLeague football so you start doubting yourself.
“This has come at a time when I’m young, I’m hungry, I’m in the process of having my UEFA B signed off.
“We know who we are as a management group now. There’s been times where we’ve questioned what we are doing and why but now we have a clear way of working that’s been successful.
“I’m hoping we can take that to our next club and move them on. Hopefully whoever comes in at Colls can carry on where we’ve left off – that would be the ideal situation for me.”