THE ONLY WAY IS ETHICS

McMahon is the youngest boss in football, but he can’t ever relax.. even on his birthday

DARYL McMAHON will head back to Essex tonight hoping he can finally enjoy his 36th birthday.

That will depend on whether his Macclesfield side have secured three points against Port Vale.

But even if they do, the youngest manager in English football will still have one eye on next week’s clash at Oldham.

In fact, his wife Alex may need to retrieve him from his study as he will no doubt be scouting the Silkmen’s next opponents.

“I’ve got a home office, it’s out of the way and I’ve got a tactics board and a computer where I can sit there and do my stuff,” said the Irishman, who juggles his time between his Essex family home and Macclesfield.

“I have every single training session I’ve ever coached on file in my office. I watch a lot of games, clips, a lot of analysis.

“To be successful at anything you have to put a lot of time into it and give it all you got.”

McMahon turned 36 on Thursday, but was out spraying passes around as he put his young squad through their paces ahead of today’s game.

He is still young enough to play, but instead the freshfaced Dubliner is making his way in management.

The midfielder travelled to England at 15 to join West Ham’s academy then moved on to Port Vale and Leyton Orient before dropping into non-League football.

But it was there when he started to think about his career after football, if not intentionally.

“I became a manager by accident,” he added. “I did my coaching badges because I was a footballer, most footballers do them because you feel like you need to do something at the end of your career.

“I got my first full time job at Boreham Wood.

“I was bitten by the bug. I was academy coach, I was a player and I was an assistant manager. “I was a jack of all trades, a master of none. That was a baptism of fire for me.” There were coaching spells at Dagenham and Redbridge and Tottenham, while he was still playing, before he went to Ebbsfleet, becoming caretaker then permanent boss. McMahon was a success with the Kent side, leading them to promotion to the National League after he retired from playing at 31, but left last November by mutual consent.

“I needed the time out, “he said. “I went on four holidays! At 35, I had 20 years in professional football.

“What else did I do? I learned Spanish. I just thought there are foreign owners, foreign players, it might never happen, but you have to be prepared.” McMahon also spent a week at Celtic last January when Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers (left) was still in charge in Glasgow.

“I watched how he works, he talked to me about how he improves players, training sessions, why he recruits certain types of players,” he said. But there are no managers McMahon copies.

Instead, he is making his own way as the youngest boss in English league football.

It probably helps that only Macclesfield midfielder Michael Rose, 37, is older than him and the cashstrapped League Two club’s squad is mainly made up of players released from academies.

But he could not have had a tougher introduction to life in the Football League than at Moss Rose.

In summer, McMahon replaced Sol Campbell, who departed by mutual consent as the club fought off winding-up petitions.

Last week his players revealed they are owed wages.

“I’ve nearly managed 200 matches and I’ve just turned 36 today so it is all a learning process,” he added.

“What it will be like in one year, two years, 10 years – who knows?

“This is a great grounding and a great way to learn in many different aspects about things at football clubs.

“I’d love to manage at the highest level I can.

“I don’t know where that is, it might be higher or it might be where I am now. Who knows?”