Pressure is Savage at Maccs
IT seemed the eyes of the whole country have been focused on phoenix club Macclesfield FC’S battle for promotion from football’s ninth tier.
Most Saturday nights on BBC Radio 5 Live’s phone-in ‘606’, Maccs’ world down in the North West Counties Premier Division has been discussed – not surprising when co-host Robbie Savage is the club’s director of football.
For manager Danny Whitaker, even legendary status through his near 400 games for the old Macclesfield Town, which was wound up with debts of £500,000 18 months ago, has not protected him from the extra pressure.
But he has come out the other end, a 4-0 victory in front of a home crowd of 4,604 last Saturday against Ashton Athletic securing promotion.
Whitaker admitted: “It’s been mad. People just assume you are going to be successful, but it’s not as easy as that.
“Also, of course, because of Robbie’s profile, our season has been played out to the rest of the country, which has added to the pressure. It’s been
extremely tough at times, I’m not going to lie. It’s the nature of the beast.
“The first team underpins the wellbeing of the new club.
“If we’re not successful, then everything else could slowly deteriorate, we would lose the momentum, with not so many fans turning up, things like that.
“That would then have a knock-on effect over the income, the revenue coming into the club.”
Savage was ecstatic after the first season success.
He stresses: “Nobody has given us this league – it’s been a magnificent achievement.”
So has the director of football been a hard taskmaster?
Whitaker quickly replied: “Has Robbie put pressure on me? Oh yes, like you wouldn’t believe.
“He’s demanding because he wants everything done a simple way, which is lots of things. For instance, the professionalism from top to bottom.
“How we train, how we prepare for games, etc and the style of play to a certain degree, although we do have to remind him that it can’t happen overnight.
“He’s openly said to me – behind the scenes and also publicly – that if we lose three or four games and we’re not in the top two, then changing the manager is something they would have to think about because promotion had to be secured.”