Robbie Savage: Diary of a Football Manager: People thought I would fold…
In association with Planet Sport Bet, Robbie Savage is taking us behind the scenes each week at Macclesfield FC.
Robbie has played one of the leading roles in the rebirth of a now-thriving football club, first as director of football, now as first-team manager as the Silkmen seek to climb their way from the ninth tier back to the Football League.Â
With the title in sight, the gaffer isn’t spouting the usual managerial clichĂ©s. He’s got a coronation date in his diary and he’s buzzing to talk about it…
Just five more points to go…
I know at this point that managers are supposed to trot out clichés around only thinking about the next game while denying having looked at when we can seal the title. But I would be lying.
If the chasers win their games on Saturday – a free weekend for us – then we need to win at Morpeth Town to have the opportunity to be crowned Northern Premier League champions at home against Bamber Bridge on March 22.
I want the title wrapped up as soon as possible and for us to be crowned the first champions in the football pyramid, from step 7 all the way to the Premier League. I’ve even got half an eye on Scotland, looking towards Celtic, who can clinch the SPL title on April 6.
There’s nothing wrong or disrespectful about stating that ambition at this stage. What’s the point in denying it? It certainly does not mean we will be taking Morpeth or Bamber Bridge lightly. Quite the opposite. As the finish line comes into view, our focus sharpens, and this is when I want us to put our foot down. We certainly won’t ease off.
Even if promotion is clinched at the earliest opportunity, the lads won’t be allowed to let their minds drift to the beach. As a squad, we have other targets beyond the title. This team wants a record points total.
The benchmark, I think, is currently 103 points. To write Macc’s name in the record books, we need six wins and a draw from our last eight matches. We also want 100 goals for the season. For that, we need 18 more and to maintain the scoring rate of 2.4 goals per game that has got us into this position at the start of March.
Had we been more clinical in matches – Saturday’s 1-0 win over Matlock was another occasion where we lacked the the ruthlessness I will demand next season – we would be a lot closer to the century already.
From a personal perspective, I want us confirmed as title winners as soon as possible so that I can actually enjoy our matches!
You have no idea how much I am looking forward to a coach ride home without my mind whirring over the consequences of that day’s result and what it all means for the next game and the coming week.
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I absolutely love this job – but, if you’re not careful, management will wreck your head! I wrote last week over how much pleasure I get from leading this club, this squad and this set of supporters. But the pressure and expectation… it’s not for everyone.
I’m used to scrutiny from my career as a player, but the responsibility weighs much, much heavier on a manager’s shoulders. Had I failed this season, it wouldn’t just be me heading for the door. The squad I built, the people I convinced to come on this journey with me, would be following me through the exit.
The expectation is heightened when so many are hoping, wanting me and my club to fail. Another clichĂ© so often used by players and managers is that they don’t read the press. Even if that were true, they don’t have to. Now more so than ever, if it gets said, it gets back to you.
So I hear everything. It’s always lovely to hear nice things, but it is other stuff that fuels the fire. Especially when people, often using my name to push their own profile, suggest I might fold, or we could collapse. They don’t know me very well, do they?
If caving was in my character, I wouldn’t have survived in Eric Harrison’s dressing-room with the rest of the Class of ’92. I would not have bounced back after Sir Alex Ferguson told me to prove him wrong when he released me from Manchester United. I wouldn’t have captained every Premier League club I played for, and I certainly would not have lasted as long as I did playing against the likes of Keane, Vieira, Gerrard, Lampard and all the other world-class midfielders I competed with for more than a decade.
I was never as technically gifted as the greats, but it was instilled in me as a youngster that graft was the key factor in making a success of anything. That doesn’t change when you move from player to manager. So it’s a good job I love it, because it occupies every waking hour! And it still will after we clinch promotion, when the preparation for next season really begins, but at least I will be able to work safe in the knowledge that we achieved what we set out to this term, our methods reaffirmed by success.
Ask my wife – there is no turning off in the Savage household. This weekend was typical…
While my son Freddie, captain of Macclesfield Under-21s, was watching us, my wife went to Wigan to watch my other boy Charlie win with Reading. Two wins, two very good performances. When we all catch up after the games, I’ll allow myself a fleeting moment of genuine pride, then it’s on to the next thing. For me, it’s to the mic for 606 with my good pal Chris Sutton. When we come off air, most people might wind down, but I’ll be straight back in manager mode, going around the league to catch up with other games and their consequences, all while blowing up the Macc management WhatsApp group with thoughts, questions and ideas for the games and training ahead.
That same weekend, I looked at my players with a momentary feeling of envy. Yes, I enjoyed a long career at the top level, but I never sat in a dressing room knowing we would win if our work-rate was of the level demanded. This season, I think the lads have built up that level of belief, in themselves and each other. It’s a rare feeling and they should savour it.
Five more points and then no one could argue that the boys deserve to really enjoy the games remaining, to embrace the challenge of breaking records without the pressure of a promotion race. They get their kicks from winning, so for those reasons I can’t make too many changes for the games we might play as champions.
I will give some minutes to deserving causes. My son Freddie is one of a couple of young players who might get a taste of the action. I’m so proud of both of my boys. Make no mistake, Charlie and Freddie have had to work harder than most of their peers just to prove themselves in their own right. Freddie is one of a small group put forward by our Under-21s coach – one or two who might have featured are out on loan – and he will be in on merit should he play between now and the end of the season.
We have a duty to the division to be as competitive as we can be though all 42 games. As much as the Northern Premier League will miss Macc and our travelling army should we go up, I will miss this league too and the people I’ve met within it. Remember, this is the seventh tier, but chairman Mark Harris and CEO Angie Firth oversee an exceptionally-run set up. The league is a credit to the football pyramid.
But this is not a goodbye note just yet. We still need those points. And I want them as soon as we can get them.
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