Above all else, Saturday will be a day of celebration for Macclesfield FC and how far they have come from nothing. Moss Rose last hosted a FA Cup third round fixture in 2014 and nothing is the same now. New club, new existence.
This is a phoenix club built out of disgrace. Amar Alkadhi, a telecoms entrepreneur, may have funded the club at first but that clearly shifted over time. When manager John Askey left after Football League promotion, rumours surfaced of people not being paid. Macclesfield Town’s death was messy, drawn out and ultimately inevitable once the debts spiralled, the owner pulled funding and Covid-19 hit.
And here they are again. There has been monumental work done by owner Robert Smethurst, who credits saving this club with saving his own life after battles with addiction. By Robbie Savage, who stepped in first as director of football and later manager. By countless volunteers and supporters who campaigned that nobody should ever give up on having a club in this town.
Three promotions, from their original starting point in 2021, represents a significant achievement albeit one aided by large budgets relative to their divisions. Savage oversaw a fair proportion of this and told the story in a BBC documentary that has been watched by millions. It contains a little too much Big Sav energy for some, but the tale deserved to be heard.
Saturday may also be a welcome break from reality. Macclesfield are 15th in the National League North, albeit with games in hand. This summer, Savage left Moss Rose to take the manager’s job at Forest Green Rovers. The farewell was very warm, at least from the club’s point of view, but Savage promptly signed four Macclesfield players. John Rooney was lost from the playing side too; he stepped in as manager.
In October, Smethurst announced that he would be stepping down from his position and that the Macclesfield board would be taking over the running of the club. In his interview with the club’s website, Smethurst explained that he was moving aside to let somebody else try to take the club further – more on that later.
Then, last month, the worst possible news: 21-year-old striker Ethan MacLeod was killed in a car accident on the M1 on the way home from a match against Bedford Town. Macclesfield paid tribute to his personality and legacy, another reflection of a club that understands its role, its responsibility and its community.
Community is everything. Having a club here is a big deal because nobody takes it for granted. Towards the end of last season, in the seventh tier of English football, Macclesfield had 15 straight home league attendances above 3,000. They came because they believed in something.
They also came because their reformed club was top of the league, breaking records along the way. The average attendance in the National League North is 3,061, still an astonishing achievement given the level, but lower midtable football is never as tempting as a title romp.
Because Macclesfield FC are also a lesson in the complications of growth in English football now. In an interview with The i Paper last year, Smethurst explained how, while the budgets in lower divisions allowed accelerated progress, he was under no illusion of the financial drain as you progress. Even then, he intimated that he may well not be the owner to take the club further forward for long.
The perception from some supporters was that Macclesfield invested insufficiently in the summer, particularly given the departure of the four players with Savage. But the reality is that the club spent heavily in lower leagues and offered numerous contracts with promotion extension clauses that kicked in in June. They backed Savage to deliver a promotion on a relatively short-term, high-risk model.
Published accounts look broadly positive, but even they noted the heavy spend on the playing staff and detailed the significant conversion of loans into shares by Smethurst. He has been a saviour and a guardian angel, but he is also a businessman who presumably cannot or will not plough money to fund losses ad infinitum. Sustainability is the only answer.
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None of this needs to be interpreted with a negative inflexion. As long as the expectations of supporters can be channelled after three promotions in four years, this all still works. If you have watched a club go into liquidation and die, the only guiding light should be ensuring a long-term future. The important thing is that Macclesfield FC are here and are hosting holders Crystal Palace.
As such, there will be great scrutiny on any outside investor; no club in England has more right to be circumspect and for lines of communication. Any potential move to a full-time model must be assessed thoroughly for its potential financial impact. Everybody must get on board with walking if it lets you run later over running blindly and seeing what happens.
For this is a microcosm of English football: everyone can have a dream but a dream always comes with a price tag wrapped around its foot. Macclesfield FC have come so far from literally nowhere. But every time you climb higher, the air gets thinner and you can find it harder to breathe.
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