‘Someone said it was like driving a Ferrari, and halfway through the drive I’d pull the wheel. As a manager, would I have wanted me sitting behind me? No’: Robbie Savage reveals how first forray into management is going

Robbie Savage leans across the table tapping at his fitness watch screen. “My resting heart rate is 49, and my maximum heart rate is around 170,” Macclesfield FC’s manager tells FFT.

“I play [newfangled racket sport] padel for two hours and it peaks at around 115. But I’m an emotional guy. It slowly goes up and averages around 130 on a matchday. For my first game away to Worksop, it was 147. It’s a worry.”

Savage, who turned 50 in October, may now have the odd grey strand among the blonde, but he’s still physically fit. A veteran of 346 Premier League games, 39 Wales caps and even an appearance on Strictly Come Dancing, he’s presented BBC Radio 5 Live’s flagship 606 phone-in for nearly 15 years and is a regular European night co-commentator for TNT Sports.

Robbie Savage 'had to' become Macclesfield manager

So, with plenty on his plate already, why did he opt to become a non-league manager at Macclesfield this summer? “I had to,” is Savage’s simple response. “People might say I was always going to do it but, honestly, because I love watching my sons play at weekends and the 606 job, I didn’t think I would.”

Savage had previously been director of football at the Northern Premier League club – which rose from the ashes after the original Silkmen were wound up in the High Court in 2020 – and also sat on the board, owning an 18 per cent stake. His original involvement came via friend Rob Smethurst, who bought the club’s assets following their expulsion from the EFL. “Rob was out one night, had a few beers and bought the club off Rightmove,” Savage says with a smile. “He rang me to ask if I would come in with him – at first, I said no!”

Savage knew very well how financially draining lower-league football clubs can be, but after visiting the club’s Moss Rose ground, he had a change of heart. Back-to-back promotions took them up to the seventh tier – one below the National League North – with a third thwarted by Marine in May’s play-off final. The manager for that was Michael Clegg. Savage still feels the pain.

“It really hurt,” he recalls. “Standing there seeing opponents celebrating, it was like, ‘Wow, we’ve got another season in this league’.” Just to make matters worse, Savage then received abuse videos from opposition players out celebrating that night, after one of them got hold of his number.

Savage was offered a managerial position at another club in the summer – one he “agonised over” – before Macclesfield stepped in to ensure he wasn’t lured away by appointing him their new gaffer, as Clegg departed. Savage knew it was now sink or swim.

“What people don’t see is that I’ve always got a point to prove to myself and to everybody around me,” he tells FFT. “I wasn’t good enough to play for Manchester United, but bounced back. Then, in my media career, I did [Radio 5] Sports Extra for a year, going to places like Colchester in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy to get the 606 gig. And now, as a manager, I have to prove myself.”

Savage claims no one else in the game has his depth of knowledge from the Premier League right down to Step Four of the non-league pyramid. He’s determined to couple that insight with graft. “There’s no switch-off,” he says.

Assistant manager John McMahon verifies this, explaining that Savage is constantly checking in whenever working abroad midweek. But Savage also trusts McMahon and fellow coach Peter Band “one million per cent – because we’ve got the same philosophy and ideas.”

Savage realises that if he moves up the leagues, which he insists he will, he will no longer be able to sneak out his phone mid-game to satisfy his parental anxiety over son Charlie at Reading.

He’s constantly learning. Initially he would sit down each player not in his XI to explain why. He realised that was unsustainable on a matchday. “So, now, I name the team at 1.30pm and tell the lads they can come and see me on a Tuesday morning and I’ll explain why they’re not playing. The first time I did it, only one lad came to speak to me.”

Savage has also worked on keeping his emotions in check. He cites an October clash with Matlock where, having raced into a 2-0 advantage, Macclesfield were level at the break.

“My head would have been boiling watching in the stands,” he says. “The old me would have gone bouncing in, even though it was not my right. But not now, because I’m in control. I feel like I can affect things more as a manager.”

McMahon helps on that front, often grabbing Savage for a quick pep talk prior to the half-time interval.

In hindsight, Savage accepts that his presence might have hindered former managers. “I heard one ex-manager say that it was like driving a Ferrari, and halfway through the drive I’d pull the wheel. I get it, but that was not through anything other than wanting success. As a manager here, would I have wanted me sitting behind me? No, I wouldn’t have, but it took me until I was the manager to get it.”

Savage knows that with Macclesfield’s sizeable budget and gates regularly over 3,000, anything less than promotion this season equals failure. They’re on target for that in the first half of the campaign, and topped the league with 14 wins and two draws after 16 games, 13 points clear of Worksop in second.

Savage’s detractors have pointed to Macclesfield’s budget, claiming anything other than first would be a catastrophe. “But there are other teams in the league with a budget up there with ours,” he hits back. “It’s harder for us to win the title because it’s everybody’s cup final.”

He’s not afraid to be tough with his squad, such as when hearing one of his players had boasted about his salary to the opposition mid-game. “The first thing I said in the dressing room,” he explains, “is that if I ever hear anybody at this club saying to another person about money, you will never kick a ball here again. You’ve got to be humble.”

He also believes in the value of loyalty and being true to one’s word. That’s why he turned down a “lucrative” approach from a Football League club in November. “If I were to walk out, what would it say about me? It was the right thing to do. I had to go with my heart.”

Savage is loving the early throes of management – his side are flying high. “This is the best thing I’ve ever done in my life, except for getting married and the birth of my kids,” he says. “When I won as a player it was great, but when you win as a management team, and the community, it’s even better.”

Savage’s squad is built for the league above. Their current trajectory suggests that is where they will be playing next season and, should a rumoured fresh investment come to pass, a Football League return may not be far away.