In her hit Someone Like You, Adele sings of love, loss and moving on in the aftermath of a relationship ending.
Such a scenario was soon to be faced by Macclesfield.
Savage received an offer from Forest Green resounding in recognition of his success with Macclesfield.
Not only did Macclesfield lose their manager, but his assistant John McMahon and three players went too, as Tre Pemberton, Neil Kengni and club captain Laurent Mendy followed Savage to Gloucestershire.
Savage claims in the documentary that he has always had open and honest communication with Rob. I called him and said I had the privilege of speaking with a club. Rob said ‘ you have my blessing, go and smash it’. That was all I needed to hear.
Smethurst is obviously happy for his friend to succeed, but Savage’s exit quickly leaves him feeling hurt.
“It’s like losing my left arm”, he says. The league had just been won. Why he was going didn’t make sense.
” Sav had loads of opportunities to leave, I didn’t think it would ever happen. I believed we were together in something. Our goal was to restore this football team to League Two.
“Now he’s gone it does feel very different, but nobody can ever deny what Sav did for this football club”.
The pair are reunited at the conclusion of the documentary when Smethurst visits Savage at his new club.
Before arriving at Savage’s office, they give each other a hug and stroll through the training facilities.
“We were all on such a high”, Smethurst tells him. We had a few budget disputes, spent a lot of time looking at players, and we were entering the summer.
It seemed as though the heart had been ripped out of the middle because it happened so quickly.
“People genuinely believed that you were going to be with us forever. The fans’ reaction to how quickly it happened was both the speed and letdown.
Savage claims he wasn’t aware the backlash was as bad as he had anticipated.
“It makes me sad”, Savage says. I want to “pop in” whenever I drive past. Because it was our club, it hurts. We built it from nothing.
Because we were together, I could have continued working there for five years. For the first time in my life, I feared failure. The stress was too big, I felt so much responsibility and it took over my life. I can concentrate solely on being a football manager here.
Forest Green are currently fourth in the National League, one point behind them having lost only once this season.
Under new manager John Rooney, Macclesfield are 14th in National League North but have games in hand that could push them towards the play-offs, and are through to the second round of the FA Cup.
Savage tells Smethurst, “I wouldn’t be sitting here if you hadn’t given me the opportunity to manage the first team.” Therefore, I owe you everything for my management career.