‘I feared failure’ – why Savage left club that ‘saved’ him

“I have to leave the football club if I don’t pass this season.”

As head coach of Macclesfield, Robbie Savage excelled.

In his first managerial role, the former Wales midfielder achieved the aims set out at the start of the 2024-25 campaign as his team won promotion to National League North with six games to spare.

The Silkmen broke the 100-point barrier in the Premier Division of the Northern Premier League as the first team since 2017 to secure promotion from the top seven tiers of English football.

Then, five weeks before the start of the 2025-26 season, Savage abruptly quit Macclesfield and accepted a position in the league above as Forest Green Rovers head coach.

That brought an end to a four-year association with Macclesfield and a remarkable journey alongside best friend and club owner Robert Smethurst – the beginnings of which were witnessed in the 2021 BBC documentary Robbie Savage: Making Macclesfield FC.

We are taken behind the scenes as Savage begins his management career at the club he helped found in a new BBC iPlayer follow-up to 2025.

Robbie Savage follows players, staff, and supporters through a promotion-winning campaign.

After Macclesfield Town’s National League exit and closing in the High Court in September 2020, local businessman Smethurst purchased the club’s assets and sold them a month later.

Macclesfield FC was born and Smethurst brought in long-term friend Savage as director of football.

The organization’s stadium was in disrepair, the team had no players, and there was no league to play in. In time for the 2021-22 season, when they ranked ninth in English football, Metthurst and Savage needed nine months to create a club from scratch.

The pair assembled a squad that won promotions in each of their first two seasons, but momentum was halted in 2024 with a Northern Premier League play-off final defeat by Marine.

Robbie had to step up as the manager at that point, according to Smethurst.

Following the defeat, Boss Michael Clegg left the team, and Savage was named as the club’s head coach a day later.

“We’ve been through so much together. He is now the boss, Savage continues.

“Until the play-off final, I never, ever, ever wanted to be a manager.” This season I can’t fail”.

In the new documentary, Savage approaches management with a duck-to-water attitude. The former Premier League player believed his team could continue winning the entire season without losing. Macclesfield won 17 games without losing.

His squad bought in to that, and we hear from a number of players about Savage’s style of management.

Star striker Danny Elliott says, “He’s quite different from what you might think he’s like.” He shows great concern.

“Robbie understands us”, forward D’Mani Mellor adds.

The Silkmen won promotion to the sixth tier, which they did with a comeback victory over Bamber Bridge, but they did not have an “invincible” season and lost just three matches.

According to Smethurst, “He’s proven to be an unbelievable manager.” “I’m so proud of him”.

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.

Savage may have left Macclesfield, but his success on the field will be remembered as well as his team’s success.

Savage and Smethurst resurrected the area, giving the town a football team, and significantly improving the quality of life there.

“We’ve built a monster”, Smethurst says in one scene. We have “a large number of employees, 38 teams, 800 students in our academy, an international program, weekend tournaments, a bar, and a gym,” according to the statement.

In one scene, Smethurst explains that when he bought the football club he was in a “really bad place” and close to losing his life through addiction.

Smethurst continues, “The football club was amazing for me to rebuild my life.”

My life was saved by it. It’s given me a direction, it’s given me a purpose. I adore the fans, the people, and the town.

He thanks Savage for assisting him in becoming sober, and he is especially appreciative of his wife and family.

“I’ll never forget how much Robbie helped me and what he has done for me”, he says.

The pair continued to support one another for the duration of their relationship thanks to the friendship.

As well as the footballing challenge, being a recognisable football personality added to the daily stresses that Savage had to confront.

Savage claims that being a player and manager is “part and parcel of being me.”

In the documentary, footage of opposition supporters kicking Savage at him as he stands a few meters away from them is shown.

He explains how he would take a colleague wearing a bodycam to away games “to protect me and my family”.

Savage claims that the abuse I received as a player “made me a pantomime villain.” However, it can occasionally turn into a very hostile environment in non-league football when the fans are so close to you and alcohol is permitted.

” I’m supposed to stand there and just take it and if I give it back, what will be put out is my reaction, not why I reacted. “

However, the former champion of Derby County, Birmingham City, Blackburn Rovers, and Leicester City looks back on his time there fondly.

Savage asserts that what we have been through together is more than just a football team.

” It’s mentally helped save me after football and I think it’s saved Rob’s life, I really do.