Macclesfield Town FC, a community club with 146 years of history, is another North West football team on the brink of extinction.
In mid-September it was announced that the Silkmen were being wound up after Judge Sebastian Prentis heard in the High Court that a total of around £500,000 was owned to HMRC and creditors such as John Askey, a former manager of the club.
Recent times have been tumultuous for Macclesfield when reports surfaced early in 2019 that some players had not been paid in three months.
The team was subsequently relegated to the National League at the end of the 2019/20 season after being deducted points as a result of their financial difficulties and the numerous instances in which players went unpaid.
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Fans have been frustrated with the continued influence and control of the majority shareholder, Amar Alkadhi, and believe the club would have been in a better position if the club had been sold at an earlier date.
A petition calling for the removal of Alkadhi was set up by fans almost a year ago.
After the winding-up order was issued last week, the Silkmen Supporters Trust (SST), who provided a loan of £10,000 to the club in April to ensure staff and players were paid, made it clear that they believed Alkadhi was to blame.
“The SST are devastated by the decision of the court to wind up Macclesfield Town Football Club,” they said.
“The responsibility for this lies at the feet of one person – Amar Alkadhi.
“The only way forward now, and it may be a positive, would be to form a new club, just like Bury have done, debt free and without Mr Alkadhi.”
It is yet another blow to footballing communities in the North West following the recent expulsion of Bury FC from the footballing league, and their subsequent threat of liquidation, as well as the precarious position of Wigan Athletic who fell into administration in July of this year.
Founded back in 1874, Macclesfield Town is one of the oldest football clubs in the country and have played their games at Moss Rose since 1891.
In the post-World War II era, where the club became known as Macclesfield Town rather than Macclesfield FC, the greatest period of success for the team came in the 1990s with former Manchester United midfielder Sammy McIlroy at the helm.
Taking charge of the team at the beginning of the 1993/94 season, Mcllory managed to steer the team to the top of the Conference and the promise of the English Football League in just his second season.
The Silkmen dominated the Conference, sitting top of the pack from November of 1994 until the end of the season, but promotion was unfortunately denied as their stadium did not meet the EFL requirements.
The team were eventually promoted to the EFL following the 1996/97 season, winning the Conference by five points; a remarkable feat given the fact that the club trailed the top spot by fifteen points earlier in the season.
Mcllory’s reign also saw the FA Trophy return to the Moss Rose for the second time in the club’s history (with a win against Northwich Victoria at Wembley) and promotion in two successive years in the 1997/98 season and a second-place finish in Division Three.
The Silkmen’s fortunes faded in the following season, returning to the third division after being relegated. The season also saw the departure of Mcllory.
The years since have seen several big names take the reigns, including Paul Ince and Sol Campbell.
Perhaps most fondly remembered, though, is Keith Alexander, who took charge of the club between 2008 and 2010 before he unfortunately passed away while occupying the role.
Alexander saved the club from being relegated to the Conference in 2008, extending the club’s run in the football league.
He is also widely regarded as a pioneer for racial equality in the game, previously becoming the first professional black manager in the EFL and the first professionally qualified black referee in England.
"I feel like I've been kicked in the stomach and I'm not sure I can get up."
It's been a heartbreaking week for Macclesfield Town fans.
In recent years, Macclesfield dropped out of the footballing league twice, although there have been a few bright spots since the team were initially relegated to the Conference in 2012.
These included the first appearance in the FA Cup fourth round and a promotion back into the Football League in 2019, but the financial issues have slowly mounted over the years.
Now, the future looks bleak.
Fans and employees alike are devastated that a club with such close ties to the community and a long footballing history is on the brink of collapse.
The club is yet to be officially liquidated, giving fans some small hope that a solution can be found.
But it is clear that the financial problems brought on by the modern game have resulted in yet another casualty, continuing a process of erosion in the game which leaves no room for the ‘little’ guys.
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Pep Guardiola hints at when Manchester City fans can expect to see their latest arrival
Danny Jones
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has given supporters a rough timeline as to when they can expect to see their new signing, or at least their latest arrival, make his first appearance.
The Blues wrapped up the January transfer window with four major signings: their new attacking number seven, Omar Marmoush (who has already bagged a hattrick on his home debut) promising defensive duo, Abdukodir Khusanov and Brazilian Vitor Reis, as well as their ‘mini-Rodri’, Nico Gonzalez.
However, the club has had another late arrival who was technically signed back at the start of last year but who has spent for the last 12 months or so loaned back to his previous parent club, River Plate in Argentina, waiting to make the move over to the Etihad Stadium – and now he’s here in Manchester.
Speaking on his touchdown in 0161, Pep said Claudio Echeverri won’t be thrown into first-team action straight away but did give a rough estimate as to when City fans could expect him to get involved. You can see him discussing the integration plan in his post-match press conference following the Spurs win.
The mention was only brief but there’s still plenty of reason for Man City fans to be excited by the late January signing.
“Yeah, he [Claudio Echeverri] is going to start to train and mainly will be for the end of the season, maybe the [Club] World Cup and as soon as possible [that] he arrives he can adapt quick for the future.”
As mentioned, the 19-year-old Argentinian attacking midfielder from Resistencia officially put pen to paper with CFG back in January 2024 and was quickly dubbed ‘the next Messi’.
Now, although the football world is often quick to jump the gun with these things and he isn’t the first and certainly won’t be last to be slapped with this premature title, he’s done more to back up these claims since then than he has rubbish them.
Starring at the 2025 Under-20 South American Championships, netting six goals in nine games to finish the tournament as the second highest scorer thanks to notable braces against Brazil and Uruguay as the young Argentine’s finished as runners up.
He also notched 48 senior appearances for River Plate thus far, netting four goals and grabbing eight assists in that time, not to mention having already captained his national team at the 2023 Under 17s World Cup, where he scored another five.
Safe to say there’s plenty of talent to be tapped in this lad.
Once again, Echeverri won’t go straight into the senior set-up for a little while yet, barring a major injury crisis, but he’ll be a more than exciting addition to the City Football Academy and for future first-team lineups for years to come.
Who knows, maybe he’ll be included in an FA Cup matchday squad? Nevertheless, you can expect him to not just come of the bench but hopefully show what he can do at the Club World Cup this summer.
City‘s first fixture as reigning champions of the competition will be against Moroccan side Wydad AC on 18 June 2025.
You can watch Echeverri’s first full interview as a Man City player down below:
The new Man City signing is excited to be finally be part of the club 13 months on from agreeing his contract.
‘Nothing is eternal’: Is Pep Guardiola hinting at the end of Manchester City’s supremacy?
Danny Jones
Pep Guardiola looks to have suggested that more than a decade of Manchester City’s supremacy and Premier League dominance at the very least might be coming to an end.
Speaking in his post-match press interviews after City were knocked out of the Champions League by serial European Cup winners Real Madrid, Guardiola cut a somewhat more deflated figure than usual following the 3-1 defeat.
A Kylian Mbappe hattrick which was closed out within an hour of play was enough to stretch the aggregate score to 6-3 over the two legs and Madrid doubling their lead across the tie proved yet again why, not unlike City domestically over the last decade, they’re the kings of the continental competition.
In contrast, however, Pep seemed to accept the loss much more easily than perhaps we’ve seen in the past and rather than appearing familiarly frustrated or defiant in the press conference; instead, he seemed rather reflective, responding to one reporter: “Nothing is eternal”.
🗣️ "Nothing is eternal" – Pep Guardiola.
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Insisting that they have to decide whether a significant rebuild is needed to keep competing at the very top level consistently as they have done since the 54-year-old arrived back in 2016, he argued that it is only with that they’ll be able to determine what comes next.
As for the result itself, he made no bones about Carlo Ancelotti’s side having “deserved it”, stating simply that “the best team won” and that fans and players alike have to “accept the reality: they were better.”
Having been a familiar foe for Pep long before he arrived in Manchester, both at Barcelona and Bayern Munich – not to mention City having faced Los Blancos a dozen times before Tuesday night since 2012 – there have been less surprising outcomes for supporters to come to terms with.
“With time, the club and everyone is going to accept what it is but for now we have 30/40 games for the Premier League next season to try and be here [in the Champions League] and to improve. Nothing is eternal”, said the Catalan coaching genius.
On the other hand, he also went on to add that it was merely a reflection on the night itself and not what his team have achieved in recent years.
He went on to remark that “when we were playing outstanding it hurt more” to be knocked out of the UCL when he felt they deserved to stay in it, but still insisted: “We have been unbelievable and we have to try step by step to get better from today.” Tonight just wasn’t the night.
Who knows? Perhaps it was just some more melodrama from a manager with an undeniable flare for pageantry and playing into/in the face of narratives when he doesn’t come out on top – which hasn’t happened all that often until their dip in form this season.
Plus, there’s certainly still plenty for him and the fans to be positive about; not only has the arrival of their ‘Egyptian Prince’ and the media’s Mo Salah successor, Omar Marmoush, got plenty of people excited – especially after that first-half hattrick against Newcastle – but so too have the other January signings.
In fact, for all of his downplaying in this particular presser (which you can hear in full HERE), it felt like there were only upsides after their victory over Newcastle, even going so far as to dub new signing Nico Gonzalez a ‘mini-Rodri‘.
You can watch the highlights from the game down below:
Pep is right, nothing is eternal – but sometimes you just come up against talents like Mbappe and there’s very little anyone can do about it.
Kate Jackson -
21st September 2020 
