WHO ARE MACCLESFIELD TOWN?

WHO IS KEITH ALEXANDER?

LAST SEASON'S VIDEO

WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?

Macclesfield Town are a side that you can virtually guarantee will always be lower-midtable. They're not a bad side to be honest and have a decent enough squad......however, their squad is full of those players who were average at Sincil Bank. They weren't bad players, but certainly nothing out of the ordinary. Players like Martin Gritton and Francis Green were never really good enough to be regulars at Sincil Bank.

I think Macclesfield are a strange club in a way. They constantly have amongst the lowest crowds in a division, they have a support that isn't exactly vocal (putting it nicely) and must surely have one of the smallest budgets in the division....and yet they never seem to get relegated.

I don't know what it is about Macclesfield but they have this habit of always avoiding relegation with considerable better sides going down. The only problem with Macclesfield constantly surviving relegation is that they never build on their survival and mount a decent push for promotion. That has a lot to do with never properly replacing Jon Parkin.

I'm not going to pretend that I like Macclesfield Town, I couldn't really give a toss whether they won promotion or got relegated without winning a single game during the whole season, but they are certainly one of the clubs that I respect in this division. They don't claim to be anything other than what they are. Let's face it, Macclesfield are a small club, but you'll never hear them boasting that they are one of the best sides in the division....unlike fans of some of their neighbouring League Two clubs *coughs*Chester*coughs*.

One of the biggest variables in Macclesfield's season will be the question "Can Keith reproduce what he did at Sincil Bank?" In theory, the answer would be yes, but Keith has failed to do it at the other clubs since leaving Sincil Bank. Simon Yeo's not exactly been freescoring since leaving Sincil Bank, Martin Gritton hasn't been prolific since leaving Torquay and Francis Green was never prolific. Adding to that a striker who isn't proven in League Two (Neil Harvey) it's hard to see where their goals will come from.

I think that Keith is capable of doing great things with Macclesfield, but he will certainly need to reproduce exactly what he did with Lincoln several years ago. Keith certainly needs more than he's already got at Moss Rose if he's going to take them forward, but I just can't picture it.

As mentioned above, Macclesfield have a squad good enough to easily avoid relegation, but not much more than that. I think 19^th would be a reasonable finish for them, but Keith will then start building the club up and they can push on from there.

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