'Players were in tears' what it was really like as Macclesfield collapsed
almost 5 years in The guardian
Club’s former full-back and PFA delegate James Pearson on training, money and mental health issues amid the crisis
When James Pearson was coming round from knee surgery in hospital last November, it was a case of getting straight to work. As the Professional Footballers’ Association delegate at Macclesfield Town, a liaison between union and dressing room, unpaid wages meant more chasing. It was a prime example of the destabilising financial chaos that put paid to the club. “I was in bed on the phone to the players, the PFA, corresponding with the owner, talking about why we hadn’t been paid,” he says.
Even now Pearson has more questions than answers about the financial turbulence surrounding the owner Amar Alkadhi’s reign. “Across last season we had 10 different training locations. Knutsford to Stoke, to the University of Manchester – here, there and everywhere. Why was that? … But every player got on with it because – it shouldn’t be – but it was ‘the norm’; on a Sunday night we would have a text off [the former assistant coach and player] Danny Whitaker or a member of staff in the group chat telling us where we were going the next day, giving us the new postcode.” Continue reading...
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