Lou Macari - Management Career

Management Career

As a manager Macari insisted upon a strict fitness regime, which included extra sessions in the player's free time and the banning of alcohol in and around the club.

After leaving Manchester United in 1984, he managed Swindon Town, West Ham United, Stoke City (twice), Celtic, Birmingham City and Huddersfield Town.

When I took my first management job at Swindon in the old Fourth Division, one of the things I had to adjust to was the fact I was working with players with lesser ability than at Old Trafford. There was a danger of demanding they play like top-flight footballers and then become frustrated with them when they couldn't. But I didn't see any reason why the players at Swindon couldn't be as fit as the players at Manchester United. That was something we worked really hard on, the players accepted it, and we reaped the rewards with promotion in my second season." —Macari recalls his Swindon days.

His successes in management came with two promotions at Swindon Town (Fourth Division champions in 1986 and Third Division playoff winners in 1987), a Football League Trophy with Birmingham City in 1991, the same trophy in 1992 along with a promotion for Stoke City (Division Two champions in 1993). After a brief and unsuccessful spell at Celtic he returned to Stoke City and took them to the Division One end of season playoffs in 1996 for a place in the Premier League, however they lost to Leicester City in the semi-finals 1–0 on aggregate. He left Stoke after the following season which was less successful with them finishing in mid-table, however a period of decline soon followed for the Potters.

Macari returned to management in 2000 with Huddersfield Town who were in relegation trouble after a poor start to the season. He could not prevent them from being relegated from Division One at the end of the 2000–01 campaign. Macari managed to steady the ship in 2001–02 and lead the club into the Division Two playoffs as the Terriers looked to bounce straight back up. However they were defeated by Brentford in the semi finals. Macari's contract was not renewed for the next season with Huddersfield's board stating his defensive style of football as the reason. This was to be Macari's last managerial role and despite being linked with various positions since has not ventured back into management.