The legendary Town boss discusses his County Ground days and the ups and downs of learning the managerial trade

Just the week before, the Scot, who had just finished his playing career at Manchester United, had thought that The Baseball Ground would be his destination.

Instead a last-minute change of heart from the board of Derby County meant that Kevin Keegan and Arthur Cox took the reins of the Rams.

Derby’s loss was Swindon’s gain and the reason why Macari’s name is still so fondly talked of by so many who support the club today.

“I finished my paying career at Manchester United and was thinking about going into management,” said Macari, as he remembered how he came to call Wiltshire his home for five years.

“I had gone for an interview at Derby and I thought I had the job because I had spoken to one of the directors. Then, at the last minute, Kevin Keegan got the job with Arthur Cox.

“I think in the same week the Swindon Town job came up and what I knew about Swindon was John Trollope, Don (Rogers), who had played in the cup final, and people like that.

“The only other thing I knew was when I looked at the league table and saw where they were. I saw they were struggling near the bottom of the old fourth division.

“There was nothing wrong with that because that is why you get a job, when teams are struggling.

“I went down to an interview and I think at the time there were about 12 board members. To cut a long story short, I got the job and didn’t have a clue what to expect because I hadn’t been in management before.”

It was not the first time Swindon had taken a gamble on relative novices to management and it was not to be the last with Glenn Hoddle, Ossie Ardiles and Paolo Di Canio to name three that still live in the memory.

Swindon were not in a good state after a series of managers had left them in the fourth tier, but when Lowndes Lambert agreed a sponsorship deal with the club they demanded a high-profile manager.

Macari was the man charged with rebuilding a side who only had nine professional players on the books.

However it was not long before the relationship between him and a member of staff turned sour.

“It would be wrong of me to say that I was geared up for anything because I wasn’t, but the one thing I was prepared for was that this wasn’t going to be Manchester United because it was the fourth division,” Macari answered, when asked what he was expecting when he took the job.

“Anything connected to Manchester United wasn’t going to happen at Swindon, the money wasn’t going to be there, your wages for players compared to Manchester United definitely weren’t going to be there and it was going to be a slog to get them up and running again and get them doing something.

“That is the view I took when I took the job, I thought this is going to be tough and if I can pull it off then great.

“I had a fall out with a member of staff and both of us got the sack.”

It was Good Friday when the duo were axed by the board but, despite an average start to the season, the board’s action sparked protests from the Swindon Town faithful and it was not long before Macari returned to the dug-out - a decision that to this day still baffles the now 65-year-old.

“I was delighted that I was back in the role again, I hadn’t been there that long,” he added.

“I was a bit surprised, because on results up until then I couldn’t really see any reason why the fans should have been behind me.

“If we were running away with the league title and going great guns I could understand that, but they had a belief in me that I probably didn’t have in myself.

“I had no idea what lay ahead, but they must have had a feeling that I was the man for the job and I got my job back and it was a great relief.

“I had great support from the supporters and I have got to mention John Trollope (who was youth team manager at the time) and Kevin Morris (physio), who is sadly no longer with us, Eddie the kit man.

“They were all the people who were behind me and it is the secret of success at any football club.

“There is no one person at any level of football who can deliver, you need to have the support and the help behind the scenes.”

The next season Town started slowly and, after eight games, had only picked up seven points. It looked as though it was going to be another long slog for the team.

However, a 2-1 home win against Exeter City on October 1, courtesy of goals from Colin Gordon and Colin Calderwood, set Town on their way to winning the league with a record points tally of 102, breaking 17 club records in the process.

Macari gets involved with some post-match celebrations in the bath tubs

“I remember starting off the season we got promotion and (after) the first eight or nine results, (the) points haul was something ridiculous and there was no real sign there that this was a team or a club that was heading for promotion.

“We started working hard and we knew we couldn’t bring in players for any type of money, transfer fees were out of the question, so we had to make do with what we had and went looking for one or two players.

“I went out in the afternoon watching the reserve games, because they all played in the afternoon then, and went to some double headers, covered a lot of games and brought in a few players that, come the end of my time at Swindon, did fantastic for me. They did fantastic for themselves and did fantastic for the club.

“I tallied up the total amount of money the club got in from the players that I had brought to the club and it was something close to £10 million.

“That money, it’s still big money for Swindon, but can you imagine £10 million back in the 1980s, it’s a fortune.”

The success did not end there for Macari and his side, as they secured back-to-back promotions the following year, through the newly-introduced play-off system.

Two goals from Steve White were enough to send Swindon up at Selhurst Park, after a clawing back a two-goal aggregate lead in the second leg of the final against Gillingham to force a replay.

After replacing top goal scorer Jimmy Quinn, with record signing Duncan Shearer prior to the 1988 season, Macari’s men just missed out on making it in to the top division when they lost to Crystal Palace in the play-offs, which was to be the last game in charge for the Scot.

“The only disappointment for me was, after climbing out of different leagues, not to make it to the top league, having been beaten in the play-offs,” he said.

“On the other hand, the fact that we continued season after season to do it, I thought that was fantastic of the players I had there at the time.

“I was asking them to work hard day after day and it was no problem for them.

“I have got to give credit to the board. Certain members of the board we had at the time and I will pick out four, who were very supportive to me were Brian Hillier, Colin Howard, Nick Arkell and Gary Herbert.

“Those four in particular were very helpful and very supportive. Whatever way they could support they did it and, as we know, that support sometimes came along in the terms of money.

“We were beating teams like Chelsea in the cup and Colin Calderwood would knock on my door on behalf of the rest the players who were a bit disgruntled that the players were only getting £30.

“Those people I am talking about helped to stump up an extra £50 a player which - this is crazy in this day and age - obviously led to a bit of trouble.”

Macari faces the press in 1992 after being cleared of tax offences during his County Ground tenure

That trouble led to a long drawn-out court case where the club admitted to 36 charges of breaching league rules, due to illegal payments made to players.

“The trouble was self-inflicted, but certainly not by any of those four men,’’ reflected Macari.

“Similar requests would have been the norm and the football league could have chosen between 40 clubs to punish, but they chose Swindon.

“I would have no hesitation in saying to you if I thought they were bad directors, but they weren’t.

“They were good directors, who supported their manager and supported their players - and the reward they got for that hard work was a load of grief.”

The fall-out left Town being relegated to the third division and Macari resigning from his job at West Ham after just six months in charge following his move from the County Ground.

“Most managers do move on, especially if they have been successful because you become wanted,” Macari added.

“I turned down the Chelsea job. I spoke to Ken Bates who gave me the job and sort of picked my assistant and I didn’t agree with that, so I got my chance with West Ham but unfortunately all the nonsense at Swindon blew up.’’

You would not blame Macari for having a bad taste left in his mouth when it comes to Swindon after that but that is not the case and he has become a much-loved figure at the club and even has a suite at the County Ground named after him.

“That was a down side to my time at Swindon but it certainly didn’t out-weigh the up side of it, which was fantastic,” he added.

“I am delighted that fans still hold me in high regard because when you leave a football club, a lot of the time you are just forgotten.

“It couldn’t have gone better for us.

“Nearly six years I was there and you are going to have ups and downs. Those downs that we had, whether they were at the start or the end, they are to be expected.

“For a first job, I couldn’t have asked for a better time at a football club.

“I have thought about it many times and it couldn’t have been much better apart from getting promotion in that last big step we were trying to make.”

You can catch Lou Macari on your TV this Christmas as he appears in Marvellous, a documentary on Stoke City kit man Neil Baldwin. It will air on BBC 2 at 11pm on Christmas Day.