EASE of travel and the tendency for accommodation to be included as part of a player’s contract means that many clubs have lost touch with their community, the lack of local boys-done-good in the team often affecting the affection shown from the terraces.
At the top of the game, you only have to look at how Steven Gerrard is treated as a God at Liverpool, Ryan Giggs at Manchester United, John Terry at Chelsea and Jack Wilshere at Arsenal to see how it works.
Chris Holroyd’s return to hometown club Macclesfield Town might not seem quite so important, but speaking to the former Chester City man this week, it could help have a similar impact on a smaller scale.
The Iraqi owners, the London-based Alkadhi brothers, have transferred their loans into shares for the club to become a Community Interest Company, they have local men Mike Rance and Andy Scott back on the board and Cheshire East Council bailed them out to the tune of £285,000 by purchasing the freehold of the Moss Rose ground.
But they need to raise £100,000 – half by the end of July, the rest by August’s close – to survive and only the local folk can help them do that. Despite the uncertainty, Holroyd, a lightning quick striker who has toured England in recent seasons, has agreed to return to the club where he enjoyed a loan spell last term, so he clearly believes in Silkmen stalwart John Askey’s appointment as manager.
Detached
Previous boss Steve King took Macc on a record-breaking FA Cup run, where only eventual winners Wigan Athletic prevented them reaching the fifth round, and Town briefly topped the Blue Square Bet Premier table during the opening half of last season.
But you sensed from day one that an Eastbourne-based manager was never going to succeed long-term.
And bearing in mind their free-flowing attacking play that excited and, it should be said, exasperated many, Macc weren’t so much Harlem as the Harlesden Globetrotters, with a core of London boys in the team.
Holroyd, who says he loved playing for King’s Macc more than anywhere else since Cambridge under Gary Brabin, Martin Ling and Paul Carden, senses that is about to change.
“It’s an interesting situation going on at the club at the moment, but I met with the manager and was quite excited by the fact that he wants to get a lot of players based in and around Macclesfield,” says Holroyd.
“He wants to get that feeling back of having players that really want to do well for the club, and I think the fans can see that. I think that will be in our favour next year.”
Having moved from Cambridge to Brighton, then Stevenage, Bury, Rotherham, Preston and Morecambe, the still fresh-faced 26-year-old knows all about life on the road.
“You don’t see it a lot where local lads play for their team,” he goes on. “I think that players can become quite detached from fans nowadays, because there are a lot of people that do travel.
Shunted
“It’s nice for fans to be able to bump into a player at the supermarket or out and about in town, having a coffee, and just have a chat. I think that link between the players and the community goes missing a lot at some clubs, so it’s nice that the manager wants to bring that back to Macclesfield.”
While the club’s long-term future remains uncertain, Holroyd is the type of player who needs to know where he lies.
“Now is the time to settle down somewhere,” he acknowledges.
I had a similar chat with Matt Green two summers ago, after he’d joined Mansfield on loan from Oxford. Having been the young kid coming through, scoring goals while winning promotions at Torquay and the Kassam, Green always found himself shunted out to the wing, or on loan.
At 24, the summer of 2011 was a landmark one for him and two seasons, 57 goals and a championship win later, he’s heading back into the Football League a more rounded striker, with the Stags or a bigger club.
The same could go for Holroyd, who although two years older, has not played as much football as Green had under his belt back then. Since scoring 25 goals in 52 starts for Cambridge between August 2008 and January 2010, the most games he’s started for any of the seven clubs since is the 15 on loan at Macc, netting nine times in the process.
But if you’re looking for a Golden Boot bet for next year – with his roots already there, a manager who believes in him and his mates in the crowd right behind him – hot-shot Holroyd could be your man!
