I did have a feeling this was a good move for Macclesfield and so it proved. It's amazing the impact that a bit of star quality can have right at the lowest levels. These are very low paid players at a club with a budget that would be small in the National League, and having a huge name like Sol Campbell walk into the dressing room can really give lower league players a lift and spark them into that extra 10% you need to make a difference. It worked with Paul Ince before and has worked again now it seems. What happens from here will be the test for Sol. Was this success just new manager bounce where star struck lower league players raised their game for a man who has played at a level and won things they could only dream about - or has he genuinely got something about him managerially? The star power thing usually only works once, if he gets an offer from a higher division this summer I think he'd be smart to take it. Macclesfield will again have the lowest budget in the division and are likely to struggle again so I think he'd be better moving on because if he stays there too long I think gravity will eventually take hold. If he does move it'll be interesting to see how it goes. Paul Ince wasn't able to make a success of it in the higher leagues after doing a similarly great job at Macclesfield - will Sol Campbell go the same way? Whether it was star power or genuine managerial skills, no doubt he deserves huge credit for a fantastic job this season.
I think he'd be better off staying at Macc for a bit and proving himself. How long has he been there, 6 months or something? He should give it at least a year so other clubs can see what he can do beyond new manager bounce before making any conclusions about his potential. Macc are one of the smallest teams in there and have money problems and if they're sitting well away in mid table or higher around Christmas then we'll know that 'the greatest mind in football' might be just that.
They've been lucky to stay up tbh. The bottom 2 have been terrible and it's a low points total. It should be 3 up 3 down as well. You have to be really awful to go down from League Two. He's done well to keep them up from where they were, but it'll be better to assess him after a full season with a pre-season behind him and his own team. He got 31 points from 26 games and 18 points in his last 18 games which suggests it was the new manager bounce that kept them up along with Yeovil's implosion. It'll be interesting to see how he does next season.
Macclesfield have had trouble paying their players so presume there are a few financial issues for Campbell to work with but then he probably enjoys the challenge.
