Luigi Macari (born 7 June 1949) is a Scottish former footballer and manager. He began his playing career at Celtic where he was one of the Quality Street Gang, the outstanding reserve team that emerged in the late 1960s that also included Kenny Dalglish and Danny McGrain. He is best known for his time at Manchester United, where he played over 400 games. He helped them win promotion back to the First Division and then played in their FA Cup win of 1977. He then finished his playing career at Swindon Town.
Macari was the manager of Swindon, West Ham United, Birmingham City, Stoke City (two spells), Celtic and Huddersfield Town.
Playing career
Celtic
Lou Macari was the only child of Margaret and Albert; he was born in Edinburgh, and spent the first year of his life with his family in the village of Newtongrange, before the family moved to London. His father was in the catering industry, and had represented the British Army at football. The family moved to Largs in North Ayrshire when Macari was aged nine. He was spotted playing for Ayrshire county by Celtic, and signed schoolboy forms for the club at the age of 16. He turned professional at the club in 1968, on wages of £15 a week.
Macari quickly became part of the renowned reserve side known as the Quality Street Gang that also included Kenny Dalglish, Danny McGrain and David Hay. In August 1968, Celtic Reserves needed to defeat Partick Thistle Reserves by at least seven goals to win their Reserve League Cup section over Rangers Reserves. Celtic won 12–0, with Macari scoring four goals.
Manchester United
After a promising start to his playing career with Celtic, he moved south of the border in 1973 for £200,000 to sign for Manchester United, where he spent the bulk of his playing career. During his time with Celtic he had scored 57 goals in 100 appearances since making his first team debut in 1970. He won three League titles and two Scottish Cups in his time at Celtic.
His first game for Manchester United came in January 1973 against West Ham United in which he scored a point-saving goal in a 2–2 draw. In 1977, his deflected shot off teammate Jimmy Greenhoff won Manchester United the FA Cup final against Liverpool (and ultimately denied Liverpool the European treble). He made 400 appearances for the club, scoring 98 goals.
Macari's early career at Old Trafford was spent trying to lead an attack that struggled to achieve anything. Relegation to the Second division in 1974 was the low point but Macari blossomed as a midfielder in the following seasons under Tommy Docherty, as United began to win back a large following with attacking football in which Macari enjoyed popularity alongside players such as Gordon Hill, Steve Coppell and the Greenhoff brothers.
Macari helped United win the Second Division title in 1975. They finished third on their return to the top flight and were runners-up in the FA Cup before going one better and lifting the trophy a year later. before making his debut for the full Scotland national team in May 1972 against Wales. He was a member of the Scotland squad for the 1978 World Cup tournament in Argentina. However, he attracted widespread criticism when it emerged that he had led complaints that the £20,000 bonuses the players would receive if they won the World Cup were too low, then made extra money by selling stories to the press about the disarray and tensions within the Scottish camp. As it turned out, the Scotland team lost their first match to Peru, and drew with Iran. They beat the Netherlands 3–2 but this was insufficient to proceed in the tournament and the Scotland squad returned home without qualifying for the knock-out stage. Macari and his team-mates did not receive the bonuses which were the subject of contention. He won a total of 24 senior caps, scoring five international goals.
Management career
After leaving Manchester United in 1984, he managed Swindon Town, West Ham United, Stoke City (twice), Celtic, Birmingham City and Huddersfield Town. As a manager Macari insisted upon a strict fitness regime, which included extra sessions in the players' free time and the banning of alcohol in and around the club.
Swindon Town
His successes in management came with two promotions at Swindon Town (Fourth Division champions in 1986 and Third Division play-off winners in 1987). Harry Gregg, Swindon's assistant manager, did not like the style of play implemented by Macari. The divide between Macari and Gregg became more noticeable, so the board chaired by Maurice Earle sacked both of them on Good Friday, 5 April 1985. Macari was then reinstated as manager on 10 April 1985 after a fan-led protest, Swindon then went unbeaten for their next six games, winning, four, and Macari won the Manager of the Month award.
West Ham United
His achievements at Swindon earned Macari a move to West Ham United in 1989–90, becoming the first manager there never to have worked for the club in a previous capacity. Macari was given the job on 3 July 1989. He had a reputation for discipline and tried to change the training and dietary habits of the players. This met with some disapproval within the playing ranks. Trevor Morley, Martin Allen, and Ian Bishop.
Birmingham City
Macari was appointed as manager at Birmingham City in February 1991. He guided the Blues to a 3–2 victory over Tranmere Rovers in the 1991 Football League Trophy Final. The 1992–93 season saw Stoke win the Second Division title after amassing 93 points and also went on a club record unbeaten run of 25 games.
Celtic
In October 1993, Macari left Stoke City and returned to Scotland to manage Celtic. Macari made several moves in the transfer market – none of them particularly successful. Gerry Creaney, one of the few consistent goalscorers at Celtic at that time, was played out of position on the right-wing for several weeks before being sold to Portsmouth for £600,000. Striker Willie Falconer was signed from Sheffield United, right-back Lee Martin and goalkeeper Carl Muggleton came north from England, and in what is considered one of Macari's poorest moves, Andy Payton moved to Barnsley in a part-exchange deal for journeyman striker Wayne Biggins. A miserable 4–2 defeat by Rangers in the New Year fixture at Parkhead left Celtic languishing in the league. An early Scottish Cup exit in January 1994 at Motherwell sealed another dismal season for Celtic. Fergus McCann took over as owner of Celtic in March 1994 and duly sacked Macari three months later.
Personal life
Macari's mother died just before the 1978 World Cup in strange circumstances. He subsequently discovered that she had overdosed on tablets. "My mum had been on her own, and in the conversation I'd had with her she said she had some friends up there. Putting the pieces together after she died, I just wasn't convinced that the friends were good friends. Some money had gone missing."
His sons Michael and Paul have played professionally with Stoke, when Macari was manager of the club. His youngest son Jonathan died by suicide in 1999 after being released from his contract at Nottingham Forest. Family friend and former manager Dave Bassett said that Jonathan could not handle the pressure of living up to his father's greatness. There was also talk of drugs affecting his son's life and leading to his suicide, but Macari later discounted that theory, admitting that much like the death of his mother, the complete story behind the tragedy may never be known.
His grandson Lewis plays for Notts County, having signed from Stoke City.
Macari worked with Stoke-on-Trent council to set up The Macari Centre, a street retreat to house the homeless sleeping rough, which opened in February 2016. In the COVID-19 pandemic, following the closure of the crowded premises of The Macari Centre, Macari rented a warehouse and filled it with glamping pods for homeless people, giving them socially distanced places of their own and their own individual addresses.
Career statistics
As a player
Club
Source:
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
|-
!rowspan="2"|Club
!rowspan="2"|Season
!colspan="3"|League
!colspan="2"|FA Cup
!colspan="2"|League Cup
!colspan="2"|Europe
!colspan="2"|Other
!colspan="2"|Total
|-
!Division!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals
|-
|rowspan="7"|Celtic
|1967–68
|Scottish Division One
|0||0||0||0||1||0||0||0||0||0||1||0
|-
|1968–69
|Scottish Division One
|1||1||0||0||3||0||0||0||0||0||4||1
|-
|1969–70
|Scottish Division One
|15||7||2||2||0||0||0||0||2||1||19||10
|-
|1970–71
|Scottish Division One
|11||5||1||1||8||5||1||2||0||0||21||13
|-
|1971–72
|Scottish Division One
|20||10||5||5||6||5||8||4||3||1||42||25
|-
|1972–73
|Scottish Division One
|11||3||0||0||6||4||3||2||3||0||23||9
|-
!colspan="2"|Total
!58!!26!!8!!8!!24!!14!!12!!8!!8!!2!!110!!58
|-
|rowspan="13"|Manchester United
|1972–73
|First Division
|16||5||0||0||0||0||0||0||3||0||19||5
|-
|1973–74
|First Division
|35||5||2||1||1||0||0||0||0||0||38||6
|-
|1974–75
|Second Division
|38||11||2||0||7||7||0||0||0||0||47||18
|-
|1975–76
|First Division
|36||12||6||1||3||2||0||0||0||0||45||15
|-
|1976–77
|First Division
|38||9||7||3||4||1||4||1||0||0||53||14
|-
|1977–78
|First Division
|32||8||4||3||1||0||2||0||1||0||40||11
|-
|1978–79
|First Division
|32||6||5||0||1||0||0||0||0||0||38||6
|-
|1979–80
|First Division
|39||9||2||0||3||0||0||0||0||0||44||9
|-
|1980–81
|First Division
|38||9||2||0||2||0||1||0||0||0||43||9
|-
|1981–82
|First Division
|11||2||2||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||13||2
|-
|1982–83
|First Division
|9||2||1||0||3||0||1||0||0||0||14||2
|-
|1983–84
|First Division
|5||0||1||0||2||0||2||0||0||0||10||0
|-
!colspan="2"|Total
!329!!78!!34!!8!!27!!10!!10!!1!!4!!0!!404!!97
|-
|rowspan="3"|Swindon Town
|1984–85
|Fourth Division
|27||3||1||0||1||0||0||0||2||1||31||4
|-
|1985–86
|Fourth Division
|9||0||0||0||3||0||0||0||0||0||12||0
|-
!colspan="2"|Total
!36!!3!!1!!0!!4!!0!!0!!0!!2!!1!!43!!4
|-
!colspan="3"|Career total
!423!!107!!43!!16!!55!!24!!22!!9!!14!!3!!557!!159
|}
:A. The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the Anglo-Italian Cup, Drybrough Cup, FA Charity Shield, Football League Trophy and Glasgow Cup.
International
{| class=wikitable style="text-align: center;"
|+ Appearances and goals by national team and year
|-
!National team!!Year!!Apps!!Goals
|-
|rowspan=5|Scotland
|1972||6||3
|-
|1973||4||0
|-
|1975||5||0
|-
|1977||6||2
|-
|1978||3||0
|-
!colspan=2|Total||24||5
|}
As a manager
Source:
|align=left|27 October 1993
|align=left|14 June 1994
|-
|align=left|Stoke City
|align=left|29 September 1994
|align=left|1 July 1997
|-
|align=left|Huddersfield Town
|align=left|16 October 2000
|align=left|14 June 2002
|-
!colspan=3|Total
|}
Honours
As a player
Celtic
- Scottish Division One: 1969–70, 1970–71, 1971–72, 1972–73
- Scottish Cup: 1978–79
- FA Charity Shield: 1977 (shared), 1983
- Football League Cup runner-up: 1982–83
As a manager
Swindon Town
- Football League Fourth Division: 1985–86
- Football League Third Division play-offs: 1987
- LMA John Duncan Award: 2023
References
General
Specific