LOU MACARI
MIDFIELDER (1972-1984) 400 APPEARANCES 97 GOALS
Lou Macari joined United from Celtic in 1972 for £200,000, which at the time made him one of the most expensive footballer players in Britain. At firs in his earlier days in his career he was employed as a striker, despite being 5 foot 6 inches tall he was one of the tiniest around, but that didnt mean much to him really. But Tommy Docherty converted him into a midfield operator, after he failed to make it as a regular goalscorer in the top flight of english football. His ability to get forward from deep positions made him a potent penalty area presence. His debut was an impressive one against West Ham at Old Trafford where he managed to grab himself a goal in a 2-2 draw. He grabbed himself three goals on the way to wembley in 1977 for United, and he was the setup of in the winning goal against liverpool. It was Lou's shot that flew off Jimmy Greenhoff and flew into the back of the net past Liverpool goalkeeper Ray Clemence. He only won a couple major honours at his time with United, 1 F.A cup, and the second division championship, where he was top scorer with 11 goals.The main thing that sparkled and standed out in Macari's game aside from energy as a box to box player was the sheer class of his dribbling skills with the mazy tricky runs and close control he possessed. A pure example of this and probably one of Macari's finest hours as a United player was the F.A cup final in 1977 where United beat Liverpool 2-1. As i explained earlier he also self made a goal for his team to cap off his fine performance. He was always a very consistent performer when he was taken back into the heart of the midfield. At his time he was a fans favourite at Old Trafford. He also got himself 24 caps for Scotland where he scored 5 times. Lou left United in 1984 when he fell out of favour with Ron Atkinson who took the mantle of the boss from Dave Sexton, who had a very short spell as the United boss. He bleeded United red and he still does on the sofas to this day. He is as close to a mancunian from outside manchester as you can get.
Macari did try his hand in management after leaving United and retiring, where he managed swindon, west ham, birmingham, his beloved celtic and huddersfield. He also had two stints at Stoke, but nothing has really been made too much of his managerial career, certainly not like his playing days. But his brief time at Huddersfield was his best, where he couldnt prevent them from being relegated to division two, where the following season he managed to get them to the play offs but lost out at the semi final stage, Huddersfield didnt renew his contract and let it run down as they didnt llike his defensive style of play.
Nowadays Macari works for MUTV a lot and Sky sports on certain occassions. He also owns a fish and chip shop down Chester Street near Old Trafford, called ''Lou Macari chip shop'', which i have had the privilidge of having a portion from, I must say they are'nt too bad.