Former Manchester United and Wales midfielder Robbie Savage has turned to a former City player and childhood friend for the next step of his project at Macclesfield FC.
Savage is currently the director of football at Macclesfield FC, a non-league phoenix club founded in 2020 after Macclesfield Town were wound up. The Welshman's involvement with the club has been well documented, with the BBC producing a two-part documentary about his involvement and his efforts to drive the side up through the divisions.
Now, with Macclesfield currently playing in the Northern Premier League West Division - the eighth tier of English football - Savage has turned to someone some City fans might be familiar with.
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On Saturday Macclesfield announced that former City midfielder Jim Whitley has joined the club as manager of the Under-18s side, with his first duties overseeing a 6-3 win for his team against Avro.
Whitley - whose younger brother Jeff also played for the Blues - was born in Zambia but moved to Wrexham in Wales where he befriended Savage at school. The pair have been friends ever since, and it was in fact Savage who encouraged Whitley to pursue his interest in football.
Whitley joined City when he left school and Savage joined United, where he was a member of the 1992 FA Youth Cup-winning team that included David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers. Savage never made a senior appearance for United but enjoyed a successful career representing the likes of Leicester, Birmingham, Blackburn and Derby.
Whitley made his City but in the 1997/98 season, and was voted as the club's Young Player of the Season. After a series of loan spells he left City in 2003, and continued his playing career with the likes of Sunderland and Cardiff.
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