Martindale considered leaving Livi before takeover

BBC News

a day ago

David Martindale admits he was considering quitting the Livingston manager's job before being "rejuvenated" by Calvin Ford's takeover.The Livingston boss says a "massive weight" was lifted when American Ford took majority control in May, shortly before the club clinched promotion back to the Premiership.Martindale has been at Livi for more than a decade, becoming manager in 2020, and has dealt several off-field issues involving previous owners and finances."I'll be honest, when we were sitting on Zoom calls, I can't remember the exact dates, February, March, whatever it was, my head was, 'I need to try and take the club back to the Premiership and maybe look elsewhere for my career,'" he said."Calvin just came in and kind of rejuvenated me and the staff. It just gave everyone in the football club a massive lift because the previous years were difficult."Taking the club back to the Premiership with the old regime, it wouldn't have been ideal. It would have just been pushing water up a hill again."Then Calvin's come in, there's just been a real fresh impetus. Everybody, staff, upstairs and downstairs. That comes from his enthusiasm, his passion, his desire. Don't get me wrong, it never took a lot to light our fires again."The timing was impeccable in terms of Calvin came in before we got back to the Premiership. His words to me, I remember sitting in the hotel room in Ross County and the text message came through, 'Davie, don't think we have to take the club back to the Premiership. It would be great. But I'm here for the good and the bad times and I'll be here if you're in the Championship,' and maybe that helped me make better decisions in the dugout."It's just been a breath of fresh air. Once we knew that Calvin was fully on board and it was going to get done, I had a better night's sleep than I had for the last two or three years, to be honest. Because you've now got an upstairs looking after the upstairs."That's how I feel coming into my work every day. Winning games of football, but not dealing with the historical problems probably the last two or three years have presented, and be the first-team manager of Livingston Football Club, this is the first time proper I've had that opportunity. I'm now fully focused on the football side where historically I wasn't. It was impossible."