Macca in The Times

Lovely story in The Times, by Henry Winter, on the non-league Haaland. I honestly can’t remember another time when we’ve had so much positive media coverage:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i...-you-mm2dlqtff

‘I’ve got people messaging me every week saying: oh, Erling Haaland’s catching you’

Notts County’s Macaulay Langstaff tells Henry Winter what it’s like to be compared to the world’s hottest striker and how he tries to replicate the Norwegian’s dedication to the game

Macaulay Langstaff used to play for £50 a week for Billingham Synthonia in the tenth tier of English football, turning out in front of 132 spectators at places such as Ossett Town in the FA Cup first qualifying round (he scored). Even then, Langstaff was focused totally on his football, eschewing nights out, just dreaming of climbing up the ladder. So now that his prolific feats for Notts County have led to him being dubbed “the non-League Haaland”, the amiable, ambitious Teessider is absolutely loving it.

After every goal Langstaff scores for County in the National League, the same merry messages keep flooding in from family and friends reminding him how Erling Haaland has done for Manchester City in the Premier League. Langstaff, 25, and Haaland, 22, both moved in the summer (from Gateshead and Borussia Dortmund respectively). Both hit the ground running and scoring. Both have 15 goals and three assists in their respective leagues. “It’s a little bit of fun,” Langstaff laughs when asked about the comparisons with the feted, remarkable Haaland (who also has five goals in three Champions League appearances for City).

There is a serious, significant side to this enjoyable narrative. The pyramid matters. There is good football being played “down” there. Dreams matter. There are good, young managers acquiring the skills of their trade, such as County’s Luke Williams. There are good players, such as Langstaff. He made National League history as the first player to win back-to-back player-of-the-month awards. His form has helped propel Williams’ attractive side to the top of the table, even beating big-spending Wrexham 1-0 last week (he scored).

It is more than footballing historians taking interest and pleasure in watching one of the founder members of the Football League finding their feet again after some dreadful years. County are rebuilding sensibly under a Danish consortium led by Chris and Alex Reedtz. “They’re so level-headed,” Williams says of the owners. Fans are flooding back to Meadow Lane. “We had nearly 11,000 against Wrexham in the fifth tier of English football,” Langstaff says of the 10,741, including the near-2,000 following from Wales. “That doesn’t happen in any other country. That just shows the size of the club and that the quality of the league has gone up a level.”

Langstaff’s prominence is a reminder of the gems that can be found in non-League (and credit to his coaches at Gateshead). For all the happy headlines about the “non-League Haaland”, Langstaff wants to be the next Jamie Vardy, who signed for Leicester City (then in the Championship) for £1m from non-League Fleetwood Town a decade ago, and has famously gone on to Premier League and FA Cup glory and England recognition. Vardy was the same age then that Langstaff is now.

As for the Haaland comparisons, Langstaff laughs again and emphasises “being mentioned in the same breath or sentence as him is a massive privilege in itself”. He adds: “It’s a little bit of fun. We’re levels apart at the moment. He’s at the very top level and I have ambitions to get there but, yes, it’s a bit crazy, seeing articles with my name next to his, it’s a bit surreal.

“I’ve got people messaging me every single week, ‘oh, Haaland’s catching you!’ It’s a good motivation to try and stay ahead of him!

“In comparisons, it’s probably only in the numbers. In terms of the way we play, we’re not very similar. He’s got a physical stature that’s a lot different to me. He’s very tall, powerful, strong. He shrugs off the defender, leaves them on the ground and puts the ball in the back of the net.

“I’ve scored a lot of tap-ins this year, got on the end of team build-ups. That’s the same with him sometimes, he doesn’t touch the ball for 30, 40 minutes and then he will pop up and score. The gaffer [Williams] points out some goals he gets at the back post, where he gets inbetween the full back and centre half, where you can’t be marked. He will score plenty more goals and if I can stay ahead of him, that will be unbelievable.”

Even Haaland won’t be able to score when the Premier League pauses during the World Cup. “I have thought about that!” Langstaff replies. “It would be a good time to get ahead of him.”

Langstaff reflects on their respective journeys. Haaland’s pathway from Bryne, in Norway’s second tier, to Molde, Red Bull Salzburg, Dortmund and now City has been well-planned with his father, Alfie, the former Leeds United and City player. “The advice that Erling’s had in terms of his father, and the experience his father had, could lead him on the same path, and I’ve not had that,” Langstaff says.

“But my family’s been brilliant with me. They’ve believed in me. We were not really a football family. None of my parents or grandparents played at any sort of level. But they’ve been massive in supporting me every single game since I was 10, 12, travelling up and down the country following me.

“I was at Billingham, which was the 10th tier. Then I got a move to Gateshead and went from part-time football earning £50 a week to playing full-time professional football. When I was going on loan to Blyth Spartans I was still so far ahead of where I’d been that I appreciated every single moment.

“There were times when I wasn’t playing as much and I was coming off the bench. I was going home a little bit down because I wasn’t achieving what I wanted to achieve. That is why I worked so hard because I appreciated where I came from and the effort I had put in to get where I was.”

So he admires Haaland’s dedication. “With the way the game’s going, you’ve got to sacrifice everything,” Langstaff says. “Sports science is massive and you see what you have to sacrifice to get to the top level, you see what Haaland’s doing now, it is no coincidence why he’s so successful.

“He’s lived the life right, he’s parked all that noise and nonsense that surrounds being a professional footballer, he’s focused on being the best he can, and improving. He’s doing the right thing off the pitch, and that’s what I am trying to do. He deserves the rewards because he’s a top player.

“I’ve sacrificed so much over the years to play football. I’m living the life a professional footballer needs to live. Friends socialise and as young lads it’s easy to get caught up in that and drink alcohol on a weekend. I don’t do that. Every now and then it’s good to let your hair down but you can’t do it regularly as a footballer otherwise it’ll catch up with you.

“I eat all the right foods and live my life right through the week leading up to a Saturday. If I don’t, I feel it in performances. I’m seeing the rewards on the pitch.”

Like Haaland, Langstaff contributes off the ball. “As much as Macca has scored a lot of goals, his work for the team has been equally as impressive,” Williams says. “He shuts people down, recovers back with the team. He’s incredible. You can see Macca almost on the edge of our box when we’re under big pressure and then he’ll drive the team forward in the next moment and be pressing the back line.”

This Saturday brings an FA Cup fourth qualifying round tie against Coalville Town at Meadow Lane. “The FA Cup’s probably the most prestigious competition in the world,” Langstaff says. “I grew up watching the FA Cup. I want a run in the FA Cup. Last year I had a run to the second round where we played Charlton on ITV for Gateshead. That was an unbelievable occasion.

“Getting to the third or fourth round would be unbelievable but the bread and butter is the league. A club this size… we need to be aiming for promotion.”

Inspired by the non-League Haaland, things are looking up for County.

A great read, and fantastic publicity for the club.

Looks like everyone has to have their own Macca story - now there’s this one from Paul Taylor, formerly of this parish, in The Athletic. I’m surprised no one’s talking to his former clubs about him…


One has 3,850 followers on Twitter, the other has three million.

One is paid £375,000 a week, the other used to get £50 a week playing for Billingham Synthonia.

Erling Haaland is one of the best-known footballers on the planet, following his £51million ($57.7m) move to Manchester City this summer. In contrast, Macaulay Langstaff does not even have a Wikipedia page.

But that is unlikely to be the case for much longer.

While Haaland has been making headlines with his scoring exploits in the Premier League, Langstaff has been in explosive form in the historic surroundings of Notts Country, following a £50,000 move from Gateshead in the same window.

A flurry of 15 goals in 13 games in the fifth-tier National League have earned him the nickname of the ‘Non-League Haaland’ — although he hopes to change the first part of that by the end of the season.

The friendly Teessider grew up idolising the likes of Mark Viduka, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Yakubu in their days at Middlesbrough — and was heartbroken when he was himself released from their academy as a 13-year-old.

But just over a decade later, following a journey that has taken him to Billingham Synthonia, Blyth Spartans, York City and Gateshead, the 25-year-old has not only already earned hero status at Meadow Lane — he finds himself in an unlikely competition with Haaland to see who can finish the season as the top goalscorer in the country.

Every time the Norway international adds another to his City tally, Langstaff’s phone lights up with messages.

“It is a bit of fun, isn’t it? It is mad to see your name mentioned in the same breath as Haaland — he is the best striker in the world at the moment,” Langstaff tells The Athletic. “So to be mentioned in the same sentence as him, is a massive, massive privilege.

“I have texts coming through every single week, with people teasing me, telling me, ‘Haaland is catching you’, or, ‘You have to score today to get ahead of him’. He is doing it at the very top level. But I have aspirations to get to that level and score goals there myself.

“I love watching him. Although I am getting to the point where I do not want to see him get any more, because I want to stay ahead of him.”

Langstaff is talking from the boardroom balcony at a ground that last hosted top-flight football in 1992, with Notts relegated in the weeks before the Premier League arrived, along with all its riches. A 20,000-capacity stadium feels incongruous in the surroundings of non-League football, where Notts are now into a fourth successive season, following three years of frustration in the promotion play-offs.

But if Langstaff can continue his scoring exploits, it will not do Notts any harm, as they look to finish ahead of Wrexham and their Hollywood connections and local rivals Chesterfield, in the race to secure the one automatic promotion spot — and to restore their status as the oldest Football League club in the world.

“I watch Haaland. I like to see his movement and the things he does. He is such a talent and he has incredible physical stature. Physically, in terms of that stature, and in the way we play, there are not many comparisons to be made, really,” says Langstaff, who at 5ft 8in (172cm) is nine inches shorter than his Etihad Stadium counterpart. “He is so tall and powerful. He does things I would not be able to do. The goals he scored against United (in City’s 6-3 Manchester derby win two weeks ago) — the jump from the corner, when he rose to attack that header… then the height and reach he had when he stretched to get the other one.

“I have to be clever around the box to create my own space and to create my own chances sometimes. But you do look at him and pick out things that I can take into my game. I want to try to get to see him in person. I think you would see how good he is then. If you get close to him (as a defender), he is so powerful and so quick, he will leave you on the floor. If you try to give him a yard and stand off him, he will turn and run in behind you. I don’t know how you defend against that.

“The amount of goals he has scored in the number of games… you wonder if he can keep it up. But then you think that there is no reason why he can’t… Premier League defenders are going to be sick of him.”

Notts appointed Luke Williams, the former Swindon Town manager who was also an assistant at MK Dons and Swansea City as their latest head coach in the summer and he has made an instant impact of his own, leading them to the top of the table with 30 points from 13 games.

He has also played a key role in Langstaff’s development.

“I was more of a wide No 10 with Gateshead — more of a winger. Here, I am a fox in the box. I do not get involved in the build-up. I just try to get myself into positions where I can get on the end of chances,” Langstaff says. “And we are a side that create a lot of chances. It has been a complete change. The gaffer is unbelievable with his ideas and with his tactics. I learned quite quickly how to play the role; how he wanted me to do things. I guess that shows.”

So what does Williams believe makes Langstaff such a threat?

“For me, it is instinct. It is selecting the right finish. He knows the right speed to hit the ball and at what angle. All these tiny differences can be the key,” Williams tells The Athletic. “Macca has the real calmness you need. He can analyse things and hit the ball with his left or right, he can head it.

“I am very lucky, because I played as a young man with Bobby Zamora and we are best friends to this day. I got to as many games as I can to watch him. I worked at West Ham on the community side of things. When he signed for West Ham, it was great to have my mate playing for the team.

“I have learned a lot about what good strikers prefer from him. If you provide good strikers with certain things, they will produce. Lots of the things I have seen in Bobby, I have tried to build in my teams — and Macca is the type of player who will take full advantage of the way we like to play. Good strikers keep calm in the big moments. I see those traits in Macca.”

And what about those comparisons with Haaland?

“There is something very innocent about it,” Williams says. “Haaland is the best No 9 on the planet. To be the other guy with the highest goal tally is a beautiful thing for Macca; to be even mentioned in the same sentence as that guy, is amazing.

“Macca is on the pitch doing his thing at the level he is at — and doing it brilliantly well. I think it is a lovely thing and I hope it continues. He will get more attention now, and that will come with frustrations. The first time in a player’s career when he starts to get special treatment from the opposition can be very difficult. But however much attention there is on Macca, there will always be a moment for him to hurt people.”

There is a refreshing down-to-earth attitude about Langstaff, who scored 28 goals in 39 appearances to help Gateshead to promotion from the sixth-tier National League North last season. He has quickly made himself at home on the banks of the River Trent. He is already being linked with clubs such as Peterborough United and Barnsley, who are both firmly in the League One promotion race, following his remarkable form.

“I knew I was coming somewhere that was good; where I would be able to thrive,” Langstaff says. “It is only one step up but, in terms of the size of the club, it should not be down here. It should be in the Football League.

“It is so tough to get out of this division, with only one automatic promotion place. But if we can get out, I think we would quickly kick on again. If we finish above Wrexham, we will probably be there or thereabouts.

“As for speculation… I am 13 games into a three-year contract. I was in a similar position last summer, when a lot of clubs were being linked with me. Notts were the ones who put their faith in me; who gave me the chance.

“It is about Notts; about winning promotion and nothing else. If you asked me whether I would rather get more goals than Haaland this season or, alternatively, win promotion — I would pick promotion without hesitation.

“I won promotion with Gateshead and the feeling of achievement you get from doing that for the fans outweighs any individual accolade you could ever get.

“If I can be top scorer and win the league, that would be unbelievable. If I can keep pace with Haaland in the meantime, great, because it means we are doing well as a team. I’ll give it my best shot.”

The interview with Henry Winter on Magpie Circle the other day is really good as well. He lives in Rutland and said he was passing Meadow Lane ot 1.45am one morning and took a picture of the gates and put it on his Twitter. It got loads of replies which shows the size of the club.

Lovely articles, well done Macca. Also well done to LW and the 1st team (plus a couple of others) for getting us into this position and as others have said, have some positive articles about us at last.