Maradona on almost signing for the Blades!

[nopigfansintown]

We were discussing this on another thread, but I thought it was worth a thread of its own as I promised to dig out the magazine.This is from a question and answer session Maradona gave in FourFourTwo magazine in the January 2011 edition, pages 58-9. (issue number 198). As far as I know this is the only time Maradona commented on the long held rumour, myth or old wives' tale.

Question: I couldn't believe it when I heard my team Sheffield United put in a bid for you while you were young, only for your club Argentinos Juniors to reject it. Did you know anything about this bid at the time? Jamie Hamilton (Blades fan)

Maradona's answer: Yes! Not only was it a real offer, it seemed that the transfer was about to happen - Carlos Fren and me. We were both going to travel: I think we even had our flights bought. I think you're not going to sleep well today, but I swear, we were really looking forward to it .But then, the transfer collapsed and we couldn't go.Sheffield and Arsenal, they both tried to sign me. It would have been a pleasure to play in England.

 

[BushBlade]

We were discussing this on another thread, but I thought it was worth a thread of its own as I promised to dig out the magazine.This is from a question and answer session Maradona gave in FourFourTwo magazine in the January 2011 edition, pages 58-9. (issue number 198). As far as I know this is the only time Maradona commented on the long held rumour, myth or old wives' tale.

Question: I couldn't believe it when I heard my team Sheffield United put in a bid for you while you were young, only for your club Argentinos Juniors to reject it. Did you know anything about this bid at the time? Jamie Hamilton (Blades fan)

Maradona's answer: Yes! Not only was it a real offer, it seemed that the transfer was about to happen - Carlos Fren and me. We were both going to travel: I think we even had our flights bought. I think you're not going to sleep well today, but I swear, we were really looking forward to it .But then, the transfer collapsed and we couldn't go.Sheffield and Arsenal, they both tried to sign me. It would have been a pleasure to play in England.

He called us Sheffield. Wanker. That's probably the worst thing he's ever done.

 

[nopigfansintown]

He called us Sheffield. Wanker. That's probably the worst thing he's ever done.

Hand of God's right up there, no?

 

[coaxingstar71]

We'd have ruined him and then sold him to Leeds.

 

[itsinyerblood]

We were discussing this on another thread, but I thought it was worth a thread of its own as I promised to dig out the magazine.This is from a question and answer session Maradona gave in FourFourTwo magazine in the January 2011 edition, pages 58-9. (issue number 198). As far as I know this is the only time Maradona commented on the long held rumour, myth or old wives' tale.

Question: I couldn't believe it when I heard my team Sheffield United put in a bid for you while you were young, only for your club Argentinos Juniors to reject it. Did you know anything about this bid at the time? Jamie Hamilton (Blades fan)

Maradona's answer: Yes! Not only was it a real offer, it seemed that the transfer was about to happen - Carlos Fren and me. We were both going to travel: I think we even had our flights bought. I think you're not going to sleep well today, but I swear, we were really looking forward to it .But then, the transfer collapsed and we couldn't go.Sheffield and Arsenal, they both tried to sign me. It would have been a pleasure to play in England.

That's one of the great disappointments in United's history. Not only could we have signed a world class player still to hit his prime, but we could have capitalised on his worth when it came to negotiating his transfer. Forget the hand of god, DM was one of the greats and what pleasure he would have brought to Blade's supporters.

 

[South Bucks]

The way I heard it some time ago is we were offered Maradonda for quite a modest transfer fee, wasn't alot, but we couldn't meet it and Sabella was cheaper so we went for him instead.

 

[BushBlade]

Hand of God's right up there, no?

Seriously?

 

[CrookesBlade]

We'd have ruined him and then sold him to Leeds.

Would have got him to 'run the channels' though.

 

[nopigfansintown]

Seriously?

Of course not - it was providence. You can't argue with providence. In the same interview he's completely unrepentant about it To paraphrase, I come from a street football culture and anything's permissible. Winning's everything.

 

[coaxingstar71]

The way I heard it some time ago is we were offered Maradonda for quite a modest transfer fee, wasn't alot, but we couldn't meet it and Sabella was cheaper so we went for him instead.

A reported fee of £500k.

Blades board refused to sanction it and we bought Sabella for around £160k instead.

 

[BushBlade]

Of course not - it was providence. You can't argue with providence. In the same interview he's completely unrepentant about it To paraphrase, I come from a street football culture and anything's permissible. Winning's everything.

No, I meant did you seriously believe I thought calling us Sheffield was the worst thing the cheating coke-head has ever done?

 

[South Bucks]

A reported fee of £500k.

Blades board refused to sanction it and we bought Sabella for around £160k instead.

Think I heard 400 k but I have no reference. Warnock would have played him at right back in key games anyway.

 

[nopigfansintown]

No, I meant did you seriously believe I thought calling us Sheffield was the worst thing the cheating coke-head has ever done?

Oh, ok. Or should I say whoosh. On reflection I think Diego was stressing that there's only one club in Sheffield. His references to South Barnsley must've been omitted.

 

[nopigfansintown]

Think I heard 400 k but I have no reference. Warnock would have played him at right back in key games anyway.

This article claims Sabella was signed for the sake of 440k. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/28069978

The story goes that Haslam got Sabella from River Plate for £160,000 after refusing to pay an extra £40,000 for Maradona - but it later emerged that Argentinos Juniors had wanted £600,000 for the still unproven 17-year-old.

 

[Lmaobob]

That's one of the great disappointments in United's history. Not only could we have signed a world class player still to hit his prime, but we could have capitalised on his worth when it came to negotiating his transfer. Forget the hand of god, DM was one of the greats and what pleasure he would have brought to Blade's supporters.

think about where maradona took napoli... then think about where we could've been with maradona

 

[bladesmanluke]

If we signed him today he'd make 8 appearances for us before selling him on to West Bromwich Albion for £3m

 

[Treeton Blade]

He called us Sheffield. Wanker. That's probably the worst thing he's ever done.

To be fair, Steve Bruce called Wed `Sheffield` on Sat, and he`s managed us!

Now theres a wanker

Apart from continuing to beat Wed

 

[pommpey]

Hand of God's right up there, no?

No. A mere bagatelle. Calling us Sheffield ... I fucking ask you.

Cheeky fat druggy twat. Who does he think he is? Baxter?

pommpey

 

[BushBlade]

No. A mere bagatelle. Calling us Sheffield ... I fucking ask you.

Cheeky fat druggy twat. Who does he think he is? Baxter?

pommpey

Maradonna - Just a shit Jose Baxter.

 

[I should coco]

Maradonna - Just a shit Jose Baxter.

"...and the winner of the slowest 100m dash ever recorded, is the fat lad from...:"

 

[JJBlade]

He probably thinks thank fuck I didn't

He'd have been an unused squad player because he was obviously far too young to play for us

This would have cost him an international place

We'd have still got relegated to Division Three and he'd have joined Barnsley in a cut price deal

 

[coaxingstar71]

Actually £500k on a rookie 17 year old was unheard of at the time. This was about 6 months before Forest became the first club to pay £1m for a player, Trevor Francis.

As an aside, the £160k we spent on Sabella in 1978 remained our highest transfer fee paid for quite some time.

The nearest we got was the signing of Alan Young, an injury prone striker, from Leicester for somewhere in the region of £140k in 1982.
We finally broke the record a couple of times after gaining promotion to division 1 in 1990. Signed Beesley from Orient for £300k and then followed it up a few weeks into the season by signing Vinnie Jones from Leeds for about £650k.

 

[shorehamview]

Tis true. There was a bit on The Times' website written a few years ago by a rather talented scribe of this parish.

https://www.s24su.com/forum/index.php?threads/maradona-to-the-blades-aspertions-cast.13154/

It's true, we nearly signed one of the greatest players/cocaine hoovers that the world has ever seen. Google it if you don't believe me.

However the recommendation that we pay £200,000 for a seventeen year old by Happy Harry Haslam was immediately shot down by our forward-thinking board, and instead we signed Alex Sabella. Great.

This goes down as possibly one of the worst decisions ever. Or does it?

It's worse than the bloke who didn't sign the Beatles. We passed up the chance for one of the best players the world has ever seen to come to the Lane.

But every cloud has a silver lining. At least we've not got the stigma of one of the greatest cheats world sport has ever seen having been one of ours. We've not been swamped by Columbian drug dealers, or had Fidel Castro come to visit.

All the fuss about Maradona, all the Scots grinning like maniacs on the telly the other day, because they'd got his signature. He's a hero to them, because he cheated against England. They love him, because he dumped us out of the World Cup, and because they are so desperately short of heroes of their own they have to adopt those who beat the English.

Terry Butcher should get a knighthood for not shaking hands with the short-arsed coke-head.
Yes, Maradona could have been a Blade, but given our finances in the late 70's we'd have had him for a season at most and then flogged him to Leeds, as we did with all our best players at that time, and who out there would have wanted Maradona in a Leeds shirt?

So thank us that we didn't sign him then flog him to Leeds. Maybe our board weren't the blinkered idiots we thought.......

 

[snootyfenooty]

The sequence of events as I recall went something like this:

Prior to the 1978 World Cup Haslam had Ardilles and Villa lined up. However, due to Argentina winning the thing and Ardilles especially putting in stellar performances, another zero was added to the previously agreed price tags. So Haslam tipped off his mate Burkinshaw at Spurs who duly snapped them up and we came back with a consolation prize in the shape of Sabella for £160k.

United then went on a second sortie to Argentina shortly afterwards after a tip off about Maradonna. 500k US dollars was the mooted price and of course in time honoured fashion United started umming and arring. During the delay, word got out that Maradonna was on the verge of being sold and a lynch mob gathered outside the stadium. All concerned then thought discretion was the better part of valour and promptly fucked off. I think this was when Pedro Verde was signed as a second consolation prize.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I'm sure this is was what happened.

And by the way, if anyone thinks Maradonna would have turned out into the player he was by signing for United then dream on.

 

[Danny_Blade]

I must admit I do find it a shame that we didn't sign him and wonder what could've been, our fortunes in the following seasons would've been a lot rosier going into the 80's and therefore a part of our history wouldn't have been as dismal.

But why some posters find it annoying that we didn't sign him and seem to use it to slate the board at the time baffles me, HINDSIGHT is a wonderful thing so who were to know that a 17 year old would go on to become the world's best player really??

 

[BushBlade]

The sequence of events as I recall went something like this:

Prior to the 1978 World Cup Haslam had Ardilles and Villa lined up. However, due to Argentina winning the thing and Ardilles especially putting in stellar performances, another zero was added to the previously agreed price tags. So Haslam tipped off his mate Burkinshaw at Spurs who duly snapped them up and we came back with a consolation prize in the shape of Sabella for £160k.

United then went on a second sortie to Argentina shortly afterwards after a tip off about Maradonna. 500k US dollars was the mooted price and of course in time honoured fashion United started umming and arring. During the delay, word got out that Maradonna was on the verge of being sold and a lynch mob gathered outside the stadium. All concerned then thought discretion was the better part of valour and promptly fucked off. I think this was when Pedro Verde was signed as a second consolation prize.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I'm sure this is was what happened.

And by the way, if anyone thinks Maradonna would have turned out into the player he was by signing for United then dream on.

I read that Haslam had bought options to buy Ardiles and Villa but when their prices went up, sold the options to Spurs to pay for Sabs.

 

[BushBlade]

At least we didn't miss out on signing Cantona, when he'd have probably won the league for us. That would make me pig sick.

 

[snootyfenooty]

I read that Haslam had bought options to buy Ardiles and Villa but when their prices went up, sold the options to Spurs to pay for Sabs.

Who could possibly doubt that.

 

[Aganarama]

Mark Morris was our record signing (£175k) before Beesley. There's a long discussion about Guppy's qualities on one of the BBC2 United series...

 

[Ivanhoe]

I heard that Jimmy Hill tried to broker the Maradonna deal when he was doing his soccer in America thing, he (Maradonna) was initially offered to Coventry who refused to pay the asking price. He was then susequently offered to Harry Haslam who also balked at the price being asked.