The Legacy of Kevin Blackwell.

[Deleted member 875]

The most telling fact about Kevin Blackwell is that whenever anyone takes over from his team, they go down. It says to me that he is a manager who can get average players playing above their ability.

Sacking him 3 games in to the season was crass stupidity in the extreme, especially when one of those game was a highly credible draw against a Cardiff side tipped to win the league. I very much doubt that Blackwell would have taken us down last season if he had been given the season, but that is not the fashionable view.

 

[Jehovah]

Cant be arsed to read it all. He nearly took us into the play offs after looking like getting relegated. he then got us to the play off final. He achieved one of the greatest undefeated away runs of all time and was forced to let players go, yet our current situation is his fault.

Incredible.

 

[Micalijo]

post: 375413"]The most telling fact about Kevin Blackwell is that whenever anyone takes over from his team, they go down. It says to me that he is a manager who can get average players playing above their ability.

Sacking him 3 games in to the season was crass stupidity in the extreme, especially when one of those game was a highly credible draw against a Cardiff side tipped to win the league. I very much doubt that Blackwell would have taken us down last season if he had been given the season, but that is not the fashionable view.

Blackwell - unable to get anything out of avergae players - can only manage with a huge squad, vastly overpaid when compared with teams in same division and specialises in boring fans to sleep and treating them with contempt in post match interviews. Utter and complete joke of a manager who has played a huge role in the demise of SUFC. The day he left Blades were dancing in the street - this is the man who made loyal Blades hope their side would lose to hasten his sacking.

 

[DronnieBlade]

"The most telling fact about Kevin Blackwell is that whenever anyone takes over from his team, they go down"

Interesting point Brownie.

Try and see why this might be.

Think in terms of the delayed reaction of Kevin Blackwell !!

 

[Bergen Blade]

If you look at the squad that started the season v Middlesborough, the facts actually support what Blackwell said:-

Under 30 with a resale value:-Kilgallon, Taylor, Howard, Evans, Quinn, Montgomery, France, Henderson, Cotterill, Bromby, Sharp, Reid (12)
Loans:- Bunn, Walker, Treacey (3)
Over 30:- Morgan, Little, Bennett (3)

The short-termism came in selling permanently contracted players (Naughton, Walker, Kilgallon and Bromby) and replacing them with loanees.
How much of that was down to Blackwell and how much was imposed on him by McCabe?
Bromby in particular was sold on the very last day of the transfer window and he could have provided cover for all the defensive positions.
Did Blackwell make that decision or did McCabe?

Blackwell's brought in loads of players whilst being here. Many didn't cost much in terms of transfer fees, but most of them came from relatively big clubs and thus commanded very high wages, many on loans. What they have in common is that so far none of them have brought a profit to the club. Isn't this quite exceptional?

As far as I know only Leigh Bromby and Danny Bogdanovic, both signed on bosman transfers, have left the club with us receiving more than they were signed for. In Bromby's case he joined Leeds for a nominal fee. Bogdanovic apparantly joined Blackpool for £250k, but if you consider the wages and signing on fee the total outlay on him must surely still exceed what we got for him.

We should also remember that Blackwell renewed quite a few players' contracts, which means we are still paying some very average third division players between £10-15k every week. There are some players that remains that in theory can improve the statistics, but I doubt it will happen.

Basically, Blackwell's signings came, were paid fantastic wages, and left, while the club kept sliding.


The list, let me know if there's anyone missing:

Sun Jihai..................... Man City Free 02 Jul, 2008
Darius Henderson ............Watford £2,000,000 22 Jul, 2008
David Cotterill ................Wigan Signed 31 Jul, 2008
Justin Haber ...................Haidari Signed 31 Jul, 2008
Brian Howard ..................Barnsley Signed 07 Jan, 2009
Jamie Ward ....................Chesterfield £333,000 19 Jan, 2009

Lee Williamson .................Watford Signed 18 Jun, 2009
Kyel Reid ........................West Ham Free 01 Jul, 2009
Leigh Bromby ..................Watford Signed 01 Jul, 2009
Andy Taylor ....................Tranmere Signed 15 Jul, 2009
Ched Evans .....................Man City £3,000,000 24 Jul, 2009
Ryan France ....................Hull Free 24 Jul, 2009
Glen Little ........................Portsmouth Free 05 Aug, 2009
Jordan Stewart ................Derby Swap 01 Sep, 2009
Henri Camara ...................unattached 22 Oct, 2009
Richard Cresswell ...............Stoke Signed 01 Jan, 2010
Mark Yeates ....................Middlesbro Signed 19 Jan, 2010
Mikhel Aksalu ...................Flora Tallin Nominal 29 Jan 2010
James Harper ...................Reading Signed 03 Feb, 2010

Johannes Ertl ....................C Palace Free 09 Jun, 2010
Leon Britton .....................Swansea Free 01 Jul, 2010
Steve Simonsen .................Stoke Free 02 Jul, 2010
Rob Kozluk ........................unattached 12 Jul 2010
Stephen Jordan .................unattached 09 Aug 2010
Daniel Bogdanovic ..............Barnsley Free 02 Jun, 2010


Loans (in random order)

Greg Halford
Arturo Lupoli
Craig Beattie
John-Joe O’Toole
Matt Spring
Anthony Stokes
Nathan Dyer
Kyle Bartley
Mark Bunn
Toni Kallio
Marcel Seip
Andy Davies
Carl Ikeme
Keith Treacy
Mark Walton
Jonathan Fortune
Nyron Nosworthy x2
Kyle Walker​

 

[judge]

"The most telling fact about Kevin Blackwell is that whenever anyone takes over from his team, they go down"

Interesting point Brownie.

Try and see why this might be.

Think in terms of the delayed reaction of Kevin Blackwell !!

interesting point
what is it ?

 

[DronnieBlade]

interesting point
what is it ?

The point being that Blackwell gets out, or is kicked out, when the "slide" under his leadership is well and truly underway.

And to such an extent that it is almost impossible for ANYONE to arrest the slide, such is the damage done.

Hope this helps.

 

[Darren]

Cant be arsed to read it all. He nearly took us into the play offs after looking like getting relegated. he then got us to the play off final. He achieved one of the greatest undefeated away runs of all time and was forced to let players go, yet our current situation is his fault.

Incredible.

I am with you.

In the 3 seasons we finished with KB as manager we finished 9th, 3rd and 8th. When he became manager we were 16thish and were relegated in the season he was sacked. That 8th place was managed when were already financially buggered (the parachute payments having ended and us relying on a plethora of loans) That undefeated away run you mention is a club record.

I am certain that had we not sacked him last season we would have stayed up. It is beyond rationality to blame KB for the state the club is now in.

 

[judge]

The point being that Blackwell gets out, or is kicked out, when the "slide" under his leadership is well and truly underway.

And to such an extent that it is almost impossible for ANYONE to arrest the slide, such is the damage done.

Hope this helps.

OR .......that he is such a good manager every club he leaves is instantly worse off without him
Some eventrying a succession of managers to replace him without any where near his success

 

[blade too long]

The point being that Blackwell gets out, or is kicked out, when the "slide" under his leadership is well and truly underway.

And to such an extent that it is almost impossible for ANYONE to arrest the slide, such is the damage done..

so lets discuss this slide

he came to the the club and we were 18th in the championship

he not only saved us but nearly got in the play offs in 3 months
he then the following season got us to 3rd and we lost in the play off final
the following year , despite 20 injuries we finished 8th
then he was sacked after 2 games, with still the highest win ratio of any manager weve had post war

so when he came we were 20th , and wed slid to 8th

mm interesting, we had gone up 10 places and still we see it as backwards
no wonder managers struggle here

but hey , dont let facts spoil a good rant

or perhaps sides with little finances , such as leeds luton and us , dont realise how good he was at juggling ever dwindling resources

 

[Bergen Blade]

I am with you.

In the 3 seasons we finished with KB as manager we finished 9th, 3rd and 8th. When he became manager we were 16thish and were relegated in the season he was sacked. That 8th place was managed when were already financially buggered (the parachute payments having ended and us relying on a plethora of loans) That undefeated away run you mention is a club record.

I am certain that had we not sacked him last season we would have stayed up. It is beyond rationality to blame KB for the state the club is now in.

Not at all, you're just seeing one side of the story.

He inherited a great squad.

By Championship standards he had great budgets every season.

Results were getting worse.

The squad kept getting worse

With 43 players brough in, none have yet given the club a profit. (I spent some time compiling the list yesterday, but nobody have taken any notice of it, bit more here)

When you continuously make short term decisions, it will catch up with you sooner or later.


Having said that I think it's quite possible that we would have stayed up if he had been left in charge, but unless he suddenly were to change his ways, the following season would probably have seen us struggle even more.

 

[Darren]

Not at all, you're just seeing one side of the story.

He inherited a great squad.

By Championship standards he had great budgets every season.

Results were getting worse.

The squad kept getting worse

With 43 players brough in, none have yet given the club a profit. (I spent some time compiling the list yesterday, but nobody have taken any notice of it, bit more here)

When you continuously make short term decisions, it will catch up with you sooner or later.


Having said that I think it's quite possible that we would have stayed up if he had been left in charge, but unless he suddenly were to change his ways, the following season would probably seen us struggle even more.

Yes, he inherited the money no object Robson squad. When the parachure payments ended he then had to manage on a drastically reduced budget which meant selling his best players and getting in loanees and mediocre players. Despite that he managed 8th place.

As others have said, the real root of our downfall was appointing Robson and then giving him tons of money to spend.

 

[Wapping Blade]

As others have said, the real root of our downfall was appointing Robson and then giving him tons of money to spend.

And then no contingency plan for when/if it all went wrong that meant (and still means) having players on ridiculous contracts that are very difficult to get rid of.

 

[Darren]

And then no contingency plan for when/if it all went wrong that meant (and still means) having players on ridiculous contracts that are very difficult to get rid of.

As a side point, paying off Robson would not have been cheap. Didn't he have a 3 year contract and we sacked him after about 6 months. I can't see that he would have been on less than £25K a week = £1.25 million a year. I can't see that we would have got away with paying him much less than £2 million to go away.

 

[Bergen Blade]

Yes, he inherited the money no object Robson squad. When the parachure payments ended he then had to manage on a drastically reduced budget which meant selling his best players and getting in loanees and mediocre players. Despite that he managed 8th place.

As others have said, the real root of our downfall was appointing Robson and then giving him tons of money to spend.

Nobody is arguing that Robson wasn't the biggest culprit. But the crazy overspending continued under Blackwell. While he had to let players go, he was allowed to spend loads (primarily on wages, not fees, although Henderson and Evans were £5m of strikers). He didn't have to bring in loanees and mediocre players, he himself picked whom he wanted. Again I don't think people take in the fact that most of his signings were made to achieve short term success. If his budget was less than Robson's it doesn't mean it wasn't a competetive one. He was allowed to gamble, it didn't pay off and we are still paying the price.

 

[Sothall_Blade]

Not at all, you're just seeing one side of the story.
He inherited a great squad.
By Championship standards he had great budgets every season.
Results were getting worse.
The squad kept getting worse
With 43 players brough in, none have yet given the club a profit. (I spent some time compiling the list yesterday, but nobody have taken any notice of it,

bit more here)

When you continuously make short term decisions, it will catch up with you sooner or later.
Having said that I think it's quite possible that we would have stayed up if he had been left in charge, but unless he suddenly were to change his ways, the following season would probably seen us struggle even more.

Another interesting article Bergen and I don’t disagree too much.

To play Devil’s Advocate slightly, Blackwell DID sign a number of players in their early to mid-20’s who could theoretically be improved and if necessary sold at a profit.:-
Cotterill, Haber, Howard, Ward, Williamson, Reid, Taylor, Evans, Yeates, Aksalu and Britton (11 out 25 permanent signings).
It didn’t work out for various reasons but he didn’t only make short-term signings.

On a number of occasions, he lost players on the very last day of the transfer deadline (Tonge, Bromby, Howard, Walker) leaving him no option but to replace them with short-term loan players. How many of those last-minute departures were forced upon him?

When James Beattie was sold, McCabe announced that “we have a replacement already lined up”.
That turned out to be Leroy Lita (another player in the under 25 with potential category).
He turned us down and we eventually signed Lupoli and Craig Beattie on loan instead.
Are we seriously surmising that Blackwell chose to bring in two short term loans rather than sign one permanent player with good prospects?
Or again, was he the victim of decisions made by others?

At the time when Naughton and Walker were sold, the official site said we had made bids to sign Evans, Surman, Mcindoe and Tommy Smith (all under 30).
In the event, we only signed Evans, France, Little and Stewart. Compare and contrast Blackwell's targets with what he was actually allowed to do.
So, in summary. I agree that the club has taken a short-termist approach in recent years. It began when McCabe only gave Warnock a one year contract.
Blackwell has been a victim of that short-termism from above, as well as being in some instances, a willing participant.

 

[raul]

The answer to the question, "why isn't he in a job then?" that must be on it's way round again could well be that having been at three clubs on rapid downward spirals where he was expected to take the football teams on an upward one he may well have just thought "bollocks to it". It may well also be that his severance from BDTBL is dependant on not finding another job and he enjoys taking money off Super.

If I'm wrong on both counts and you're reading Kev, get yourself up to Easter Road.

 

[blade too long]

Did we really pay more than what was the going rate to have challenge worthy players at the club

Did we spend more than say west brom
and we missed out on Lita , but we got to the play off final litas team didnt so dont get the need to see it as a minus
Craig Beattie like most had one really bad game , the final

We finished 8th , in his final season
If that is total failure , we need to be re thinking
we dont just need some investment we need bucket loads of it, a couple of sheiks and a russian oligarch
Weve had 1 season at the top in 17 , west brom and stoke have 3 men like mccabe each
its simple , more money more success, weve needed to work on ever reducing funds with one sole investor
Mandaric has put just enough in to save Wednesday and hes a hero , but they aint spending big, they wont get auto as huddersfield and charlton have more clout, simples

 

[Sothall_Blade]

The answer to the question, "why isn't he in a job then?" that must be on it's way round again could well be that having been at three clubs on rapid downward spirals where he was expected to take the football teams on an upward one he may well have just thought "bollocks to it". It may well also be that his severance from BDTBL is dependant on not finding another job and he enjoys taking money off Super.
If I'm wrong on both counts and you're reading Kev, get yourself up to Easter Road.

He was trying to get the Nigeria job last time I heard:-

"Kevin Blackwell, the former Leeds, Luton Town and Sheffield United manager, has applied to become the Technical Director of the Nigeria Football Federation.
Blackwell, 52, threw his hat into the ring after the NFF announced last week that they were casting the post to give direction to the national teams and develop football in the country.
Frederick Kanu, who represents Blackwell in Nigeria, tells KickOffNigeria.com that his client understands Nigeria and was keen to develop football in the country.
'Kevin has been in the country a number of times and has come to understand the Nigeria football situation. He has applied for the job because he believes he can bring his experience to bear in developing football in the country,' Kanu said."

http://www.kickoff.com/news/25273/kevin-blackwell-wants-nigeria-post.php

 

[Grecian2000]

For anyone in any doubt as to what a twat he was, see post #65 by Bergen.

The line "Nyron Nosworthy x 2" rests the case for the prosecution m'lord.

 

[raul]

It's taken a Sealo thread, but welcome back.

 

[Grecian2000]

Just a coincidence that I find myself with a few minutes spare and there are people defending Mr No Bollocks.

Couldn't resist (although Bergs has saved me a lot of time and effort).

 

[Bergen Blade]

Another interesting article Bergen and I don’t disagree too much.

To play Devil’s Advocate slightly, Blackwell DID sign a number of players in their early to mid-20’s who could theoretically be improved and if necessary sold at a profit.:-
Cotterill, Haber, Howard, Ward, Williamson, Reid, Taylor, Evans, Yeates, Aksalu and Britton (11 out 25 permanent signings).
It didn’t work out for various reasons but he didn’t only make short-term signings.

On a number of occasions, he lost players on the very last day of the transfer deadline (Tonge, Bromby, Howard, Walker) leaving him no option but to replace them with short-term loan players. How many of those last-minute departures were forced upon him?

When James Beattie was sold, McCabe announced that “we have a replacement already lined up”.
That turned out to be Leroy Lita (another player in the under 25 with potential category).
He turned us down and we eventually signed Lupoli and Craig Beattie on loan instead.
Are we seriously surmising that Blackwell chose to bring in two short term loans rather than sign one permanent player with good prospects?
Or again, was he the victim of decisions made by others?

At the time when Naughton and Walker were sold, the official site said we had made bids to sign Evans, Surman, Mcindoe and Tommy Smith (all under 30).
In the event, we only signed Evans, France, Little and Stewart. Compare and contrast Blackwell's targets with what he was actually allowed to do.
So, in summary. I agree that the club has taken a short-termist approach in recent years. It began when McCabe only gave Warnock a one year contract.
Blackwell has been a victim of that short-termism from above, as well as being in some instances, a willing participant.

It's not just the age of the players signed, it was that they had to be proven players, or from big clubs, for Blackwell to consider signing them. The linked players you mentioned were all well known, reasonably attractive and therefore expensive. The odd men out are youngish, lower league signings Jamie Ward and Andy Taylor (though they were once Aston Villa and Blackburn prospects and youth internationals), plus foreign goalkeeper flops Haber and Aksalu.

Blackwell just didn't dare going for unproven youngsters or lower league/foreign signings. My guess is that he wasn't completely confident about his own judgement AND he feared such signings would take time to adapt, while Blackwell's poor long term strategy in terms of squad building meant he always had a hole to plug immediately.

Look, I have no bitterness to the man, I hope he's well and soon finds a club that suits him. He has good qualities as a manager, and the pressure on him to get us to bounce back, rather than plan long term, may have forced his hand. But the mistakes that happened at our club when he was here is a very important debate, and one that the club needs to learn from.

 

[blade too long]

For anyone in any doubt as to what a twat he was, see post #65 by Bergen.

The line "Nyron Nosworthy x 2" rests the case for the prosecution m'lord.

lets not forget when we first signed nos , hed been voted player of the year by sunderland in 2006
and was kingpin in their promotion
yes theres no doubt he deteriorated, but on early displays did ok

again Blackwell got us to 9th , 3rd and 8th mainly with the players we ended up going down with

these are bare facts, undeniable. all the rest is pessimistic speculation
his successor had all but 2 games to equal that, and a good away point at cardiff
they didnt

 

[Sothall_Blade]

Blackwell just didn't dare going for unproven youngsters or lower league/foreign signings. My guess is that he wasn't completely confident about his own judgement AND he feared such signings would take time to adapt

Time for another list I feel. I.e. Senior players we've signed from foreign clubs in the last 10 years:-

Parrino, McAllister, Conneely, Calve, Haber, Aksalu, Carney, Seck, Shelton, Fathi, Nade, Smeets, Ten Heuvel, De Vogt, Gysbrechts, Andy Smith.

It reads like a "who's who" of squad players who hardly played, took good wages out of the club and then disappeared without trace.
Who can blame Blackwell for not taking a chance on "foreign players" when we have such an appalling record with them recently?
It seems to me that our foreign scouting system needs a good shake up when we haven't signed a single major player from abroad this century.

Interestingly, there were two golden periods when we signed players from abroad who actually made a good contribution.
Around 96/97 we signed Borbokis, Dellas, Marcelo and Katchouro and around 93/94 we brought in Flo, Nilsen, Veart and Hodgson.
Who were our foreign scouts then? And can we have them back please?

 

[Bladesway]

Blackwell:

1) Spent force the season before but SuperBlade didn't fire him
2) Had his legs cut off the season before when Superblade sold all his first team.
3) Will live off the money until his contract runs out and then will find another job. SuperBlade was the one who extended his contract

So whose fault is it?

 

[alcoblade]

SuperBlade was the one who extended his contract

I forgot that little gem in my list of McCabe's royal fuck ups. Out of the blue, for no particular reason, a 1 year extension.

Actually, there would have been method in the madness. "I'm about to sell off the family silver. If you keep quiet I'll stump up another year."

UTB

 

[broomhillblade]

A few facts relating to Kevin Blackwell


1. Blackwell is a UEFA Pro License holder - the highest technical qualification in the game

2. From the Daily Mirror 17 Sept 2010:
Former Sheffield United manager Kevin Blackwell does not expect to be out of a job for too long after settling "all issues in relation to his departure from the club".
"Now that we have reached a resolution, I can look forward to returning to management in the not too distant future”.

3. A statement from the League Managers Association said: "The League Managers Association (LMA) can confirm that Kevin Blackwell and Sheffield United Football Club have settled all issues in relation to his departure from the club on August 14, 2010.
"Blackwell joined Sheffield United in February 2008 and enjoyed immediate success in his first full season by guiding the club to a play-off final at Wembley, narrowly missing out on place in the Barclays Premier League to Burnley.
"Kevin went on to manage 125 matches for Sheffield United with an overall win percentage of 42.40% - an outstanding record by any measure throughout the professional game - and finished in the top nine of the Championship in each of his three seasons at the club.
"During his time in charge, the club also stopped receiving parachute payments and sold quality players including James Beattie, Kyle Walker and Kyle Naughton."
LMA chief executive Richard Bevan added: "The LMA shares Kevin's disappointment at his leaving Sheffield United, especially after only two league games into a new season.
"Kevin is an experienced and successful manager, particularly in the Championship, and I would expect him to be back managing in the game at a high level very soon."

4. He has an identical twin brother, Noel.

 

[Grecian2000]

4. He has an identical twin brother, Noel.

Cheers for that Broomers. Made my day.

Question is "Did Noel get 4 bollocks"?

 

[Bergen Blade]

Cheers for that Broomers. Made my day.

Question is "Did Noel get 4 bollocks"?

Heard about his twin before. Because of the resemblance I thought the avatar used by a BM poster was actually his twin.

But it turns out this guy is actually an american research analyst called.... Kevin Blackwell! http://www.ncet2.org/pastevents/new-ideas-innovation/open-innovation

---------- Post added at 05:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:35 PM ----------

Time for another list I feel. I.e. Senior players we've signed from foreign clubs in the last 10 years:-

Parrino, McAllister, Conneely, Calve, Haber, Aksalu, Carney, Seck, Shelton, Fathi, Nade, Smeets, Ten Heuvel, De Vogt, Gysbrechts, Andy Smith.

It reads like a "who's who" of squad players who hardly played, took good wages out of the club and then disappeared without trace.
Who can blame Blackwell for not taking a chance on "foreign players" when we have such an appalling record with them recently?
It seems to me that our foreign scouting system needs a good shake up when we haven't signed a single major player from abroad this century.

Interestingly, there were two golden periods when we signed players from abroad who actually made a good contribution.
Around 96/97 we signed Borbokis, Dellas, Marcelo and Katchouro and around 93/94 we brought in Flo, Nilsen, Veart and Hodgson.
Who were our foreign scouts then? And can we have them back please?

Fully agree that there are not many success stories there! Fathi and Shelton (maybe Nade) were probably paid well, but I think the others were low risk squad signings.

Regarding our scouting I think they had an almost impossible job convincing Blackwell. Adams and Bassett got rid of pretty much all our scouts last season. When Frank Barlow was asked about foreign signings he said we weren't looking outside UK.