NEW: Kevin Blackwell interview

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Grecian2000 said:
Not sure I can be arsed to listen to him speak.

Obviously if anyone can post the answers to the only questions worth asking him I would happily read them.

1. What the fuck were you thinking playing Jordan Stewart (poor quality left back) on the right wing and leaving your usual whipping boy (David Cotterill, renowned right winger) against Newcastle?
2. When you had bugger all to spend why did you think buying Darius Henderson was any sort of idea?
3. Was your bullying of Sharpe and Cotterill beneficial to anyone other than your massive ego and, presumably, tiny penis?
4. Did you ever see Jonny Ertl play prior to signing him?
5. Did you think up the idea of playing every away game for a draw yourself or pinch it from Warnock's Premier League blueprint?

Loads more but my blood pressure is at a dangerously raised level just thinking about the cunts ugly fizzog.
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Absolutely this. I threw my season ticket out of the car window on the M1 somewhere near Chesterfield after just a few games of him in charge and never went back until he went. Tosser
 

Rooks said:
Ex players probably dislike him because they didn't always get their own way with him. Don't know of any ex managers who don't like him.
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Fair enough. His name got brought up a few times on the Undr The Cosh podcast.
 
Good interview that. Nice to see him pay compliments to people who haven’t had the best of words to say about him in their interviews in the past. I liked Blackwell as our manager, got us to within one game of the Prem and I think had we kept him in 10/11 then we wouldn’t have been relegated.
 
My recollections of Blacky were these:

- First off he was referred to as Blackie while with us so let’s not stoop to any nonsense name calling.

- He was perceived as a very good coach under Warnock and a few players have said they found his sessions really interesting.

- When he first came back as manager we were very Gung-Ho, up and at ‘em and only just missed out on the Play Offs in the final few matches. We may have had a shout going into the final game.

- After that season, having got the gig full-time, his approach seemed to change. It seemed quite negative. He pretty much said we can’t play like we did last season and I just wondered why.

- We did make the Play Offs in 3rd, dominated Preston in the Semi final and apart from Walker and Naughton, in the final, nobody showed up.

- His record in the transfer market was patchy and his ability to exploit players who did very well during other periods like Cotterill and Dyer wasn’t great. Though he did well with the likes of Halford.

- He does fairly point our thought that McCabe wasn’t adverse to saying the club needed money and weakening the team. - He probably rightly feels that lessened his chances of success. Having Jamie Ward and Arturo Lupoli and Craig Beattie was no replacement to the guaranteed goals of James Beattie. So whilst on one hand some might say Henderson wasn’t amazing, it wasn’t Blackie’s fault he was always injured and to be fair it was almost a straight swap for Hulse who never recovered from his injury. During his time he saw both Kyles sold, Tonge sold and Beattie sold to name but a few. That’s a fair amount of irreplaceable players (at the time) walking out the door.

- Whilst the football was poor viewing at times it was effective. Even his dismembered team finished a respectable 8th position.

- It made no sense to allow him to recruit all summer only to sack him after two games. He had a slightly more rosy view. He may at some point have given home truths in Brussels but he was sacked hours after the QPR defeat.

- Doubt we would have gone down with him as we’d still have been ugly but effective enough to finish mid table.

- We loaned so many players. I think this was his downfall. Yes KM was cashing in on players but we were also splurging on loans too which must have eaten into the cash. If he’d have been smarter he could have thrown a few young lads into the team instead of loaning mediocre overpaid players. Fans would have given local lads more patience, he could have pushed the fact he was having to play young lads to get a greater empathy. But he missed a trick in my view.

- Personally I found him a nice guy, generous with his time and a football nut. You hear mixed views from players but they are often not happy. I’m sure they speak highly of someone who is soft as shit and gives into them always. Maybe Blackie was the other way too much, but he genuinely wanted to do well for the club and gave some good service to the Blades firstly as Assistant, then as Manager, picking up from Robson then falling short in the Play Off final before it all unravelled.

I’d stop short at saying he’ll be remembered fondly but I think people will look back less emotively, even compared with Hecky and see how much he had working against him and judge him kore sympathetically over time. With Hecky the lack of backing has meant no January reinforcements. For Blackie it meant losing your star right back, his obvious replacement at the same time, his star striker and also his main midfielder.

I thought it was one of your best interviews. What you do well is you keep quiet. You let them speak until they run out rather than making it about you. You don’t interrupt them so they get a chance to make sure they have a fair say at explaining how they viewed things. I think you’ve both really matured and as Hal states, it is the more tricky ones where you know there might be some awkward junctures to cover, that make for the more intriguing guests.

Well done!
 
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Bladesman said:
Why do ex-players and managers dislike him so much?
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You can tell more about someone from how they treat juniors than how they treat peers. I know someone who was on the playing staff at United when Blackwell was in charge. Let's just say he has nothing at all good to say about the man.
 
He cost us the services of Billy Sharp for 7 years… thanks for that Kevin you cock womble
 

Bladesman said:
Even though former pro's do think he is a bellend. I do think he would have kept us in the Championship had he stayed.
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It irritates me that all the players of that era seem to speak highly of Bryan Robson.

The bloke blatantly couldn’t give a fuck about the job and nearly relegated us.

I think a lot of the antipathy towards Blackwell from the players is down to the fact he wasn’t letting them toss it off or get pissed up before games.

Blackwell put some pride back in the shirt for a short while but his football was prehistoric and he didn’t have the charm to be a Warnock style motivator. It’s also worth noting that McCabe had put us in managed decline by 09/10 and while Richard Cresswell trying to play on the left wing was horrific to watch he wasn’t exactly blessed with options.
 
Enjoyed that, Hal. Great interview.

I don't think Blackwell was the right man to take us forward once the fire sales started and i think he knows that too. He struggled with losing every single player that actually knew how to kick a ball, but so would anyone.
 
moody1889 said:
Should Get McCabe on next and ask why he threw Kevin Blackwell under the bus, especially with the sale of James Beattie to Stoke which completely derailed our season.

Always infuriated me how McCabe threw money at Robson who was an appointment purely for his own personal business interests abroad.
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I’d like to see McCabe interviewed, preferably by CID under caution.
 
moody1889 said:
Should Get McCabe on next and ask why he threw Kevin Blackwell under the bus, especially with the sale of James Beattie to Stoke which completely derailed our season.

Always infuriated me how McCabe threw money at Robson who was an appointment purely for his own personal business interests abroad.
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Always amazes me that Mcabe gets off so.lightly for our decline at that time.
 
Champagneblade said:
My recollections of Blacky were these:

- First off he was referred to as Blackie while with us so let’s not stoop to any nonsense name calling.

- He was perceived as a very good coach under Warnock and a few players have said they found his sessions really interesting.

- When he first came back as manager we were very Gung-Ho, up and at ‘em and only just missed out on the Play Offs in the final few matches. We may have had a shout going into the final game.

- After that season, having got the gig full-time, his approach seemed to change. It seemed quite negative. He pretty much said we can’t play like we did last season and I just wondered why.

- We did make the Play Offs in 3rd, dominated Preston in the Semi final and apart from Walker and Naughton, in the final, nobody showed up.

- His record in the transfer market was patchy and his ability to exploit players who did very well during other periods like Cotterill and Dyer wasn’t great. Though he did well with the likes of Halford.

- He does fairly point our thought that McCabe wasn’t adverse to saying the club needed money and weakening the team. - He probably rightly feels that lessened his chances of success. Having Jamie Ward and Arturo Lupoli and Craig Beattie was no replacement to the guaranteed goals of James Beattie. So whilst on one hand some might say Henderson wasn’t amazing, it wasn’t Blackie’s fault he was always injured and to be fair it was almost a straight swap for Hulse who never recovered from his injury. During his time he saw both Kyles sold, Tonge sold and Beattie sold to name but a few. That’s a fair amount of irreplaceable players (at the time) walking out the door.

- Whilst the football was poor viewing at times it was effective. Even his dismembered team finished a respectable 8th position.

- It made no sense to allow him to recruit all summer only to sack him after two games. He had a slightly more rosy view. He may at some point have given home truths in Brussels but he was sacked hours after the QPR defeat.

- Doubt we would have gone down with him as we’d still have been ugly but effective enough to finish mid table.

- We loaned so many players. I think this was his downfall. Yes KM was cashing in on players but we were also splurging on loans too which must have eaten into the cash. If he’d have been smarter he could have thrown a few young lads into the team instead of loaning mediocre overpaid players. Fans would have given local lads more patience, he could have pushed the fact he was having to play young lads to get a greater empathy. But he missed a trick in my view.

- Personally I found him a nice guy, generous with his time and a football nut. You hear mixed views from players but they are often not happy. I’m sure they speak highly of someone who is soft as shit and gives into them always. Maybe Blackie was the other way too much, but he genuinely wanted to do well for the club and gave some good service to the Blades firstly as Assistant, then as Manager, picking up from Robson then falling short in the Play Off final before it all unravelled.

I’d stop short at saying he’ll be remembered fondly but I think people will look back less emotively, even compared with Hecky and see how much he had working against him and judge him kore sympathetically over time. With Hecky the lack of backing has meant no January reinforcements. For Blackie it meant losing your star right back, his obvious replacement at the same time, his star striker and also his main midfielder.

I thought it was one of your best interviews. What you do well is you keep quiet. You let them speak until they run out rather than making it about you. You don’t interrupt them so they get a chance to make sure they have a fair say at explaining how they viewed things. I think you’ve both really matured and as Hal states, it is the more tricky ones where you know there might be some awkward junctures to cover, that make for the more intriguing guests.

Well done!
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Fair assessment.

The football was awful to watch, my main memory of that era is Stephen Quinn under instruction to hook the ball aimlessly over his head.

That said if we hadn’t sold Beattie we’d likely have been promoted in 2nd. We took it to the last day in 09.
 
WF10BLADE said:
Always amazes me that Mcabe gets off so.lightly for our decline at that time.
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Anyone old enough to remember will have it etched in their memory when Kevin McCabe went on BBC Radio Sheffield and told bare faced lies and claimed that Beattie was going nowhere.

When in reality he was in Stoke and already on the verge of signing for Stoke.

Kevin McCabe was the ultimate bullsh*tter and played the fans like a fiddle.

Will never ever forget his Think Liverpool type investment 🙈
 
moody1889 said:
Anyone old enough to remember will have it etched in their memory when Kevin McCabe went on BBC Radio Sheffield and told bare faced lies and claimed that Beattie was going nowhere.

When in reality he was in Stoke and already on the verge of signing for Stoke.

Kevin McCabe was the ultimate bullsh*tter and played the fans like a fiddle.

Will never ever forget his Think Liverpool type investment 🙈
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I will never ever understand why he lied like that. I'm sure he did the same for the Kyle's as well and have a suspicion that when Nigel Clough informed us of Harry Maguire's sunstroke that was under instruction too.

Who does it benefit to brazenly lie?
 
Really enjoyed the interview YorkBlade, top work there. Blackwell divides opinion, he made some errors for sure, like selling Sharp, but he did reasonably well. Not blessed with great man management it seems but his coaching was very good, for years our fans used to say he was the brains behind the success under Warnock, probably some truth in that. I sent him a letter once as a fan when I was about 25 and he responded which I really appreciated! He seems to rub players up the wrong way at times but plenty of the players seemed to rate him too.

Would love to hear an interview with Adkins one day but he'd probably not say much other than "sometimes a club doesn't fit the manager and vice versa" I think that would sum it up without the need for an interview! One day would love an interview with Nathan Blake but can't see him ever coming on to be honest!
 
YorkBlade said:
I've tried to get in touch but nothing happening yet
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If you're doing requests/taking suggestions, I'd be interested to hear Diego De Girolamo's story

EDIT: I should probably add I enjoyed this interview. I've never really heard him speak before, I've only heard other opinions on him which have always been extremely critical but to be fair he came across well and despite deflecting blame as much as possible, he didn't seem as arrogant as expected. Keep up the good work lads 👍
 
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bladesmanluke said:
I will never ever understand why he lied like that. I'm sure he did the same for the Kyle's as well and have a suspicion that when Nigel Clough informed us of Harry Maguire's sunstroke that was under instruction too.

Who does it benefit to brazenly lie?
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It doesn't benefit anyone because I seem to. Recall it caused a lot of division between our fans.

It became quite toxic and it was all caused by Kevin McCabes refusal to be honest with the fans.

Something else I remember about Kevin McCabe was that you would be lucky to hear from him in the championship but soon as we were promoted he was all over the media like a rash.

Never known an owner/chairman shamelessly promote themselves so much yet give very little back.
 

Champagneblade said:
My recollections of Blacky were these:

- First off he was referred to as Blackie while with us so let’s not stoop to any nonsense name calling.

- He was perceived as a very good coach under Warnock and a few players have said they found his sessions really interesting.

- When he first came back as manager we were very Gung-Ho, up and at ‘em and only just missed out on the Play Offs in the final few matches. We may have had a shout going into the final game.

- After that season, having got the gig full-time, his approach seemed to change. It seemed quite negative. He pretty much said we can’t play like we did last season and I just wondered why.

- We did make the Play Offs in 3rd, dominated Preston in the Semi final and apart from Walker and Naughton, in the final, nobody showed up.

- His record in the transfer market was patchy and his ability to exploit players who did very well during other periods like Cotterill and Dyer wasn’t great. Though he did well with the likes of Halford.

- He does fairly point our thought that McCabe wasn’t adverse to saying the club needed money and weakening the team. - He probably rightly feels that lessened his chances of success. Having Jamie Ward and Arturo Lupoli and Craig Beattie was no replacement to the guaranteed goals of James Beattie. So whilst on one hand some might say Henderson wasn’t amazing, it wasn’t Blackie’s fault he was always injured and to be fair it was almost a straight swap for Hulse who never recovered from his injury. During his time he saw both Kyles sold, Tonge sold and Beattie sold to name but a few. That’s a fair amount of irreplaceable players (at the time) walking out the door.

- Whilst the football was poor viewing at times it was effective. Even his dismembered team finished a respectable 8th position.

- It made no sense to allow him to recruit all summer only to sack him after two games. He had a slightly more rosy view. He may at some point have given home truths in Brussels but he was sacked hours after the QPR defeat.

- Doubt we would have gone down with him as we’d still have been ugly but effective enough to finish mid table.

- We loaned so many players. I think this was his downfall. Yes KM was cashing in on players but we were also splurging on loans too which must have eaten into the cash. If he’d have been smarter he could have thrown a few young lads into the team instead of loaning mediocre overpaid players. Fans would have given local lads more patience, he could have pushed the fact he was having to play young lads to get a greater empathy. But he missed a trick in my view.

- Personally I found him a nice guy, generous with his time and a football nut. You hear mixed views from players but they are often not happy. I’m sure they speak highly of someone who is soft as shit and gives into them always. Maybe Blackie was the other way too much, but he genuinely wanted to do well for the club and gave some good service to the Blades firstly as Assistant, then as Manager, picking up from Robson then falling short in the Play Off final before it all unravelled.

I’d stop short at saying he’ll be remembered fondly but I think people will look back less emotively, even compared with Hecky and see how much he had working against him and judge him kore sympathetically over time. With Hecky the lack of backing has meant no January reinforcements. For Blackie it meant losing your star right back, his obvious replacement at the same time, his star striker and also his main midfielder.

I thought it was one of your best interviews. What you do well is you keep quiet. You let them speak until they run out rather than making it about you. You don’t interrupt them so they get a chance to make sure they have a fair say at explaining how they viewed things. I think you’ve both really matured and as Hal states, it is the more tricky ones where you know there might be some awkward junctures to cover, that make for the more intriguing guests.

Well done!
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Excellent post. Blackwell did a good job and his sacking was unwarranted.
 
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