Money, Money, Money

[Bladepicker]

we had a shortlist of one ,was some great managers available at the time

Absolutely shockingly bad decision. I still cannot compute how bad a decision giving Robson the job was and that is not just with hindsight as everyone said it at time.

Ah well. Shows how lucky we areto have Cloughy to be honest.

 

[Darthblade]

Good post, it's a shame others can't see the reality of the situation. The vitriol chucked at McCabe at times is disgraceful.

UTB

But understandable to a degree ....... he did make several appalling errors of judgement ( Robson, Adams, not sacking Blackwell after the Burnley debacle ) and so he has paid the price ( literally ) for his own failings.
UTB & FTP

 

[Bladepicker]

The phrase the road to hell is paved with good intentions springs to mind. I don't care if we are run by IS so long as the club is successful. As for being run by Mandy wouldn't you rather be in the championship than league one?

Are Pompey fans happy to be skint in league 2 because they got to win a cup and play in Europe? Probably yes.

It's an awkward one, many would take a cup win if it meant then going bust and into a spiral downwards and hey, we're stuck in division three as it is. Personally though I am glad we have not gone down the risk all and go into admin route and hope that with Clough and a bit of luck in the next few seasons, McCabe, the club and most importantly us fans will get some long term league success that we deserve.

 

[Darthblade]

It was and this ensured that we could hit bottom (expertly steered there by Weir) but start to recover.

For balance, we do need to remember that McCabe, through SU Ltd in which the Prince has no interest,owns the Lane and the Academy.

We may not get promoted this year but we have the wherewithal for next season.

QUOTE]

We said exactly that last season and we have spectacularly missed the opportunity to build on the good work we did last year.
UTB & FTP

 

[stringjunior]

"Je suis Kevin" .

Genius

 

[Darthblade]

Where would we be with one of those mangers . In deeper financial and league trouble , if you ask me. Makes you think how fortunate to have Mr Clough , at this moment in time.

UTB

Hmmm .... not so sure here mate. Robson was a DISASTER on a biblical scale and I would surmise that had we been able to get, say Burley or Reid, we may very well not have dropped out of the Championship, which was the big killer.

Being in this shit division makes it hard to get decent players, attract sponsorship, attract investment etc. That's one of the reasons that McCabe struggled for so long to attract somebody like the Prince.
UTB & FTP

 

[Bladesway]

Are Pompey fans happy to be skint in league 2 because they got to win a cup and play in Europe? Probably yes.

It's an awkward one, many would take a cup win if it meant then going bust and into a spiral downwards and hey, we're stuck in division three as it is. Personally though I am glad we have not gone down the risk all and go into admin route and hope that with Clough and a bit of luck in the next few seasons, McCabe, the club and most importantly us fans will get some long term league success that we deserve.

You can't go down the road of the worst example to make your point, for every Portsmouth there is a Swansea or a Palace or even a Leeds/Unwashed who all sit currently above us having had worse times than us in recent years. We may have not gone to the wall like some of the above but I think you can only stick Portsmouth and Coventry as clubs in a worse league position than we are having changed owners etc. Leeds may be going down that road again granted but at this moment in time they sit above us and I don't believe they will actually go down.

We are in an awful position having previously been on the verge of security and the promised land. Even following relegation from the Premiership we should have been in a similar position to a Burnley or West Brom. Both have bounced around the top 2 divisions but are substantially more successful than we have been. Lets be fair if we finish below 7th we will have been on a downward spiral for 8 seasons with only one noteable exception, Blackwells first season (Pinchy now has seizure but what the hell). There have been bad decisions within bad decisions as well. Sacking Blackwell and having no plan B having let him spend the transfer money. Letting Blackwell lash out on Evans and Henderson at ridiculous fees and wages. Sacking Wilson without having a plan B, then comounding it by putting a man with no experience in for the play offs?!?!? Hiring Robson without first setting a limit for what you would let him spend. Letting Robson hire washed up hasbeens like Hendry, then putting Gillespie on 5 times what he was on previously. Letting Warnock spend £2m on Akinbiyi and £1.25m Horsefield. All these are the sanctions of a madman. People said this at the time by the way, its not a hindsight judgement.

Then theres Brazil, Belgium, China, Australia, Hungary and crap knows whatever other ventures we ploughed money into to "cement the global brand". FFS We are Sheffield United, not Liverpool, Chelsea or Man United. Not many people know who we are let alone what sport we play.

If I had the time and the energy I could catalogue the absolute car crash of McCabe post 2006. It is up there with the worse chairmen of any club. Could it have been any worse? Yes it could but not much worse had we put a bunch of primary school kids in charge of decision making. We could be in the position Portsmouth find themselves in, but and more likely we could be up with Southampton, Forest, Derby, Norwich City, Ipswich, Middlesborough and a clutch of other clubs with similar supporter bases who are all batting at a much higher level than we are.

 

[alcoblade]

You can't go down the road of the worst example to make your point, for every Portsmouth there is a Swansea or a Palace or even a Leeds/Unwashed who all sit currently above us having had worse times than us in recent years. We may have not gone to the wall like some of the above but I think you can only stick Portsmouth and Coventry as clubs in a worse league position than we are having changed owners etc. Leeds may be going down that road again granted but at this moment in time they sit above us and I don't believe they will actually go down.

We are in an awful position having previously been on the verge of security and the promised land. Even following relegation from the Premiership we should have been in a similar position to a Burnley or West Brom. Both have bounced around the top 2 divisions but are substantially more successful than we have been. Lets be fair if we finish below 7th we will have been on a downward spiral for 8 seasons with only one noteable exception, Blackwells first season (Pinchy now has seizure but what the hell). There have been bad decisions within bad decisions as well. Sacking Blackwell and having no plan B having let him spend the transfer money. Letting Blackwell lash out on Evans and Henderson at ridiculous fees and wages. Sacking Wilson without having a plan B, then comounding it by putting a man with no experience in for the play offs?!?!? Hiring Robson without first setting a limit for what you would let him spend. Letting Robson hire washed up hasbeens like Hendry, then putting Gillespie on 5 times what he was on previously. Letting Warnock spend £2m on Akinbiyi and £1.25m Horsefield. All these are the sanctions of a madman. People said this at the time by the way, its not a hindsight judgement.

Then theres Brazil, Belgium, China, Australia, Hungary and crap knows whatever other ventures we ploughed money into to "cement the global brand". FFS We are Sheffield United, not Liverpool, Chelsea or Man United. Not many people know who we are let alone what sport we play.

If I had the time and the energy I could catalogue the absolute car crash of McCabe post 2006. It is up there with the worse chairmen of any club. Could it have been any worse? Yes it could but not much worse had we put a bunch of primary school kids in charge of decision making. We could be in the position Portsmouth find themselves in, but and more likely we could be up with Southampton, Forest, Derby, Norwich City, Ipswich, Middlesborough and a clutch of other clubs with similar supporter bases who are all batting at a much higher level than we are.

Spot on. Great intention, disastrous decisions.

Someone pointed out recently that if you were already invested in propertyin the nineties and onwards, monkeys could have become rich. I think this applies to McCabe. He's just not very smart.

UTB

 

[Foxy]

Someone pointed out recently that if you were already invested in property, monkeys could become rich. I think this applies to McCabe. Just not very smart.

If only one of us smart characters who aren't as invested in property had jumped in and financed the club then eh?

 

[alcoblade]

If only one of us smart characters who aren't as invested in property had jumped in and financed the club then eh?

Yes, perhaps we wouldnt be in the worst spell in the clubs history, eh?

UTB

 

[Foxy]

Yes, perhaps we wouldnt be in the worst spell in the clubs history, eh?

How's that quantified?

I'm far from saying McCabe hasn't made mistakes, I just think it's a bit much labeling him as thick purely because you've decided that Monkeys could become rich in property.

Mistakes are far easier to identify in hindsight.

If we're in this spell, why aren't the aforementioned clever ones jumping in to save us? Is the queue too large?

 

[alcoblade]

How's that quantified?

I'm far from saying McCabe hasn't made mistakes, I just think it's a bit much labeling him as thick purely because you've decided that Monkeys could become rich in property.

Mistakes are far easier to identify in hindsight.

If we're in this spell, why aren't the aforementioned clever ones jumping in to save us? Is the queue too large?

"Not that smart" is a subjective term. It's quantified perfectly and undeniably by Bladesway. And the list of woeful chairman that were in front if him in the queue have outperformed him. I'm not sure what's left to debate?

UTB

 

[oldblade]

OOhhh bigger blade, excellent. Tell you what, I'll throw my company into a whole load of crap and then rescue it several years later. Oh hang on they would have fired me before I did the first bit.

How would they do that if it's your own company?

 

[Foxy]

"Not that smart" is a subjective term. It's quantified perfectly and undeniably by Bladesway.

I'll have a read back, but if it's the statement that primary school kids would have not done much worse, you'll have to forgive me if I don't agree with that as a measure

 

[oldblade]

Of course not. One can (and should) criticise McCabe for the mistakes he has made, What does my head in is that certain people can't seem to get their head round the concept of honest mistakes and to have to believe that McCabe has some sort of evil plan to destroy SUFC and/or piss off their fans.

Nail on head.

Some can't seem to get their heads around the concept that it is possible to believe McCabe has made some poor decisions, but that those decisions were not made with the intention of fleecing the club in order to line his own pockets.

 

[oldblade]

That's a point I can accept. I think talking personally the frustration is that had he been a bumbling fool all along you could accept it, but his stewardship of the club right up to 2006/7 was brilliant. To go from this to making some of the obvious gibbering decisions makes you scratch your head and wonder if it really is the same bloke.

Wasn't 2006-7 the first season after Dooley withdrew from active participation in running the club?

 

[Harry's Game]

Since promotion to the prem in 06 you can count the big decisions McCabe has got right on the fingers of one finger.

The ones he has got wrong...

Not spending in the JTW in the prem
Appointing Robson
appointing Blackwell full time
Wasting millions on Chegdu and Fradi
Selling James Beattie
Selling Both Kyle's when we could have got £6m for Naughton and kept Walker
Handing Creswell a three year deal
Wating till the season had started before Sacking Blackwell
Not backing Speed
Appointing Adams
Calling for club unity and then scuppering it by Appointing Wilson
Not sanctioning a back up signing for Ched (you know just incase the trial went tits up)
Selling Blackman a week after our only other striker got injured for the season
Sacking Wilson after the loan window had closed
Appointing Weir on the basis of a nice power point presentation

I mean I could go on...

 

[Bladesway]

Nail on head.

Some can't seem to get their heads around the concept that it is possible to believe McCabe has made some poor decisions, but that those decisions were not made with the intention of fleecing the club in order to line his own pockets.

No, people get that but it doesn't mean that he hasn't really fucked up badly and many clubs who plumbed the depths have now recovered and are playing Championship/Premiership football while we still languish in a hole filled with shit.

 

[Bladesway]

Wasn't 2006-7 the first season after Dooley withdrew from active participation in running the club?

Could be he was the brains of the operation.

 

[Bladesway]

I'll have a read back, but if it's the statement that primary school kids would have not done much worse, you'll have to forgive me if I don't agree with that as a measure

With all due respect Foxy how the hell could they have done it worse? I'm not saying he hasn't done it with good intentions, but good intentions really shouldn't be a defence for incompotence off the scale.

 

[Foxy]

With all due respect Foxy how the hell could they have done it worse? I'm not saying he hasn't done it with good intentions, but good intentions really shouldn't be a defence for incompotence off the scale.

Just for clarity, are you really asking me how a team of primary school children could have done worse than Kevin McCabe in the running of Sheffield United and it's interests since he took over?

 

[Bladesway]

Just for clarity, are you really asking me how a team of primary school children could have done worse than Kevin McCabe in the running of Sheffield United and it's interests since he took over?

Not really but I am thinking had my 5 year old son come back to me and said Daddy look what we did and showed me SUFC I would be really disappointed in him. Maybe I expect too much though.

I wouldn't think much of his teacher either.

 

[bladeinspaceandtime]

Hmmm .... not so sure here mate. Robson was a DISASTER on a biblical scale and I would surmise that had we been able to get, say Burley or Reid, we may very well not have dropped out of the Championship, which was the big killer.

Being in this shit division makes it hard to get decent players, attract sponsorship, attract investment etc. That's one of the reasons that McCabe struggled for so long to attract somebody like the Prince.
UTB & FTP

By Reid are you suggesting Peter Reid? Good god, are you serious?
McCabe employed Trevor Birch (on a fair wedge no doubt) to find "investment" when the club was in the Championship, which didn't happen. Whether that was down to Birch being useless or he was sold a crock of shit by McCabe is another question.

 

[FleaPitBlade]

Without wishing to get embroiled in the wider debate, I defy anyone to speak to Kevin McCabe privately and then tell me he doesn't truly care about SUFC anymore than your or I do.

Some of the vitriol he gets aimed in his direction from some angles is way OTT.

 

[metalblade]

I think it quite laughable how we still have fans jumping to defend McCabe who has since 2006-7 made real life choices the likes of which a gibbering idiot 10 year old with tourettes would shy away from on Football Manager .................................... I mean appointing Robson, he must have been the only bloke to think that cunt wouldn't run up a debt akin to a third world country.

 

[Bladesway]

Without wishing to get embroiled in the wider debate, I defy anyone to speak to Kevin McCabe privately and then tell me he doesn't truly care about SUFC anymore than your or I do.

Some of the vitriol he gets aimed in his direction from some angles is way OTT.

Nothing I have said about McCabe isn't what I wouldn't repeat to him personally or haven't written to him previously. Sorry but look at the decisions made and tell me I am wrong on this. You couldn't have got it more wrong if you had deliberately set out to fuck a football club up. Employ idiot, check. Let idiot spend all your money, check. Offer idiot elevated position within the club, check. Employ another idiot who will do the job for less, check. Sell all second idiots players when he gets close to making things work, check. Sack second idiot just after he has spent the remaining money in a fit of peak, check. And on, and on, and on.

 

[Pinchy]

Could be he was the brains of the operation.

I knew Derek. For all his many and various admirable qualities, the answer to your question is an unqualified "No"!

 

[Woodwardfan]

You can't go down the road of the worst example to make your point, for every Portsmouth there is a Swansea or a Palace or even a Leeds/Unwashed who all sit currently above us having had worse times than us in recent years. We may have not gone to the wall like some of the above but I think you can only stick Portsmouth and Coventry as clubs in a worse league position than we are having changed owners etc. Leeds may be going down that road again granted but at this moment in time they sit above us and I don't believe they will actually go down.

We are in an awful position having previously been on the verge of security and the promised land. Even following relegation from the Premiership we should have been in a similar position to a Burnley or West Brom. Both have bounced around the top 2 divisions but are substantially more successful than we have been. Lets be fair if we finish below 7th we will have been on a downward spiral for 8 seasons with only one noteable exception, Blackwells first season (Pinchy now has seizure but what the hell). There have been bad decisions within bad decisions as well. Sacking Blackwell and having no plan B having let him spend the transfer money. Letting Blackwell lash out on Evans and Henderson at ridiculous fees and wages. Sacking Wilson without having a plan B, then comounding it by putting a man with no experience in for the play offs?!?!? Hiring Robson without first setting a limit for what you would let him spend. Letting Robson hire washed up hasbeens like Hendry, then putting Gillespie on 5 times what he was on previously. Letting Warnock spend £2m on Akinbiyi and £1.25m Horsefield. All these are the sanctions of a madman. People said this at the time by the way, its not a hindsight judgement.

Then theres Brazil, Belgium, China, Australia, Hungary and crap knows whatever other ventures we ploughed money into to "cement the global brand". FFS We are Sheffield United, not Liverpool, Chelsea or Man United. Not many people know who we are let alone what sport we play.

If I had the time and the energy I could catalogue the absolute car crash of McCabe post 2006. It is up there with the worse chairmen of any club. Could it have been any worse? Yes it could but not much worse had we put a bunch of primary school kids in charge of decision making. We could be in the position Portsmouth find themselves in, but and more likely we could be up with Southampton, Forest, Derby, Norwich City, Ipswich, Middlesborough and a clutch of other clubs with similar supporter bases who are all batting at a much higher level than we are.

This thread is based on the financial accounts for the year ending 2014. You're off again on your "trip". Glad I'm not involved this time.

 

[Bladesway]

This thread is based on the financial accounts for the year ending 2014. You're off again on your "trip". Glad I'm not involved this time.

Shame it didn't stay that way.

 

[Bladepicker]

You can't go down the road of the worst example to make your point, for every Portsmouth there is a Swansea or a Palace or even a Leeds/Unwashed who all sit currently above us having had worse times than us in recent years. We may have not gone to the wall like some of the above but I think you can only stick Portsmouth and Coventry as clubs in a worse league position than we are having changed owners etc. Leeds may be going down that road again granted but at this moment in time they sit above us and I don't believe they will actually go down.

We are in an awful position having previously been on the verge of security and the promised land. Even following relegation from the Premiership we should have been in a similar position to a Burnley or West Brom. Both have bounced around the top 2 divisions but are substantially more successful than we have been. Lets be fair if we finish below 7th we will have been on a downward spiral for 8 seasons with only one noteable exception, Blackwells first season (Pinchy now has seizure but what the hell). There have been bad decisions within bad decisions as well. Sacking Blackwell and having no plan B having let him spend the transfer money. Letting Blackwell lash out on Evans and Henderson at ridiculous fees and wages. Sacking Wilson without having a plan B, then comounding it by putting a man with no experience in for the play offs?!?!? Hiring Robson without first setting a limit for what you would let him spend. Letting Robson hire washed up hasbeens like Hendry, then putting Gillespie on 5 times what he was on previously. Letting Warnock spend £2m on Akinbiyi and £1.25m Horsefield. All these are the sanctions of a madman. People said this at the time by the way, its not a hindsight judgement.

Then theres Brazil, Belgium, China, Australia, Hungary and crap knows whatever other ventures we ploughed money into to "cement the global brand". FFS We are Sheffield United, not Liverpool, Chelsea or Man United. Not many people know who we are let alone what sport we play.

If I had the time and the energy I could catalogue the absolute car crash of McCabe post 2006. It is up there with the worse chairmen of any club. Could it have been any worse? Yes it could but not much worse had we put a bunch of primary school kids in charge of decision making. We could be in the position Portsmouth find themselves in, but and more likely we could be up with Southampton, Forest, Derby, Norwich City, Ipswich, Middlesborough and a clutch of other clubs with similar supporter bases who are all batting at a much higher level than we are.

Good post and indeed I picked the most extreme example, but I also stated that many would actually prefer that most disastrous example to where we find ourselves.

Look McCabe has made some horrible decisions - he could have not sold the Kyles and gambled on that next season again with bank loans. Had we not gone up and then had to either hope someone else bought us, hoped the bank wiped the debt off or gone into admin, we could now be Sheffield United FC 2010 and sat in the bottom half of the Premiership.

I know in terms of league position and relative success a multitude of clubs have had it better than us. I know McCabe has made terrible decision after terrible decision (not all as bad as some make out mind) and I know this maybe small minded in some way but you know what? I'm glad we haven't had to go into admin and write off loans to local business people, I'm glad we haven't had to have a bank write our 20 odd million loan off, I'm glad we have not sold our entire club to some corrupt foreigner, even if it does mean we are in a worse position than some of those other clubs.

Guess we will have to agree to disagree on this one, but we are were we are and Clough is looking like he may be a decent KM decision for once. Lets hope for a bit of luck and the trend continuing.