Is Kevin McCabe the best chairman we've ever had?

[Revolution]

Thought it was two? 1988 and 1994?

Sorry, yes!

 

[Revolution]

weve had to pay a million for a new pitch due to him forever landing a helicopter on our pitch , he was all about self promotion , it was the only promotion he ever brought to the Lane

We've had to pay a million due to damage caused by someone who left the club 20 years ago?

And you seriously don't think that Brearley was in any way responsible for bankrolling the first 2 promotions?

Like I said, it's arguable, but this is beyond a joke even for you.

 

[Woodwardfan]

Think that's about right Rodley.

McCabe's spent poorly overall, made equally poor decisions, so it's to his advantage that we should now have a manager who might just turn around the fortunes of this club. For wealthy men football club's can appeal to their vanity. We've seen it at Newcastle, where an otherwise successful businessman, Mike Ashley, couldn't grasp that professional football is a financial black hole. It's taken Ashley about 8 seasons to go through various managers, a huge number of players, and the continual disquiet of the Newcastle supporters, to just realise what's involved in running a club.

Whatever lessons McCabe has learned, he'll be a lot less wealthy than when he entered as chairman. Perhaps it's the fact that he owns the hotel, reportedly, that provide a financial reason for his continued involvement. Or possibly the thought of returning to the Premiership spurs him on, but whatever his reasons for remaining, those vanity issues I referred to have taken their toll on a man whose nous in other business areas is sufficient to provide him with a better than average quality of life.

In truth the hotel is a miniscule part of his personal wealth which is hard to estimate these days after he latest recovery in the commercial property sector. The freehold at Bramall Lane and the hotel were assigned to McCabe in return for him writing off equivalent debt owed by the club to him, at values professionally undertaken at the time.

As for his personal losses, which are also his family losses don't forget and not all of his family may be so bessoted with the Blades, a conservative estimate of their losses would be £50m even allowing for the current value of his half share in a League 1 football club.

I look upon McCabe these days almost as part of my family, say a kindly uncle who always tried his best to do the right thing but never quite hit the spot, always there when needed, always dependable, trustworthy and first to help out in a crisis; the family organiser, the one who worked hardest to keep the wider family together and yet the one whose jokes always fell flat, had bad breath, never got any thanks, indeed is invariably detested and distrusted by the very family memebers he was trying to help; why? because they resented him for trying so hard and interfering and all his efforts made them feel small and guilty about themselves.

The prince? Well he's the new, mysterious new uncle who's turned up out of the blue from the Middle East and has suddenly become part of the family. He's like muscled in on family affairs and threatens Uncle Kev at the hub of the family. He looks and acts the part of a genial type, comfortable in his substantial skin, quiet and sociable. We are told he has loads of cash but none of us really know and we are told he is reputable by Uncle Kev but who knows. Some of my cousins are excited by him and others are threatened by him and will never trust him unless he leaves them a bloody great legacy, that's what family respect is all about - what they can get out of him, not all that effort and care he gives; they want a big fat legacy and Kev will leave them diddly squat unless they count that new uncle he traced when he did the family tree research

Uncle Kevin has put his money where his mouth is and failed to date. I think he and his family want out now and will gradually be phased out by the prince. He couldn't have tried harder and he has done so many things right, however he has made simply atrocious choices of managers and has defied the law of averages by appointing disaster after disaster without finding just the one who could have realised his dreams for him. The new bloke seems to have more fresh ambition and that helps him make better managerial choices by the looks of it.

 

[metalblade]

I'm still not sure if the OP is a piss take.

 

[Worksop II]

I'm still not sure if the OP is a piss take.

I dont think it is, but there are one or two comments on here that are .....

 

[Darren]

We've had to pay a million due to damage caused by someone who left the club 20 years ago?

And you seriously don't think that Brearley was in any way responsible for bankrolling the first 2 promotions?

Like I said, it's arguable, but this is beyond a joke even for you.

I'm with you on this. By all accounts, Brealey was, on a personal level, a right tosser and he certainly outstayed his welcome after relegation in 1994. However, he was responsible for appointing Porterfield and Bassett as managers both of whom managed 2 promotions in quick succession and, as you say, from 1981-84, Brealey pumped into the club what was a massive amount of money for a lower division team.

He was a far better chairman than McCabe.

 

[JJ Sefton]

I'm with you on this. By all accounts, Brealey was, on a personal level, a right tosser and he certainly outstayed his welcome after relegation in 1994. However, he was responsible for appointing Porterfield and Bassett as managers both of whom managed 2 promotions in quick succession and, as you say, from 1981-84, Brealey pumped into the club what was a massive amount of money for a lower division team.

He was a far better chairman than McCabe.

I'll third that. Brealey left us better off than he found us. If McCabe left tomorrow, he couldn't say that.

 

[Houston_Blade]

There are so many ways you could look at McCabe's tenure so it's hard to say. The rose tinted specs brigade will say he's amazing (because everything to do with the club/team is in their eyes) and the people who don't like him he's an easy target.

Personally I think it's nice to have some stability at that level in a time when you see clubs bought and sold on an annual basis. From a performance perspective:

Football - Simply put we are in a worse position league wise than when he started so it's a failure on that front. He's taken a mid/top Championship club and let them spend 5 years in League 1 through various bad decisions made whilst we were in the Premier League and desperate decisions since.

Hopefully this season is the one we go back up to the league I think we belong in but we've said that before. Yes we had 1 season in the PL but it's not done us much good and has unrealistically raised the expectations of fans and led to numerous idiotic and childish car park protests since. In a game of such fine margins his decisions have ultimately cost the football side of the club dearly.

Infrastructure - Massive tick in the box on this one, stadium looks great, academy looks great and more importantly is self sufficient financially. Can't really say much more on this.

On the down side we've wasted time and money on tie-ins with clubs that never came to anything apart from a few questionable signings a few years back. The Ferencvaros link however did yield some return in that young players were sent to toughen up and came back better players (Lowton most notably).

Financially - "Well run club" is the most commonly used phrase on this but I just don't buy into it. We've wasted parachute payments, WH compensation monies and transfer fees over the last 10 years. I've worked in a senior finance role for a football club on the financial side in the past with a chairman who treated it as business rather than a hobby and he turned £1m initial investment into a £4m sale with about £1.5m of cash injection over his time there so I know money can be made in football. However McCabe has been much more long term and I think it's cost him and the club massively.

We've had a share issue and removal from the market, Annual Financial Reports that don't quite back up the "well run club" propaganda and paid far too much money in wages and loan fees for players whose hearts were never in it.

We are not "debt free" we just don't owe a bank or the HMRC millions but actually I'd prefer this than being beholden to one person who might wait a long time before he passes the club on.

I have maximum respect for entrepreneurs such as McCabe and have risked my own money in businesses in the past so know what a burden it can be but for such a good businessman he's been guilty of far too many poor business decisions on the football club/PLC front that in many industries would have seen liquidation years ago.

Summary - I can't actually imagine the club without him and think the vast amounts of his own money he's put in set him apart from some other chairmen, however he/his family with hindsight would have done a lot of things differently (wouldn't we all though) if they could jump in a time machine. Glad he's here but I think it's time for someone like the Prince/Phipps to step up to the plate and let McCabe take a proper back seat and just recoup his money over a period of time he's happy with. He's obviously not in it to make a quick buck and for that I'm thankful but he will demand some return when he eventually disappears into the sunset.

 

[Bladesway]

This should stir things up!

I've been entertained by pommpey's thread where basically he lays the blame for the clubs failings firmly at the door of our long serving (suffering?) chairman. According to our angry friend, it SEEMS like our chairman and his board want to keep the club in this league, presumably so we don't have to sign expensive players and spend more money in the Championship.

Well what do we think? Is he solely to blame for the clubs decline into the third tier and should go or has he actually made sure that our club, despite it's league position, remains in a reasonably healthy state? Has he bled the club dry over the years taking large sums out of our potential transfer kitty or has he actually put in millions of pounds of his own personal wealth to ensure the club's survival? What are our reasons for believing one way or the other?

Looking back, have we had better chairmen at the helm? I'd say, certainly not in my lifetime, which started with old John Hassall, then Reg Brealey, then...er.... Woolhouse, Len Brealey and utter chaos, then McDonald before McCabe took over circa 1999.

I often wonder why these people would want to be a chairman. Mostly they are rich businessmen who are fans, but once they take over, they risk the continued wrath of the fans if they are not continually giving the manager pots of money to spend, money which the club may not be making in a lot of cases.

Would we rather we had a chairman who does splash the cash but actually wants to play manager as well such as we've seen at Cardiff, Brentford, Chelsea (to an extent), Leeds and I suspect our neighbours too?

Personally I wonder what state we might be in if McCabe hadn't taken over. I think he's made poor decisions, granted, but we've not looked like getting docked 30 points for going into administration or worse either.

Better the devil you know?

This is up there with your favourite serial killer.

Best Chairman we have had in my lifetime at a guess but wasted more opportunities and squandered more money on hair brained schemes than any. Brearley actually did and tried to do some revolutionary things in his time and bearing in mind where football was in that day and age people lambasting him forget he bankrolled us out of Division 4 with the signings of players like Edwards and Morris.

Its funny that McCabe made his best decisions when Dooley was around, and utterly lost the plot when his influence was no longer there. Perhaps McCabe had an exceptional advisor because everything he did post Dooley was awful.

Oh good OP by the way, light blue touch paper and away you go

 

[JJ Sefton]

This is up there with your favourite serial killer.

Best Chairman we have had in my lifetime at a guess but wasted more opportunities and squandered more money on hair brained schemes than any. Brearley actually did and tried to do some revolutionary things in his time and bearing in mind where football was in that day and age people lambasting him forget he bankrolled us out of Division 4 with the signings of players like Edwards and Morris.

Its funny that McCabe made his best decisions when Dooley was around, and utterly lost the plot when his influence was no longer there. Perhaps McCabe had an exceptional advisor because everything he did post Dooley was awful.

McCabe knows how to stabilise a club, perhaps, but he's no idea how to push it on.

 

[Bladesway]

We wouldn't have a football club as we know it , if McCabe had not taken over . We would not be playing at BDTBL , for a starter for 10.

UTB

Normally you talk sense LB but this is absolute speculation. You have no proof that this is the case and as you don't own a crystal ball that works I'm assuming you can quantify how this stacks up. Pony in my opinion I'm afraid.

 

[Darren]

There are so many ways you could look at McCabe's tenure so it's hard to say. The rose tinted specs brigade will say he's amazing (because everything to do with the club/team is in their eyes) and the people who don't like him he's an easy target.

Personally I think it's nice to have some stability at that level in a time when you see clubs bought and sold on an annual basis. From a performance perspective:

Football - Simply put we are in a worse position league wise than when he started so it's a failure on that front. He's taken a mid/top Championship club and let them spend 5 years in League 1 through various bad decisions made whilst we were in the Premier League and desperate decisions since.

Hopefully this season is the one we go back up to the league I think we belong in but we've said that before. Yes we had 1 season in the PL but it's not done us much good and has unrealistically raised the expectations of fans and led to numerous idiotic and childish car park protests since. In a game of such fine margins his decisions have ultimately cost the football side of the club dearly.

Infrastructure - Massive tick in the box on this one, stadium looks great, academy looks great and more importantly is self sufficient financially. Can't really say much more on this.

On the down side we've wasted time and money on tie-ins with clubs that never came to anything apart from a few questionable signings a few years back. The Ferencvaros link however did yield some return in that young players were sent to toughen up and came back better players (Lowton most notably).

Financially - "Well run club" is the most commonly used phrase on this but I just don't buy into it. We've wasted parachute payments, WH compensation monies and transfer fees over the last 10 years. I've worked in a senior finance role for a football club on the financial side in the past with a chairman who treated it as business rather than a hobby and he turned £1m initial investment into a £4m sale with about £1.5m of cash injection over his time there so I know money can be made in football. However McCabe has been much more long term and I think it's cost him and the club massively.

We've had a share issue and removal from the market, Annual Financial Reports that don't quite back up the "well run club" propaganda and paid far too much money in wages and loan fees for players whose hearts were never in it.

We are not "debt free" we just don't owe a bank or the HMRC millions but actually I'd prefer this than being beholden to one person who might wait a long time before he passes the club on.

I have maximum respect for entrepreneurs such as McCabe and have risked my own money in businesses in the past so know what a burden it can be but for such a good businessman he's been guilty of far too many poor business decisions on the football club/PLC front that in many industries would have seen liquidation years ago.

Summary - I can't actually imagine the club without him and think the vast amounts of his own money he's put in set him apart from some other chairmen, however he/his family with hindsight would have done a lot of things differently (wouldn't we all though) if they could jump in a time machine. Glad he's here but I think it's time for someone like the Prince/Phipps to step up to the plate and let McCabe take a proper back seat and just recoup his money over a period of time he's happy with. He's obviously not in it to make a quick buck and for that I'm thankful but he will demand some return when he eventually disappears into the sunset.

Broadly speaking, I would say he was a great chairman up until we got promoted in 2006 - took us from strugglers in the 2nd tier, built steadily, ignored calls to sack Warnock, pumped money in and got us back up; 2006-07 is debateable (there is a strong case he could have put more money in that season and we would have stayed up), since 2007 and the appointment of Robson, it's pretty much been unrelieved disaster (though possibly expemting 2011-12 from that - he bankrolled us that season in the hope we would go straight back up and we would have done had it not been for the Evans fiasco - something for which KM cannot be blamed).

 

[Revolution]

Broadly speaking, I would say he was a great chairman up until we got promoted in 2006 - took us from strugglers in the 2nd tier, built steadily, ignored calls to sack Warnock, pumped money in and got us back up; 2006-07 is debateable (there is a strong case he could have put more money in that season and we would have stayed up), since 2007 and the appointment of Robson, it's pretty much been unrelieved disaster (though possibly expemting 2011-12 from that - he bankrolled us that season in the hope we would go straight back up and we would have done had it not been for the Evans fiasco - something for which KM cannot be blamed).

I think this is a good summary, save that I felt that McCabe should have given Warnock more to work with after losing to Wolves in 2003. His major move was to sell Brown when some investment in the close season might have seen us promoted. Still, he made up for that 2 years later.

I also think it's fair to say that in addition to bad decisions McCabe has been unluckier than most, as he's been hurt by events not of his own making, such as the Tevez business and, as you say, Evans.

 

[Bladesway]

I think this is a good summary, save that I felt that McCabe should have given Warnock more to work with after losing to Wolves in 2003. His major move was to sell Brown when some investment in the close season might have seen us promoted. Still, he made up for that 2 years later.

I also think it's fair to say that in addition to bad decisions McCabe has been unluckier than most, as he's been hurt by events not of his own making, such as the Tevez business and, as you say, Evans.

I think this is a correct statement with one amendment, on that last day Carlos Tevez didn't get us relegated we did. We lost at home to a team we only had to draw with. It was all in our own hands and we fucked it up spectacularly. This was one of the most miserable days of my life thus far.

 

[Greenwich Blade]

At least our owner is a local lad done good.

Granted he has made some mistakes, but this has cost him a fortune. It is simply ridiculous to think our majority shareholders do not want success for our club. It beggars belief that some folks actually believe this. Why?

HH

Having gatecrashed the news conference to announce the arrival of Nigel Adkins I can confirm that Mr Kevin looked like the cat that got the cream all afternoon and didn't mind me dipping into the Fox's Glacier Fruits on the table at a rate of one a minute.

 

[Houston_Blade]

Broadly speaking, I would say he was a great chairman up until we got promoted in 2006 - took us from strugglers in the 2nd tier, built steadily, ignored calls to sack Warnock, pumped money in and got us back up; 2006-07 is debateable (there is a strong case he could have put more money in that season and we would have stayed up), since 2007 and the appointment of Robson, it's pretty much been unrelieved disaster (though possibly expemting 2011-12 from that - he bankrolled us that season in the hope we would go straight back up and we would have done had it not been for the Evans fiasco - something for which KM cannot be blamed).

Can't disagree, I'd have written an essay if I'd split it into Pre Colin, Colin and Post Colin though. Football is a game where fine margins have huge financial impact and no matter how rich I was I would never put money into a club unless I could see a return so hats off for him taking a bit of a bath on our behalf. Also in football you'll never please everyone so it's a tough job he's got. Bet he wishes he'd stuck to property!

 

[Worksop II]

Having gatecrashed the news conference to announce the arrival of Nigel Adkins I can confirm that Mr Kevin looked like the cat that got the cream all afternoon and didn't mind me dipping into the Fox's Glacier Fruits on the table at a rate of one a minute.

Of course he was smiling, earlier that morning he had been stirring the Flox's Glacier Fruits with his dick

 

[Darren]

Can't disagree, I'd have written an essay if I'd split it into Pre Colin, Colin and Post Colin though. Football is a game where fine margins have huge financial impact and no matter how rich I was I would never put money into a club unless I could see a return so hats off for him taking a bit of a bath on our behalf. Also in football you'll never please everyone so it's a tough job he's got. Bet he wishes he'd stuck to property!

Colin? Really?

 

[Greenwich Blade]

Of course he was smiling, earlier that morning he had been stirring the Flox's Glacier Fruits with his dick

Good job they were well wrapped then!

 

[Woodwardfan]

There are so many ways you could look at McCabe's tenure so it's hard to say. The rose tinted specs brigade will say he's amazing (because everything to do with the club/team is in their eyes) and the people who don't like him he's an easy target.

Personally I think it's nice to have some stability at that level in a time when you see clubs bought and sold on an annual basis. From a performance perspective:

Football - Simply put we are in a worse position league wise than when he started so it's a failure on that front. He's taken a mid/top Championship club and let them spend 5 years in League 1 through various bad decisions made whilst we were in the Premier League and desperate decisions since.

Hopefully this season is the one we go back up to the league I think we belong in but we've said that before. Yes we had 1 season in the PL but it's not done us much good and has unrealistically raised the expectations of fans and led to numerous idiotic and childish car park protests since. In a game of such fine margins his decisions have ultimately cost the football side of the club dearly.

Infrastructure - Massive tick in the box on this one, stadium looks great, academy looks great and more importantly is self sufficient financially. Can't really say much more on this.

On the down side we've wasted time and money on tie-ins with clubs that never came to anything apart from a few questionable signings a few years back. The Ferencvaros link however did yield some return in that young players were sent to toughen up and came back better players (Lowton most notably).

Financially - "Well run club" is the most commonly used phrase on this but I just don't buy into it. We've wasted parachute payments, WH compensation monies and transfer fees over the last 10 years. I've worked in a senior finance role for a football club on the financial side in the past with a chairman who treated it as business rather than a hobby and he turned £1m initial investment into a £4m sale with about £1.5m of cash injection over his time there so I know money can be made in football. However McCabe has been much more long term and I think it's cost him and the club massively.

We've had a share issue and removal from the market, Annual Financial Reports that don't quite back up the "well run club" propaganda and paid far too much money in wages and loan fees for players whose hearts were never in it.

We are not "debt free" we just don't owe a bank or the HMRC millions but actually I'd prefer this than being beholden to one person who might wait a long time before he passes the club on.

I have maximum respect for entrepreneurs such as McCabe and have risked my own money in businesses in the past so know what a burden it can be but for such a good businessman he's been guilty of far too many poor business decisions on the football club/PLC front that in many industries would have seen liquidation years ago.

Summary - I can't actually imagine the club without him and think the vast amounts of his own money he's put in set him apart from some other chairmen, however he/his family with hindsight would have done a lot of things differently (wouldn't we all though) if they could jump in a time machine. Glad he's here but I think it's time for someone like the Prince/Phipps to step up to the plate and let McCabe take a proper back seat and just recoup his money over a period of time he's happy with. He's obviously not in it to make a quick buck and for that I'm thankful but he will demand some return when he eventually disappears into the sunset.

Excellent post, but why do you say we are not debt-free. KM wrote off all his personal and companies' debts when the prince arrived. Have we incurred debt since then?

 

[Greenwich Blade]

Not been done for a while; not too sure about the Prince's disguise as he fans himself in his chair though.

Which one's Kev and which one's Jim?

 

[Woodwardfan]

Not been done for a while; not too sure about the Prince's disguise as he fans himself in his chair though.

Which one's Kev and which one's Jim?View attachment 13174

I reckon Kev is behind the action these days, he's the one at the rear

 

[Darren]

I think this is a good summary, save that I felt that McCabe should have given Warnock more to work with after losing to Wolves in 2003. His major move was to sell Brown when some investment in the close season might have seen us promoted. Still, he made up for that 2 years later.

I also think it's fair to say that in addition to bad decisions McCabe has been unluckier than most, as he's been hurt by events not of his own making, such as the Tevez business and, as you say, Evans.

Indeed, and he has to be commended for doggedly pursuing the Tevez business when most people (me included) did not think he had a hope in hell.

 

[BushBlade]

I think this is a good summary, save that I felt that McCabe should have given Warnock more to work with after losing to Wolves in 2003. His major move was to sell Brown when some investment in the close season might have seen us promoted. Still, he made up for that 2 years later.

I also think it's fair to say that in addition to bad decisions McCabe has been unluckier than most, as he's been hurt by events not of his own making, such as the Tevez business and, as you say, Evans.

I also agree with that. It seems things started to go wrong when Warnock spoke to Portsmouth. I think KM, after backing Colin through the post-2003 doldrums, felt it was a kick in the bollocks and I wonder if that's why he didn't back him properly when we went up?
I'm not saying he didn't back him but not to the extent he backed the drunk. That was a mistake from a football perspective (it's as hard to get back as it is to stay up, perhaps harder) and a financial one; given most players sign three year contracts and in those days you got two years parachute payments it makes sense to spend your big money when you go up, so if you don't stay up you just have to lose a couple of the top earners and if you don't get straight back, just a couple more.
Signing players on three year contracts when you've only got two years of parachute payments is a very obvious gamble. Doing so under the stewardship of a manager with a very patchy record and well-known personal problems is close to insanity.
Everything since has stemmed from that period and every key decision he's made since has backfired, until he found the prince.
It could still work out for him in the end. If we somehow manage to get into the PL, the club will be worth over £100m (based on the current valuations of PL clubs I saw a few days ago).
It would be heartless not to have any sympathy for the amount he's lost, whatever the percentage of his income, just as I have sympathy for those who bought shares in the club that are now worthless.

Whether he's the 'best chairman' ever is irrelevant really. We haven't had a good one in my lifetime so being the best of a bad bunch is no accolade.

 

[Bert]

Bert met Len Brearley once, brother of Reg, Len was trying to sell Bert some factory premises. He came across as a right Arthur Daley character, he even had the Jag. When Len spoke about the Blades he never used the "we" term.

Reg started out as a painter and decorator, he was on the board at Lincoln City but they edged him out, that's why he eventually got involved with United. He used to go the away games in his blue Roller with scarves hanging out of the windows. looking back, they were quite good times under Reg.

 

[Darren]

I am a bit vague as to who all the chairmans* have been in my lifetime. My best shot:

Dick Wragg 1966-74
John Hassall 1974-81
Reg Brealey 1981-92
Paull Woolhouse 1992-93
Reg Brealey 1993-95
Mike MacDonald 1995-99
Kevin McCabe 1999-2013
KM and the Prince 2013 -

Is that right?

* By chairman I mean the guy in effective charge; the person holding the nominal post may have been different - cf Dooley was chair for a while.

 

[Darren]

Bert met Len Brearley once, brother of Reg, Len was trying to sell Bert some factory premises. He came across as a right Arthur Daley character, he even had the Jag. When Len spoke about the Blades he never used the "we" term.

Reg started out as a painter and decorator, he was on the board at Lincoln City but they edged him out, that's why he eventually got involved with United. He used to go the away games in his blue Roller with scarves hanging out of the windows. looking back, they were quite good times under Reg.

One of the strange things I remember about Brealey was his awful prose. He used to write stuff in Blades News that were virtually incomprehensible. I suppose no-one had the guts to edit him.

 

[Revolution]

I am a bit vague as to who all the chairmans* have been in my lifetime. My best shot:

Dick Wragg 1966-74
John Hassall 1974-81
Reg Brealey 1981-92
Paull Woolhouse 1992-93
Reg Brealey 1993-95
Mike MacDonald 1995-99
Kevin McCabe 1999-2013
KM and the Prince 2013 -

Is that right?

* By chairman I mean the guy in effective charge; the person holding the nominal post may have been different - cf Dooley was chair for a while.

There was the Colombotti/MacDonald double act for a while.

Was Hinchcliffe ever chairman or just a director? I think the latter.

 

[Revolution]

Indeed, and he has to be commended for doggedly pursuing the Tevez business when most people (me included) did not think he had a hope in hell.

This is the main reason I get annoyed when I hear that we can't do anything about players under contract leaving. McCabe of all people should know that is not true.

 

[Darren]

This is the main reason I get annoyed when I hear that we can't do anything about players under contract leaving. McCabe of all people should know that is not true.

To be fair, it's not that we can't do anything, it's a decision as to whether you want to keep a player who wants to leave or cash in and buy someone else. In some circumstances, the latter may be the right decision.