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

[Bert]

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.

Have you ever read any programme notes by the legendary Colin Murphy, ex Lincoln manager?

 

[Revolution]

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.

I know that, but it's the hand wringing about how helpless we are that annoys me. McCabe fought damned hard on the Tevez matter, and if the club fought a fraction as hard on some of these transfer negotiations, we'd be in a better position IMHO (if only in terms of bigger fees coming in). Anyway, that's an argument for another day.

 

[Darren]

Have you ever read any programme notes by the legendary Colin Murphy, ex Lincoln manager?

Ah yes. Maybe it is something about Lincoln.

 

[Bert]

Murphy was also manager of Vietnam. He now cuts a sad figure following his stroke, he sits in Lincoln city centre in his Lincoln City training gear watching the world go by.

 

[Darren]

Murphy was also manager of Vietnam. He now cuts a sad figure following his stroke, he sits in Lincoln city centre in his Lincoln City training gear watching the world go by.

A sample of Murphyism re Stockport County

...Reminiscent of the eerie old haunted house that had been empty for years and was begging for life. No different to the dodo. How joyful for them not to have acrimoniated in the non-league. How delightful for them to be making a success of defeating extinction. Let us hope we are all able to be pulmonic!

http://h2g2.com/approved_entry/A41604978

 

[Bert]

He can still converse with passers by, mostly about football but disappointingly he does not speak like he writes.

 

[eric_oulthwaite]

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.

I was running a pub in Birmingham (harborne) that season. A Villa legend a European cup winner, Gary Shaw, used to drink in my pub.(Cyrille Regis even came in once or twice). We played Villa and lost 3-nil IIRC at their place. It was right near the end of the season. Gary Shaw was speaking to me afterwards and said we were the worst team to play their all season. He reckoned Warnock had set up not to lose, was banking on home games. It was a joke we couldn't even draw against Wigan, a joke that Unsworth sent us down and that Jags gave away the handball, then was off to Everton. There were too many things that went against us that season as usual. Also Warnock played not to lose or to lose by much on too many occassions.
At the start of that season i was running a pub in Manchester. I watch the the opening game in another pub with a liverpool fan. When Gerrard cheated us for the pen i said to my mate. "any money that cost us, I bet we go down by a point or two or even a goal" Scouse twat! Just one of a few things that did us.

 

[eric_oulthwaite]

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

hahahahahahahaha

 

[metalblade]

It's fair to say the pre 2006 McCabe was as good as it gets where SUFC chairmen are concerned, after 2006 dear oh dear. I think Kev is well intentioned but he lost the plot around the time we reached the premiership forgetting we were a football club and not a vehicle to promote his main business worldwide. Some of the choices made since have been both unbelievable, disastrous and increasingly desperate. A five year old on his playstation would have baulked at hiring Bryan Robson but not our Kev he allowed parachute payments to be flushed down the shitter. Maybe this is when he decided he wanted out but with no buyer he was stuck with us so left with finding ways of getting his money back the Tevez cash certainly went in his back pocket. As for Bramall lane it is a football ground not somewhere to build hotels,offices and student accommodation we are now left with a stadium which looks very untidy and ill thought out McCabe has ruined it. Look at the corner between the kop/john St what a mess, you would have thought the Westfield corner would have seamlessly blended into the south stand but no there is a hotel in the way it will be very costly to increase capacity significantly should we have an extended stay in the premiership. Maybe better to move to a new ground if we were selling out every game, of course this will make Kev a nice wedge has he owns the ground not Sheffield United. Kev will certainly never be too much out of pocket either way collecting rent or selling the ground for development. You can't say Kev is daft far from it except when it comes to hiring football managers.

 

[Darren]

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.

If West Ham had played by the rules, they would have been relegated, not us. Simple as that.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

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.

Woodwordfan, the only thing I would add to your analogy is that the hard working, well intentioned uncle was not hated solely for his efforts, interfering and making people feel small as much as for his arrogance (after the Wilson appointment), lack of honesty with the family (Beattie Flu), and poor decision making (Robson, the timing of Blackwell’s sacking etc.). For someone who has made so many atrocious footballing decisions, I’m astounded he expressed the arrogance he did after the appointment of Wilson.

In terms of football club chairman, to my knowledge, nobody comes close to the late great Derek Dooley but if we’re talking about plc chairman/ majority shareholders etc. then I think it’s almost impossible for a football fan to measure. We don’t see what goes on behind the scenes and the role now is not comparable with the role in the 70s and 80s as football has changed so drastically over that period.

From what we can judge on I would say the positives of his reign are:-

1. The academy
2. The maintenance and development of the ground
3. The season in the prem
4. He has coughed up to keep us afloat at times
5. Sourcing investment from the Prince
6. The (sadly failed) plan to establish SUFC as a global brand.
7. Rightly fighting the Tevez case and getting compo from the club.

Whilst the negatives would be

1. Five seasons in this god awful league
2. The separation of the football club from it’s assets (the stadium, the academy etc.) and the potential long term implications
3. Ridiculous managerial appointments and poorly timed decisions
4. Dishonesty/spin with the fans
5. Sales of promising young players (mainly Kyle Walker beacuse he had so much potential and the sale seemed so unnecessary)
6. Arrogance and poor PR with the fans (telling fans they don’t know what to look for in a manager when he'd appointed Robson!)
7. Overselling Jacob Esan and to some extent overselling the Prince’s investment and generally failing to manage expectations.

Overall a mixed bag. If he’s the best, the others must have been bad but at the same time, he’s far from the monster some paint him to be.

Hopefully, the combination of McCabe and HRH/Phipps, now they have appointed a great manager will see us go onto much better times.

As a side issue, I have no idea what Sam Hashimi would have done with the club and I don’t think he/she should be discredited solely on the grounds of being transgendered. I think we’ve moved on from those times. In many ways, it would have been a great breakthrough for football to have such a person running a club. I’m not saying I would love the ridicule that would come our way but at the same time, those dishing out the ridicule would be the ones in the wrong.

Lack of tolerance, homophobia etc. are still huge problems in football and the mockery of transgendered people still seems to be largely accepted in many quarters. I for one would not object to us having a hermaphrodite in charge so long as they had the best interests of the club at heart and made decisions that benefited the football club. I'd like to see us as a society move away from that sort of narrowmindedness.

 

[Rodley]

It's fair to say the pre 2006 McCabe was as good as it gets where SUFC chairmen are concerned, after 2006 dear oh dear. I think Kev is well intentioned but he lost the plot around the time we reached the premiership forgetting we were a football club and not a vehicle to promote his main business worldwide. Some of the choices made since have been both unbelievable, disastrous and increasingly desperate. A five year old on his playstation would have baulked at hiring Bryan Robson but not our Kev he allowed parachute payments to be flushed down the shitter. Maybe this is when he decided he wanted out but with no buyer he was stuck with us so left with finding ways of getting his money back the Tevez cash certainly went in his back pocket. As for Bramall lane it is a football ground not somewhere to build hotels,offices and student accommodation we are now left with a stadium which looks very untidy and ill thought out McCabe has ruined it. Look at the corner between the kop/john St what a mess, you would have thought the Westfield corner would have seamlessly blended into the south stand but no there is a hotel in the way it will be very costly to increase capacity significantly should we have an extended stay in the premiership. Maybe better to move to a new ground if we were selling out every game, of course this will make Kev a nice wedge has he owns the ground not Sheffield United. Kev will certainly never be too much out of pocket either way collecting rent or selling the ground for development. You can't say Kev is daft far from it except when it comes to hiring football managers.

The value of BDTBL as a development site is an absolute fraction of what it would cost to buy a new site and build a new ground.

 

[coaxingstar71]

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

Thanks! If I start a thread, I like to get a few hares racing without just saying "This is what I think and everyone should agree with me", because obviously people view things differently and I guessed that this would particularly divide opinion.

BTW, I think you've made an excellent point re Dooley, something that hadn't occurred to me but makes a lot of sense when you think about it.

 

[Houston_Blade]

Colin? Really?

Oh sorry, forgot his name was Neil. He's become a parody of himself since he left us.

 

[Woodwardfan]

Woodwordfan, the only thing I would add to your analogy is that the hard working, well intentioned uncle was not hated solely for his efforts, interfering and making people feel small as much as for his arrogance (after the Wilson appointment), lack of honesty with the family (Beattie Flu), and poor decision making (Robson, the timing of Blackwell’s sacking etc.). For someone who has made so many atrocious footballing decisions, I’m astounded he expressed the arrogance he did after the appointment of Wilson.

In terms of football club chairman, to my knowledge, nobody comes close to the late great Derek Dooley but if we’re talking about plc chairman/ majority shareholders etc. then I think it’s almost impossible for a football fan to measure. We don’t see what goes on behind the scenes and the role now is not comparable with the role in the 70s and 80s as football has changed so drastically over that period.

From what we can judge on I would say the positives of his reign are:-

1. The academy
2. The maintenance and development of the ground
3. The season in the prem
4. He has coughed up to keep us afloat at times
5. Sourcing investment from the Prince
6. The (sadly failed) plan to establish SUFC as a global brand.
7. Rightly fighting the Tevez case and getting compo from the club.

Whilst the negatives would be

1. Five seasons in this god awful league
2. The separation of the football club from it’s assets (the stadium, the academy etc.) and the potential long term implications
3. Ridiculous managerial appointments and poorly timed decisions
4. Dishonesty/spin with the fans
5. Sales of promising young players (mainly Kyle Walker beacuse he had so much potential and the sale seemed so unnecessary)
6. Arrogance and poor PR with the fans (telling fans they don’t know what to look for in a manager when he'd appointed Robson!)
7. Overselling Jacob Esan and to some extent overselling the Prince’s investment and generally failing to manage expectations.

Overall a mixed bag. If he’s the best, the others must have been bad but at the same time, he’s far from the monster some paint him to be.

Hopefully, the combination of McCabe and HRH/Phipps, now they have appointed a great manager will see us go onto much better times.

As a side issue, I have no idea what Sam Hashimi would have done with the club and I don’t think he/she should be discredited solely on the grounds of being transgendered. I think we’ve moved on from those times. In many ways, it would have been a great breakthrough for football to have such a person running a club. I’m not saying I would love the ridicule that would come our way but at the same time, those dishing out the ridicule would be the ones in the wrong.

Lack of tolerance, homophobia etc. are still huge problems in football and the mockery of transgendered people still seems to be largely accepted in many quarters. I for one would not object to us having a hermaphrodite in charge so long as they had the best interests of the club at heart and made decisions that benefited the football club. I'd like to see us as a society move away from that sort of narrowmindedness.

Great post.

I wouldn't accuse KM of deliberate deceit, more naivety at times. A day is a long time in football and very often it is just not possible to communicate the exact story through the media as there are many facets and interests to bear in mind. Personally I regard KM as an honourable man and would trust him.

As regards the transfer of assets away from the football club, I recall KM explaining that he was assigning the assets to repay debts to him within the overall objective of making the football club less expensive for any prospective purchaser or investor. O fcourse any cinic would scoff at that though.

I think we might all agree that all KM was short of was one inspired managerial appointment to fulfill his vision. Over the years other club owners made inspired choices of manager with only a fraction of the time, personal money and effort KM has put into United. Trouble is the managerial appointments are the key to success.

 

[metalblade]

The value of BDTBL as a development site is an absolute fraction of what it would cost to buy a new site and build a new ground.

And your point is ?

 

[1danewhitehouse]

Woody, in the most part, I don't think it was deliberate deceipt. I think Beattie flu is an exception to that. I can't see how it could be anything else. The rest is probably a combination of spin and being carried away himself (Esan etc).

Re the seperation of assetts. I understand that reasoning and wouldn't scoff at it per se as it could work well (as it has seen the prince come on board). I just feel uneasy about the stadium and academy not being owned by the football club.

 

[BushBlade]

The value of BDTBL as a development site is an absolute fraction of what it would cost to buy a new site and build a new ground.

Assuming we quit the Lane and the council would give consent to demolish the ground and redevelop the site, what would its value be on the open market?

 

[Houston_Blade]

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?

The 2014 accounts, which include all transactions around the Prince coming on board, still report amounts owed to group and related undertakings of nearly £25m. It's debt, just badged up differently. Owed to various guises of the Scarborough group. If it changes this year I'll be surprised as he's a businessman so he'll never just "write off" what he's owed.

 

[Bladesway]

If West Ham had played by the rules, they would have been relegated, not us. Simple as that.

Had we not lost against Wigan we wouldn't have got relegated. Tevez should never have been an issue but I do get the point you are making.

 

[coaxingstar71]

Promotions under Brearley: 4
Promotions under McCabe: 1

Relegations under Brearley: 1
Relegations under McCabe: 2

Permanent Managers under Brearley: 3
Permanent Managers under McCabe: 9

Seasons spent in third tier under Brearley: 3 (2 promotions)
Seasons spent in third tier under McCabe: at least 5, with no promotion yet

Who is this Brearley bloke?

It's fair to say that Reginald saved the club when it was heading into oblivion in 1981 and he invested heavily until we got promoted to the old 2nd div in 1984. From then on, he seemed to be trying to offload and we had some very scary episodes with Sam the Woman and several years of not knowing whether he was the chairman or not. The failure of his "Bramall Centre" plan undoubtedly had a lot to do with this and his somewhat dubious business ventures in the far east that kept him occupied. I don't think it's as black and white as saying how many promotions and relegations as I would argue that the two promotions under Bassett were achieved solely by the managers ability and had little to do with any input from the chairman. Furthermore, I think there's strong evidence to suggest that Brealey was a hindrance during those years and promotions were achieved DESPITE him. It could also be argued, as it was vehemently by Bassett himself at the time, that Brealey was responsible for getting the club relegated following the sale of Deane to Leeds.

Anyway, that's just my view, and as you point out, there is an argument for both.

 

[coaxingstar71]

Which do you prefer, cat shit or dog shit?

Dog shit every time! Cat shit is like acid and gets to the back of your throat (particularly if you eat it).

 

[blade too long]

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.

was in jest

 

[coaxingstar71]

Very good OP. I haven't read all the thread but there was a post on here the other day saying something like:

I don't care if we have to pay over the odds for a centre half and a centre midfield, just spend the money.



This is real money that really belongs to real people.

That's when you question the intelligence of the average football fan.

I remember vividly when we sold Brown to Spurs for around £500k and some fans were up in arms. He'd got 6 months to go on his contract and refused to sign a new one, presumably knowing he could sign for a premier team for nothing at the end of the season. I thought in those circumstances, that was good business by the club. Why wait and get nothing when you could get £500k for the sake of a few months out of him not trying very hard? Some people just don't seem to get it do they?

 

[Revolution]

Who is this Brearley bloke?

It's fair to say that Reginald saved the club when it was heading into oblivion in 1981 and he invested heavily until we got promoted to the old 2nd div in 1984. From then on, he seemed to be trying to offload and we had some very scary episodes with Sam the Woman and several years of not knowing whether he was the chairman or not. The failure of his "Bramall Centre" plan undoubtedly had a lot to do with this and his somewhat dubious business ventures in the far east that kept him occupied. I don't think it's as black and white as saying how many promotions and relegations as I would argue that the two promotions under Bassett were achieved solely by the managers ability and had little to do with any input from the chairman. Furthermore, I think there's strong evidence to suggest that Brealey was a hindrance during those years and promotions were achieved DESPITE him. It could also be argued, as it was vehemently by Bassett himself at the time, that Brealey was responsible for getting the club relegated following the sale of Deane to Leeds.

Anyway, that's just my view, and as you point out, there is an argument for both.

You make some good points, and I agree that the promotions achieved by Bassett were arguably achieved despite Brearley.

As for Deane, that was a disastrous decision, but McCabe has at least 2 of those - Beattie and the Kyles - before you get into other sales that are worse than any other sale Brearley made. I'm not sure any other sale he made relegated us or stopped us going up though I'd be interested in a counter argument.

Plus Brearley kept Deane for 5 years. Can you imagine latter day McCabe doing that? If we had him and Agana now one would be gone in January, no question.

 

[Silent Blade]

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.

H Blacow Yates was the chairman until resigning after we got relegated in 1968, then Dick Wragg took over from the start of the 1968-69 season

 

[coaxingstar71]

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

Not at all, it's a genuine attempt to start a discussion, which appears to have worked!

 

[Worksop II]

Assuming we quit the Lane and the council would give consent to demolish the ground and redevelop the site

You just hope dont ya, that we dont demolish the ground before we have a new one

 

[Revolution]

That's when you question the intelligence of the average football fan.

I remember vividly when we sold Brown to Spurs for around £500k and some fans were up in arms. He'd got 6 months to go on his contract and refused to sign a new one, presumably knowing he could sign for a premier team for nothing at the end of the season. I thought in those circumstances, that was good business by the club. Why wait and get nothing when you could get £500k for the sake of a few months out of him not trying very hard? Some people just don't seem to get it do they?

We put monty in the team instead of Brown and missed the playoffs by a couple of points. All for half a million quid. That's not good business. I'd have preferred half a season of brown. Remember we were close to automatic when we got rid.

 

[blade too long]

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.

Im afraid though I loved him at the time Warnock has to take all the blame for our relegation
We were home and hosed with 4 to go and he went all huber defensive , one point ,,, one point was all we needed
he tried to park the bus , afte going for it all season
he threw it away