Blades fight for custody of the kids

[creswell blade]

KEVIN McCabe, Sheffield United’s plc chairman, has issued a hands-off warning to clubs looking to poach Bramall Lane’s best young players ahead of next week’s FA Youth Cup Final against Manchester United.

But McCabe, who revealed United are facing a £12 million drop in revenue after being relegated from the Championship, admitted his board of directors are powerless to prevent rivals from expressing an interest in John Pemberton’s squad.

Insisting those words should not be interpreted as a hint that the likes of Jordan Slew, Harry Maguire and Terry Kennedy are destined to depart after the second-leg of their contest with Manchester United, McCabe said: “You tell me how we stop people from showing interest? The simple fact is that we can’t. It’s impossible.

“But let me be very clear; these lads will not miss an opportunity to play in the first-team squad here.

“They’ll be exposed to first-team football, that’s for sure.

“I’ll tell you now that we don’t want to sell one of them. Fact.

“But if, say, someone from the Premier League comes in for them and the player concerned sees what they can earn and says he wants to go, then what can you do?

“You have to try and deal with the situation as best as possible. But that’s not what we want to happen. End of.”

United have invested heavily in their academy and with several graduates recently making the breakthrough at senior level – George Long and Matthew Harriott also featured at Swansea City in the last match of the season – the wisdom of that decision is clearly evident.

Despite accepting their League One status makes them vulnerable to hostile bids, United’s hierarchy, aware of the backlash such departures would provoke, are known to prefer off-loading more established names in an effort to limit the financial damage caused by their 23rd-placed finish.

The Star understands that McCabe sought an undertaking from Micky Adams that United’s youth and development programmes would be the first port of call for reinforcements next term before dispensing with the manager’s services on Tuesday.

“We’re not starry-eyed about this,” McCabe said. “We know that not all of these kids are going to succeed at this level but I accept that we’ve fallen into the trap of making short-term and ultimately expensive moves into the loan market when perhaps we should have been looking elsewhere first.”

United have only 4,000 tickets left for Tuesday’s home leg of the FA Youth Cup Final. They travel to Old Trafford on Monday May 23.



Why do i get the feeling we,l be seen the back of our up and coming players alot sooner then we thought

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

McCabe said: “You tell me how we stop people from showing interest? The simple fact is that we can’t.


then what can you do?

Spend the next £6M on keeping them, has tha learnt nowt?

Perhaps the salient points help?

 

[judge]

KEVIN McCabe, Sheffield United’s plc chairman, has issued a hands-off warning to clubs looking to poach Bramall Lane’s best young players ahead of next week’s FA Youth Cup Final against Manchester United.

But McCabe, who revealed United are facing a £12 million drop in revenue after being relegated from the Championship, admitted his board of directors are powerless to prevent rivals from expressing an interest in John Pemberton’s squad.

Insisting those words should not be interpreted as a hint that the likes of Jordan Slew, Harry Maguire and Terry Kennedy are destined to depart after the second-leg of their contest with Manchester United, McCabe said: “You tell me how we stop people from showing interest? The simple fact is that we can’t. It’s impossible.

“But let me be very clear; these lads will not miss an opportunity to play in the first-team squad here.

“They’ll be exposed to first-team football, that’s for sure.

“I’ll tell you now that we don’t want to sell one of them. Fact.

“But if, say, someone from the Premier League comes in for them and the player concerned sees what they can earn and says he wants to go, then what can you do?

“You have to try and deal with the situation as best as possible. But that’s not what we want to happen. End of.”

United have invested heavily in their academy and with several graduates recently making the breakthrough at senior level – George Long and Matthew Harriott also featured at Swansea City in the last match of the season – the wisdom of that decision is clearly evident.

Despite accepting their League One status makes them vulnerable to hostile bids, United’s hierarchy, aware of the backlash such departures would provoke, are known to prefer off-loading more established names in an effort to limit the financial damage caused by their 23rd-placed finish.

The Star understands that McCabe sought an undertaking from Micky Adams that United’s youth and development programmes would be the first port of call for reinforcements next term before dispensing with the manager’s services on Tuesday.

“We’re not starry-eyed about this,” McCabe said. “We know that not all of these kids are going to succeed at this level but I accept that we’ve fallen into the trap of making short-term and ultimately expensive moves into the loan market when perhaps we should have been looking elsewhere first.”

United have only 4,000 tickets left for Tuesday’s home leg of the FA Youth Cup Final. They travel to Old Trafford on Monday May 23.



Why do i get the feeling we,l be seen the back of our up and coming players alot sooner then we thought

nothing much to add ,just thought i would quote the whole article and see if it pisses anyone else off as much as it does me

 

[Big Mart]

Well done Grumpy and Judge, just cut and paste what we've already read. Why not just reply to posts instead of quoting the whole bag of bollocks and yes, we got it first time round mate.

Is it because you think we may have missed something when we read it the first two or three times?

 

[SwissBlade]

Hands off warnings only usually seem to serve the purpose of raising the profile of said players/ managers.

This warning changes nothing, but it probably just reminds those that are interested in our players that they can scout them in the Youth Cup Final before putting in an extremely low bid

 

[BladeHearts]

It might just be me, but I dont think Kevin McCabe actually says that much wrong in the interview.

He's basically saying that whilst the club can turn down offers for a player, it becomes a no-win situation when the bidding club starts offering the youngster involved silly wages.

Hopefully, our kids will be good enough to get out of League One at the first attempt and start pushing for the Premiership.

The important thing is to have an Ajax type model where as soon as one kid moves on (at vast profit to the club), another equally goood youngster steps into their boots.

 

[SwissBlade]

Thing is BladesHearts, McCabe will sell them at the first chance, then sack the first team manager after a few months into the job, blaming him for the failures

 

[mall]

It might just be me, but I dont think Kevin McCabe actually says that much wrong in the interview.

He's basically saying that whilst the club can turn down offers for a player, it becomes a no-win situation when the bidding club starts offering the youngster involved silly wages.

Hopefully, our kids will be good enough to get out of League One at the first attempt and start pushing for the Premiership.

The important thing is to have an Ajax type model where as soon as one kid moves on (at vast profit to the club), another equally goood youngster steps into their boots.

It's easy really.
We are being softened up for departures.
McCabe rolls over and has his tummy tickled at the first offer.

 

[Ballinpigpubs13]

A hands off warning to clubs looking to poach Bramall lanes best young players = Come and get em' first come first served.

I'll tell you you now, we don't want to sell one of em, :spamalert: :shakehead::clap::thumbdown:

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

Now edited so you can understand

 

[BladeHearts]

To be fair neither of the Kyles was just given away and there is no way we could have competed with the wages that Tottenham were offering.

So even if we had declined Spurs offer, we would have been left with two majorly pissed off players.

If we had been moving them on to Wolves for £1m people would have a put, but we didnt.

 

[Worksop II]

It might just be me, but I dont think Kevin McCabe actually says that much wrong in the interview.

You are not doing too bad, not on the same level as DuncDisorderly, but you are showing promise ........

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

To be fair neither of the Kyles was just given away and there is no way we could have competed with the wages that Tottenham were offering.

So even if we had declined Spurs offer, we would have been left with two majorly pissed off players.

If we had been moving them on to Wolves for £1m people would have a put, but we didnt.

It's easy now we've got hindsight and at the time if it had happened we would all have thought McC has gone mad but the fact remains that £6M would have funded four really good players for a season and probably have been a promotion team [I know we can't say for sure that's why it didn't happen] but we finished up with 70 tossers who were only fit to play in pub teams.

Also I'm sure that running the club now will be costing McC more in hard cash than our last two campaigns did cus he has run out of assets to realise.

 

[SwissBlade]

"Flog em un sack em Ltd" has a ring to it

 

[Worksop II]

Also I'm sure that running the club now will be costing McC more in hard cash than our last two campaigns did cus he has run out of assets to realise.

Which is why McCabe has turned his gaze to the Academy and is bigging it up, if in 12 months time he is having to front up for another season in Div3, and none of the youngsters have realised their saleable value (in his head) Barratt Houses will be moving in up there.

It will be intersting to see how McCabes langauge develops over the comming season regarding the Academy.

You would have thought McCabe could have flogged Birchy onto another Club, all the High Power Contacts, and Investment Opportunities he has at his Fingertips

 

[BladeHearts]

You are not doing too bad, not on the same level as DuncDisorderly, but you are showing promise ........

Please tell me then what Kevin McCabe says wrong in the interview?

The decision to sell the Kyles was the correct decision both at the time and in hindsight, where the club went wrong was that they re-invested that money incredibly badly.

A few weeks ago people were posting on this forum that they could no longer relate to the players wearing the red and white, people were posting that McCabe should come out and apologise for the mess the club was in, people were saying that Adams should go, people were saying that Birch should go and people were saying that youth should get a chance.

We now have a situation where McCabe has apologised, Adams and Birch have gone and the club is being steered in the direction of youth.

I have posted previously on this forum, that in many ways I believe relegation to be a blessing in disguise as it gives us an opportunity to recalibrate this club into something we would all want it to be.

We have a golden generation of home-grown talent coming through from an Academy designed to produce Premiership quality players.

Yet all we hear is doom and gloom from people saying "oh well, we'll just give them away for a song", my point is what evidence is there of us doing that. We got top dollar prices for the Kyles and we got good money for Jags and Tonge.

Pretty much every club in the world bar the Real Madrids, Barcelonas and Man Citys of this world is a selling club to a lesser or greater extent, so its inevitable that if a youngster outgrows the club they will be sold, the key is being adequately recompensed, McCabes record so far suggests we wont be left short in that department.

For 5 years from 2001-2006, McCabe barely put a foot wrong. In the 5 years since he's certainly made plenty of mistakes, but we have to hope that he has learned his lesson from these and his most recent public utterances suggests that he is ready put right that which has gone wrong.

 

[grafikhaus]

We have a golden generation of home-grown talent coming through from an Academy designed to produce Premiership quality players.

Yet all we hear is doom and gloom from people saying "oh well, we'll just give them away for a song", my point is what evidence is there of us doing that. We got top dollar prices for the Kyles and we got good money for Jags and Tonge.

Pretty much every club in the world bar the Real Madrids, Barcelonas and Man Citys of this world is a selling club to a lesser or greater extent, so its inevitable that if a youngster outgrows the club they will be sold, the key is being adequately recompensed, McCabes record so far suggests we wont be left short in that department.

Got to agree with that bit. Look, we are not perfect but neither is anybody else.

So we sold the Kyles and I was as gutted as anybody, but does anyone seriously think they would have progressed as much as they have with United? The Kyles (or their agents) got it wrong. Both should have gone to Everton, where they'd now be established first-teamers.

Spurs got it/continue to get it wrong. Walker is a future England international and should easily have a regular place in their team ahead of Assou-Ekotto, Hutton or Corluka. Villa will benefit. And Naughton was clearly a 'buy one, get one free' thought by Tottenham. Not physically equipped for the top tier, he's found his level at Leicester.

As you say, we got good money for Jags & Tonge.

 

[TheSwollengland]

Why is it we according to McCabe ,are stuck with players on big contracts on the one hand ,but destined to off load the young (presumably contracted) players on the other .Always struck me as strange when he's used that argument to defend the Kyle sales .If we think they are the future get them signed up ,

 

[beightonblade]

The sooner McCabe fooks off the better.

 

[BladeHearts]

I still think people are.confusing two separate issues here.

That we have spent vast sums of money incredibly badly over the last few seasons is not in doubt. We can't off-load many of these players, because they wouldn't be prepared to accept a drop in wages to go elsewhere.

With regards to the youngsters, whilst a contract is a contract how do we deal with a situation where say we give Harry Maguire a 5-year contract on £5000 per week, he becomes one of the hottest young properties in English football and suddenly Man Utd come in and offer him £30000 per week.

Assuming that Man Utd offer an acceptable transfer fee how can you possibly expect the player to stay.

An example of this was Michael Brown in the 2003-2004 season where he barely kicked a ball as his mind was obviously on a move and big pay rise elsewhere.

The key is to have a good flow of youngsters coming through to seamlessly replace those who leave, not to throw the money away on big-money flops and disinterested loanees.

 

[SoccerCynic]

The Kyles deal was bad at the time (and I said so) and with hindsight still is. One would have gone to Everton for a decent fee and may have been easier to swallow....the other apparently stated openly that he wanted to stay. If such players have decent contracts they will stay and play or they, and there agents, will know that their value will fall. If we just throw our hands in the air and say...Agh Well if a decent offer comes in and the wages offered to the player are good then we have to capitulate" we will never have a team capable of challenging. If our promising youngsters are not on long contracts with decent terms then they should be. If necessary we should be offering them improved terms NOW. It is clear that if we obtain good fees for them then, history has shown, that quality established replacements will not come. For some reason those players dont want to come to Bramall Lane whether it be for poor wages or image of the club.

 

[Micalijo]

Thing is BladesHearts, McCabe will sell them at the first chance, then sack the first team manager after a few months into the job, blaming him for the failures

He's gone Swiss. Alehouse has gone - leave it.

Bad luck on the stability front - I mean the managers job is really an irrelevance to a football club. Nowt to do with him at all.

Time for a fresh start - thought you'd be able to see that and sacking Adams for huge incompetence was part of that process, and I'm buzzing about it!

 

[TheSwollengland]

So a contract only works if a player is on big money and can't find another club these days ? If we have a player contracted that someone else wants we "have" to let him off his contract ?

 

[BladeHearts]

So a contract only works if a player is on big money and can't find another club these days ? If we have a player contracted that someone else wants we "have" to let him off his contract ?

That's not what's being said at all, but pragmatism, common sense and player morale are all factors that have to be considered.

As I've said before where is the evidence that we roll-over and accept the first bid that we receive for players?

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

I still think people are.confusing two separate issues here.

That we have spent vast sums of money incredibly badly over the last few seasons is not in doubt. We can't off-load many of these players, because they woulidn't be prepared to accept a drop in wages to go elsewhere.

With regards to the youngsters, whilst a contract is a contract how do we deal with a situation where say we give Harry Maguire a 5-year contract on £5000 per week, he becomes one of the hottest young properties in English football and suddenly Man Utd come in and offer him £30000 per week.Assuming that Man Utd offer an acceptable transfer fee how can you possibly expect the player to stay.

An example of this was Michael Brown in the 2003-2004 season where he barely kicked a ball as his mind was obviously on a move and big pay rise elsewhere.

The key is to have a good flow of youngsters coming through to seamlessly replace those who leave, not to throw the money away on big-money flops and disinterested loanees.

If MU and the rest of the football comunity rate a player that highly that they would cough up 30k then paying more than MU are willing to pay could make sense based on how much we have pissed away on the 70 tossers we have had in.

However money would not compensate for the chance to win trophies at a club like MU but it could fight off the likes of Everton who have as much chance as us of winning something. Be better than being a Tottenham reserve pushed out on loan as well.

Also taking that decision would have you labled as a total fruit cake.

 

[super_pig]

>The decision to sell the Kyles was the correct decision both at the time and in hindsight
the fact that we haven't been able to replace either of them.. jordan, calve, parrino, taylor, nosworthy, mattock and we got relegated because of a piss poor defence would suggest otherwise imo.. kyle walker alone is now worth 9 million!

 

[Latters]

What I don't really accept from McCabe's comments recently is that he says about if players are being offered large amounts of money elsewhere then we can't stand in their way. Surely if we reject the offer in the first instance, said big club don't get to speak to the player and therefore can't "offer" them any money, as such they never find out how much they "might" have earned there? Perhaps just a simplistic and naive view?

 

[Revolution]

What I don't really accept from McCabe's comments recently is that he says about if players are being offered large amounts of money elsewhere then we can't stand in their way. Surely if we reject the offer in the first instance, said big club don't get to speak to the player and therefore can't "offer" them any money, as such they never find out how much they "might" have earned there?

Agents, Latters, agents. United are helpless in the face of agents.

With regards to the youngsters, whilst a contract is a contract how do we deal with a situation where say we give Harry Maguire a 5-year contract on £5000 per week, he becomes one of the hottest young properties in English football and suddenly Man Utd come in and offer him £30000 per week.

Assuming that Man Utd offer an acceptable transfer fee how can you possibly expect the player to stay.

Well, you've answered your own question. A contract is a contract, and you hold them to it - or at least hold them to it until the year it expires, when you might want to get some value back if the player is definitely not going to stay.

And I know, despite the contracts we couldn't prevent Beattie and the Kyles leaving, and blah blah blah. I've heard this before. And it's not true. If someone is under contract you can keep them at your club, you can report the other club for trying to tap them up, and you can report the agent too.

And I can never understand why McCabe says things like this, when he was the one who left no legal stone unturned to get compensation for the Tevez business from West Ham, sorry, the relegated West Ham (Ha!). He spared no expense in pursuing United's (just) case, and didn't give up when others might have. Believe me, doing that was a lot more difficult than telling James Beattie's agent to get f#####.

As for the Kyles, I have spent enough time on this board on that fiasco. I will say just this: if you still think it's a good deal, try this exercise:

- try to remember how many different people have played right back since we sold both of them
- see how many of these players were on loan
- try to remember how many mistakes these players made costing us goals and points

then tell me if you still think selling them both was a good deal.

 

[beightonblade]

Its all about ambition ................ on this issue McCabe is confused.

 

[Bergen Blade]

One good point made in this statement is that we may have let a couple of youngsters leave too early when they could at least have done a back up job for us, rather than some of the expensive loan and short term signings.

What about Ryan Cresswell vs Jonathan Fortune? Nicky Law vs Ryan France?