Maradona on almost signing for the Blades!

[Hamburg Blade]

We should keep quiet about it, though. Had we signed him, we'd have totally fucked his career up and turned him into a hopeless lumper playing in the third division. Meaning England would have won the World Cup.

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

There is a chapter in Matthew Bell's book Viva Sabella! about this, which presents a plausible account. United's board at the time were not fabulously wealthy - the chairman John Hassall was a local house builder, and I know that when the River Plate team came to play at the Lane, he was uneasy about keeping up with the conspicuously extravagant wealth of their owners, particularly as we were supposed to go out there and play a return match. United then got relegated, and River Plate lost interest. It is easy to understand the reluctance to spend big money on an unproven foreign teenager.

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

If we signed him today he'd make 8 appearances for us before selling him on to West Bromwich Albion for £3m

£2.5M

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

He probably thinks thank fuck I didn't

He'd have been an unused squad player because he was obviously far too young to play for us

This would have cost him an international place

We'd have still got relegated to Division Three and he'd have joined Barnsley in a cut price deal

And he wouldn't have just hand balled it if he'd finished up a dingle, he'd have caught it and took it home in a reight huff.

 

[Silent Blade]

I remember reading that the Blades and Argentinos Juniors did agree on a fee and that our rich director Albert Bramall would guarantee the fee but after that the president of Argentinos Juniors asked for more and then the deal got called off.

If we had signed him, would it have been difficult for him learning English, the difference in culture and the bad winter of 1978-79? We did have two coaches in Uruguayan Danny Bergara and Argentinian Oscar Arce who may have helped him to settle down?

 

[Barney Rubble]

I remember reading that the Blades and Argentinos Juniors did agree on a fee and that our rich director Albert Bramall would guarantee the fee but after that the president of Argentinos Juniors asked for more and then the deal got called off.

If we had signed him, would it have been difficult for him learning English, the difference in culture and the bad winter of 1978-79? We did have two coaches in Uruguayan Danny Bergara and Argentinian Oscar Arce who may have helped him to settle down?

The whole story first broke when not long after the World Cup Ardiles announced that he had signed for Sheffield United, I still remember my dad waking me up to tell me that this had just been announced on the radio, Later that day United issued a statement saying that we weren't signing Ardiles but that Harry Haslam was in Argentina.

Prior to the World Cup United had Antonio Rattin (the notorious ex-Argentine captain) to sign options on a load of Argentina's top players. (We probably sold some of these options on to Spurs and probably Tarantini to Birmingham as well) We were always reported as intending to sign 2 Argentinians as it was felt that they would settle in better as a pair. It was reported at the timr that the second deal had fallen through because the Argentinian F.A. blocked players under-20 signing for foreign clubs.

I think I read in a later interview with either Haslam, or possibly Bergara that although the board had initially balked at paying half a milion, Haslam conviced them that Maradona was worth it. However, by the time the board agreed to pay up, the Argentinian F.A. had put the ban in place. So, a bit of a 1970ies equivalent of a fax machine cock-up then.

Perhaps in an alternate universe the Hand of God would have helped us beat the pigs 4-0 on Boxing Day 1979.

 

[sheffielder]

We'd have ruined him and then sold him to Leeds.

We would have won the 86 world cup then

 

[coaxingstar71]

We would have won the 86 world cup then

Nah, we'd have lost to the Germans in the final on penalties after dominating the game.