Maradona to the Blades - aspertions cast

[Linz]

From Rob Smyth's blog in the Guardian detailing the six most fanciful transfers that never occurred:

2) Diego Maradona (Argentinos Juniors to Sheffield United, 1978)

In modern football, the Copperfields rarely mix with the Schiffers, but back in the day such is-he-really-going-out-with-them trysts were surprisingly frequent: the barely fathomable transfers of John Charles from Juventus to Leeds and Allan Simonsen from Barcelona to Charlton spring instantly to mind. Yet those would have knocked into the proverbial cocked one had Diego Maradona, then 17, joined second-division Sheffield United in 1978. United's manager Harry Haslam was a renowned wheeler-dealer with a good strong finger in the South American pie; even allowing for that, however, it's hard to buy this story. Most reports suggest that United could have had Maradona for £200,000, but missed out on the ultimate Sheffield steal and instead decided to pay £160,000 for Alex Sabella. It's a good story, but then so are Walter Mitty's.

A report in the Guardian in 1981, the day after Haslam was sacked by United, said he had worked Argentinos Juniors down from £1m to £600,000 - a much more credible price for a player who had already played for Argentina, who was obviously blessed with genius and whose omission from Cesar Menotti's World Cup squad had caused a major rumpus. This was not a case of Haslam unearthing an unknown gem. The secret was already out.

So the fee Argentinos Juniors wanted for Maradona was, it seems, around 400 per cent of what United eventually had to spend on Sabella - not a cliched case of an excessively parsimonious Yorkshire board who refused t'part with a few notes that they kept hidden inside their flat cap in case World War III was declared. We cannot be entirely sure, because Haslam passed away in 1985 and Maradona inexplicably omitted the incident in his autobiography, but it all has the whiff of a myth. And there's one other thing: even allowing for the transfer climate of the day, why on earth would the world's best young footballer have wanted to play in the English second division, alongside Steve Finnieston, John Cutbush and Mick Speight?

 

[boo radley]

Mick Speight? that would be the England B international player as he was.

 

[Sensiblade]

The thing is no-one in Europe knew who Maradona was when we tried to sign him, so it wasn't fanciful at the time at all.
In retrospect it may look like wishful thinking but it really wasn't.

 

[bettsyblade86]

Am i paranoid? or was there a distinct anti~United and anti~Yorkshire feel about the story?

 

[TonyAgana]

Am i paranoid? or was there a distinct anti~United and anti~Yorkshire feel about the story?

Yes. And yes. Part and parcel of being a Yorkshireman / Sheffielder / Blade!

 

[shorehamview]

Well, in the copy of his autobiography "El Diego" that I've got he mentions the interest from United. So Rob Smyth and the Grauniad can stick it up their asres.
Who reads it anyway? Tree-huggers and communists, that's who.

 

[happyhippy]

Well, in the copy of his autobiography "El Diego" that I've got he mentions the interest from United. So Rob Smyth and the Grauniad can stick it up their asres.
Who reads it anyway? Tree-huggers and communists, that's who.

Off to visit my favourite larch now, and precisely what is wrong with the colour red

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

Off to visit my favourite larch now, and precisely what is wrong with the colour red

Nothing wrong with the colour red, or that there Oak, comrade!

 

[shorehamview]

Further to this there's a nice article in FourFourTwo and the front page has a big pic of Diego with "I nearly joined Sheffield United" splashed across it. I hope Rob Smyth is paying attention.......


There was also a piece on The Times's site about this a while ago. I got a few death threats for this.

It's true, we nearly signed one of the greatest players/cocaine hoovers that the world has ever seen. Google it if you don't believe me.

However the recommendation that we pay £200,000 for a seventeen year old by Happy Harry Haslam was immediately shot down by our forward-thinking board, and instead we signed Alex Sabella. Great.

This goes down as possibly one of the worst decisions ever. Or does it?

It's worse than the bloke who didn't sign the Beatles. We passed up the chance for one of the best players the world has ever seen to come to the Lane.

But every cloud has a silver lining. At least we've not got the stigma of one of the greatest cheats world sport has ever seen having been one of ours. We've not been swamped by Columbian drug dealers, or had Fidel Castro come to visit.

All the fuss about Maradona, all the Scots grinning like maniacs on the telly the other day, because they'd got his signature. He's a hero to them, because he cheated against England. They love him, because he dumped us out of the World Cup, and because they are so desperately short of heroes of their own they have to adopt those who beat the English.

Terry Butcher should get a knighthood for not shaking hands with the short-arsed coke-head.
Yes, Maradona could have been a Blade, but given our finances in the late 70's we'd have had him for a season at most and then flogged him to Leeds, as we did with all our best players at that time, and who out there would have wanted Maradona in a Leeds shirt?

So thank us that we didn't sign him then flog him to Leeds. Maybe our board weren't the blinkered idiots we thought.......

 

[cooperblade]

Further to this there's a nice article in FourFourTwo and the front page has a big pic of Diego with "I nearly joined Sheffield United" splashed across it. I hope Rob Smyth is paying attention.......

He said he was looking forward to the move as well! I've heard the story of when the board went to sign him and there's more to it then them deciding he wasn't worth the risk cash-wise.

 

[Bath Blade]

So soon after your own post about descriptive thread titles Linz, my first thought was that the fat cokehead might be coming in as manager from your thread title!