Some interesting points here, but really ... are we not just pissing into the wind, here?
My belief is that SUFC is in a world of financial shit, and McCabe (for all his faults) is using some pretty harsh, but effective measures to bale out the water. These days businessmen are not attached to football clubs for anything else but a cool return on their investments, and my reckoning is McCabe has already warned the board that there will be no more cash input and to stay alive, the club is going to have to shed assets to stay afloat. This was exactly what happened at Pompey (albeit they had a higher wage bill and Gaydemak owned the ground, like McCabe does) and the messages aren't good in my opinion. I think for as much as people slate him (and believe me, I don't particularly rate the bloke as a businessman - his appointments of managers since Warnock have been bobbar) without him we will irreversibly collapse, so any talk of 'forcing him out' with car park protests, shoes off or mass letters is futile and irrelevant.
We are about to watch a car crash. All of us will just have to sit this out and hope for happier times. The rescue which happened in the 1980-90s eventually came and we regained some impetus and yes, this will only happen with a change of board-level staffing and people who want United to do well. The only thing is, football these days is a totally different animal and if we do slump - and drop further - we just have to keep remembering we are all still Blades and we have seen this all before. McCabe may be a stupid dickhead to many of us at the moment, but I guarantee if he put the club up for sale tomorrow and took what is rightfully his, we'd sink like a brick. If the unthinkable happens and our balloon slowly deflates this season, we slink ungraciously out of the promotional challenge, key players fuck off to other pastures and next season we find ourselves with half the horsepower and Wilson playing shit tactics with bobbins players, then we are just going to have to weather the storm and watch it happen. We can all handle relegation, disappointing performances, the shit at S6 being above us, our playing staff sold even playoff heartbreak. What we won't handle (and what would break my heart) is if we were in the position Pompey are now when all the pretty birds have flown and the club is being torn to bits by previous interested parties, fans conglomorates and Southampton up the road laughing their cocks off. Our worst case scenario is us out of business, BDTBL turned into flats and a supermarket and us being 'remember Sheffield United?' and being a question in Trivial Pursuit. We're a bit away from that as yet, but then again, Luton Town used to be in the top flight not long ago.
Think on.
"We are about to watch a car crash" - unfortunately, very, very true.
In a previous life, in the old 606 days, I put my hand on my heart, and said that we're all going to hell in a handcart, and nothing that has happened since has changed my mind.
McCabe is no different to a lot of businessmen who tried to build an empire on what they thought was a rising market - when the crash came, they all had very tough decisions to make in order to stay afloat. The problem that McCabe had was that he was not involved in only one market, he had a global business that was affected by a global downturn. As Blades, we are now seeing the results of this, and I have to say that it will get worse before we see any improvement.
From a business point of view, I think that McCabe is keeping United on a holding regime, whilst trying to keep all the other plates spinning across his empire - this would explain the Blackman deal, and the lack of replacements. This means that he has to take a lot of shit (some of it royally deserved) from the likes of us who only have eyes for United. Not what you want to hear, I agree, but in my view, them's the facts.
The fact also remains that the football industry is it's own worst enemy. Mr.Scudamore will tell us that the £100+ million spent by the Premier League clubs is a safe bet, but how many businesses do you know that would sanction the spending of QPR? It's a punt, and a very long punt at that - think Portsmouth, and hope to God that it never happens to our club, because I predict here and now that at least three or four long-established clubs will not be in business in ten years time.
Four years ago, we had the crash - the banks were in meltdown, and if rumours are to be believed, we were half an hour from Armageddon, with your money gone, my money gone, every bugger's money gone. If it could happen then, it can happen again, and no-one will care which team you supported.
George
pommpey
