Sheffield United - We nearly signed Maradona

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 tellt 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.......

Comments

[SouthEssexBlade]

Hahahaha! Are you trying to rival Mr Samuels for most hated hack, my friend??

Most people are missing the point in favour of their own agenda and hang-ups.
Did we try and sign him? History seems to say so.

Was he a cheat? Yes!

Did he have certain illegal habits? Yes!

Do the Scots enjoy English failure more than Scottish success? It would certainly appear so!

Is the article tongue-in-cheek? Knowing the authors repertoire, absolutely!!

[Peter]

I cant find anything to back it up, but I remember visiting Wembley to watch England v Brazil in 1990 in which won thanks to a certain Gary Lineker cheating in exactly the same way. It was hard to spot, but Linker went for a diving header near to the goal line and couldnt quite make it, so his hand came up to punch the ball into the net.

I wonder if Terry Butcher is still happy to shake his hand - especially as it gave him the chance to collect a trophy at Wembly (the only one he ever did).

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/internationals/the-day-butcher-led-england-to-victory-over-brazil-646020.html

This article also mentions that Stuart Pearce handled at the other end to prevent an equaliser. So does it only count as cheating if its against England?

[Tato Dulanci, Spain]

For when an article about that fierce butcher, serial injurer that helped England won that championship, the one of the goal that never was?
I mean Nobby Stiles or how to kick the rival two hundreds times per minute and still say you are just being stout.
How that guy was ever allowed to play football remains a riddle.

[Rob]

Mike: Not to be pedantic, but that was Sheffield WEDNESDAY, not United.

Interestingly, both Wednesday and Man Utd were going for two strikers, Cantona and David Hirst. The Frenchmen went to Old Trafford, Hirst to Hillsborough.

I'll leave you to decide who got the better deal...

[Mike]

Hmmmm... I remember reading not too long ago that Sheffield United passed on the opportunity to sign a certain Eric Cantona as they thought he wasn't good enough (and too arrogant as well I'm sure). Well, we know what happened there: he wins a championship with Leeds, wins loads more after moving to Man Utd - becoming the first "Premiership" legend along the way.

One does wonder what the Sheff Utd board had been smoking in the late 80s & early 90s... Too bad for the Blades.

[Paul Baker]

Great article written in good humour.
Is just a shame the Jocks had to get involved, with their hurrendous sense of humour and take it to heart. Just becuase you have no national footballing history to celebrate, doesn't mean you have to get bitter. It also doesn't mean you have to look for players who have cheated England for heroes. And yes, he did cheat! Lighten up ay!!

[Neil]

Do any of you understand the difference between fortune and cheating? To be awarded a goal by a referee when the ball possibly didn't cross the line is good fortune. To deliberately punch a ball past the keeper is cheating.

Maradona was, without doubt, arguably the best player ever. But he's also a drug addled cheat.

And England were never 'well-beaten' that day. It was 2-1.

[ukren]

Maradona is the football King. Nobody can compare with his football talent. Sheffield United's deceision has been proved to be stupid. The person or the organisation who did not sign Maradona then is really an idiot. The history has shown this.

[Dutchblade]

Even with the photo at the top, people seemed to have missed the humour of the article. It made me chortle, good stuff..

[Fraser]

Why even bring cocaine into this - The guy was a football genius!

[Mike Taylor Blademan]

Its all a bit serious on here...Think the article is lighthearted, a bit of banter but I guess irony is lost on many of you. Lighten up!

[Frankie]

you say you didnt have the bad fortune to have one of the world's biggest cheats as one of your own...but you're happy to have Chris Morgan as your captain...just a thought.

[Graham Corless]

Get over yourself with Maradona, for god's sake. What kind of a kn*b would you think Franz Beckenbaur was if he refused to shake hands with Geoff Hurst because England's 3rd goal in 1966 never actually went in? We were well beaten in that match, he scored the best goal ever, and we've profited by cheating on numerous occasions since. Grow up.

Incidentally, speaking of missing out on Maradona, I was offered a ticket for United v Barca at Old Trafford in the Cup Winners Cup in 1984. We were 2-0 down from the first leg and I already had a ticket to see The Sisters Of Mercy on the same night, so I declined. Not only did I miss one of OT's best european nights as we won 3-0, I also ended up swapping seeing the best footballer of all time in the flesh for seeing Andrew Eldritch. In hindsight, not the smartest decision I ever made.

[A Fan]

Eddie, if you don't like it here...
And nations were cheating & attacking each other thousands of years before England existed!
No, really.

If you don't want to sound like a prejudiced child perhaps you should research your history a little more.
I thought this was about a footballer, the personal rant pages are somewhere else.

Laughable.

[marek]

I read the times online every day for it is by far the best online newspaper...however reading this article I had to check twice that I was in fact on the correct website (I thought I was still reading the tabloids!)

please get over your bitterness and leave the gutter press in the gutter!!

[A Fan]

"The Hand of God goal was 22 years ago, get over it" ... NO!

WW2 finished 60 years ago, get over that. If something makes one feel aggrieved it doesn't matter when it happened! What utter stupidity.
Baby P died a year ago, get over it!

Get over yourself first before posting comments that prove you do indeed know nothing.

[A Lam]

And how many more times did England get into the finals than Scotland? Sorry Dave, not with you there, mate.

[Jack M, London]

RE Khyle. If Maradona scored the hand of god against Scotland i think a lot of people in England would not regard him as a hero and to imply we in England would is an insult.

Also, re George Best, drinking alcoholic drinks is not against the law.

I am over it but hearing Maradona bringing it all up again does not help.

[David Flavell]

Khyle - Scotland? World Cup Finals? Sorry, not with you old chap........

[Graham Corless]

Get over yourself with Maradona, for god's sake. What kind of a kn*b would you think Franz Beckenbaur was if he refused to shake hands with Geoff Hurst because England's 3rd goal in 1966 never actually went in? We were well beaten in that match, he scored the best goal ever, and we've profited by cheating on numerous occasions since. Grow up.

Incidentally, speaking of missing out on Maradona, I was offered a ticket for United v Barca at Old Trafford in the Cup Winners Cup in 1984. We were 2-0 down from the frist leg and I already had a ticket to see The Sisters Of Mercy on the same night, so I declined. Not only did I miss one of OT's best european nights as we won 3-0, I also ended up swapping seeing the best footballer of all time in the flesh for seeing Andrew Eldritch. In hindsight, not the smartest decision I ever made.

[Pav]

Who are Sheffield united??? YNWA

[Ross]

Ah yes. England (a country with ten times Scotland's population) is full of heroes after all. Ronaldo... Drogba... Ballack... Torres... The list is endless...

[Sean, N.Ireland]

A very bitter article about a great, GREAT footballer. Sure he had his problems off the pitch and cheated once against england, how dare he...in my opinion he is the greatest player to have played the game and is rightfully respected as such by everyone around the world except for in england, it was now 22 years ago, get over it.

[Eddie]

This is rich coming from a national of the country with the biggest cocaine consumption problem in Europe, and up there in the top few of the world for drug use in general. Maradona was/is a man of little education raised in real poverty, where people in council accomodation or unemployment benefit would have looked like Rockefeller. He was used by those who wanted to make money out of his natural talent from an early age. At least the damage he did was mainly to himself, I'm not sure you can say the same of England stars such as David Beckham, appearing on a different advert every week for millions of pounds; THAT, is a real disgrace and a diservice to kids all over the world: it is the legacy of a mediocre man lucky enough to have had a comfortable upbringing, an ok football career, who makes money just for looking good and being an ignorant by choice, not by force like Maradona. As for the cheating, the English probably invented this, but rather than cheating only in football (as they did in 66) they cheated people of they're money, religion, lives, souls, etc, throughout the centuries and thoughout the world, the are countless examples in the history books.

[Liam]

If Lineker had scored a similar goal do you think he would have told the referee to disallow it?

No chance!

England were beaten on that day by the better team.

Maradona's second goal underlined their superiority.

All England fans who whine on about 'the hand of God' are missing the point - the BEST TEAM WON. Get over it.