Blades in battle to balance the books to survive

His words will send a shiver down the spines of Blades supporters who, over the years, have grown increasingly disillusioned with a policy of selling rising stars to balance the books at Bramall Lane.

But McCabe is vowing to ensure the club survives financially and, if players cannot be sold, he is prepared to dip into his own pocket again to keep the club out of danger.

McCabe, a lifelong supporter of the Blades, has already invested over £70m of his personal fortune since joining the board over a decade ago.

But the man who took on the Premier League and West Ham United to win over £20m in compensation following the Carlos Tevez affair four years ago is now counting the cost of a slump into the third tier of English football.

According to his figures, the Blades will lose £12m next season which puts serious pressure on a wage bill that topped £12m this season and was the biggest outside the Premier League.

Manager Micky Adams insists that the club’s future is still bright and bases his judgment on the quality of the youngsters who have stepped into the spotlight over recent weeks.

But it may now be a case of cashing in on talent to survive rather than relying on the youngsters to spearhead a promotion push.

The Blades have reached the final of this season’s FA Youth Cup and several members of that side have made first-team debuts in the club’s relegation battle.

Defender Harry Maguire and striker Jordan Slew, both 18, have made the biggest impacts and sparked attention from scouts at Premier League clubs.

Senior players, including long serving midfielder Nick Montgomery and Welsh international striker Ched Evans, meanwhile, are saleable assets who are keen to stay in the Championship.

McCabe said: “How do you stop any player being sold if a Premier League club comes along and offers terms to the player? Give me a solution to that and I will give you a guarantee that we will not sell them. You can’t stop it.

“We don’t want to sell one youngster but, if a Premier League club comes along, that youngster will want to go. The kid will go if they offer them five or six times as much money. Whether you like it or not and say, passionately, that you want to keep your players, you can’t.”

The Blades have only two senior players out of contract this summer, defenders Rob Kozluk and Ryan France, but Montgomery and Evans are expected to lead an exodus of top stars.

McCabe is adamant that no one under contract will be allowed to leave on a free transfer and has also stressed that the club must stop relying on loan players to plug holes in the squad.

“We can’t just sell players, they can only go if people are willing to buy them and they are willing to go,” he said. “You never give players away and if another good club wants them, they are going to have to pay for them.

“We could get an offer tomorrow for a player but I am not budgeting for that. If we received an offer of £10m for a player, I could tell you how much the wage bill has to come down. Right now, I am looking at the first team, recognising which players are under contract, looking at the lesser income coming through due to relegation, and planning the reality of making sure we can fund to that level.”

Although the Blades are still seeking new investors, McCabe is vowing to stand by the club during financially tough times.

“As a club, we will be more prudent in future. But whatever is required next season to sensibly fund the club, will have to be funded. There is no alternative,” he said. “I don’t want to shoulder added burden. But if I have to put more money in, it has got to be done.

“Relegation will cost us £12m in terms of a loss but I will make sure we cope with it,” he stressed. “That’s why I am here.

“Maybe, in three months’ time, if we have sold players for £10m, I don’t have to put as much money in.

“Thankfully, the club does not have any bank borrowing so the pressure is how we want to spend our money to fund the wage bill.

“We lose an awful lot of TV income so you have got to cut your cloth and accept that,” he said. “But regrettably, because of the failure of the first-team squad we have got to look elsewhere to make savings.

“It is not just player costs, it is around the whole club. It’s a tough time for us and we would be foolish to ignore it.

“We can make savings across the board. Whether it’s people employed at Bramall Lane, the Academy, professional advisers, all these divisions will be inspected to try to save money.”

McCabe says he is ‘ashamed’ by the club’s relegation and hopes to make an immediate return to the Championship next season.

When asked to pick the one thing he would change over the last four years, his instinctive reply was “I’d sign Carlos Tevez.”

His more considered answer, however, was telling,

“I have tossed and turned on this and I can honestly say I would not permit flexibility of the cheque book for loan players. A manager would have to work far harder to gain approval to sign a loan player.

“When I am told we have spent £6.5m on loan signings in the last two and a bit years, it was money down the drain to bring failure.

“Even an old man can learn a lesson.”