Former Sheffield United chairman Kevin McCabe: 'Did I do enough diligence on Prince Abdullah?'

He would like to occasionally come back to the stands if Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad Al Saud sells the club but is content swapping four-hour round trips for afternoons at Scarborough Athletic and following the Blades from afar.

On a recent trip to the city he moved out of 51 years ago, he drove past the club whose board he joined for a second time in 1995 ahead of 21 years as owner/co-owner before losing at Russian roulette to Prince Abdullah. His eyes settled on statues of Joe Shaw and Derek Dooley he erected to honour their contributions but with a double meaning for him – of unfulfilled potential.

"I took time out to drive around not just Bramall Lane but the academy at Shirecliffe and the junior academy at Crookes," he recalls. "The junior academy closed (in 2021) so it's going to ruin. They've not done anything at Shirecliffe that's worth mentioning (plans are in place for a new academy in Dore), the same with the stadium.

"Premier League football (in 2019) would have been the starting point to finish off the job of changing Bramall Lane by building a stand over the existing (main) stand to take the stadium to a 44,000 capacity.

"I put two statues up in the car park, for Joe Shaw and Derek Dooley, and they would have been the entrance to the new stand. But nothing's happened at all. They've reopened the hotel, at long last.

"I suppose I expected to see what I did because the people in charge don't have a clue. They don't realise what the club is and what's got to be done beyond first-team football. They could have done so much more with the money that came in."

Unfulfilled potential is the story of Mucky Boots, whose cover looks like an autobiography but is in fact a biography by Peter Beeby. In the epilogue McCabe refers to himself as "co-author".

The property developer's ownership had its highlights – five cup semi-finals, three play-off finals and two promotions to the Premier League under two of England’s top managers, Neil Warnock and Chris Wilder.

There were also six years in League One.

Both those promotions were bitter experiences for McCabe, the first ended by what he calls "illegal" relegation in 2007 – "immoral" might be a better term after the High Court refused an appeal despite West Ham United’s £5.5m fine for rule-breaking. The second came shortly before having to sell his half of the club to the Prince.

McCabe calculates his "serious hobby" cost him £100m. He does not regret taking it on but concedes he might not have done had social media been around then. After Dooley resigned as chairman in 2006, McCabe never found a replacement with his footballing nous – crucial as he himself moved to Brussels that year.

"I should have certainly brought Dave Bassett on board," he says of the former manager McCabe sometimes used as an adviser but occasionally over-ruled, notably when he first recommended Wilder in 2015.

"I wanted certain people to be more than they proved to be. I promoted some who worked on the property side, some sponsors and 'good blokes' but they didn't have the wherewithal. That's where I failed.

"As soon as I gave them a title they thought they'd done something but they couldn't drive the club or see the right people to talk to, even looking for managers.

"One or two of the younger people just got carried away, even some of the chief execs. Give a guy a card with 'football club' at the bottom and they forget who they are and what they're supposed to achieve."

The sliding doors moment came in 2007, United relegated from the Premiership. West Ham won 1-0 on the final day to finish three points and one goal's difference above with Carlos Tevez’s seventh goal in 10 matches. The Hammers had by then been found guilty of illegal third-party ownership of Tevez and Javier Mascherano (transferred to Liverpool in January) by the Premier League, but no points were deducted and Tevez played on.

"We'd had three or four seasons of consolidating from being a poor team, to an average team to a better team," argues McCabe. "Brian Deane came back, Ade Akinbiyi, Geoff Horsfield, Chris Lucketti, Garry Flitcroft to make sure we got over that final hurdle. They hardly played but it worked.

"What happened next? We were ‘illegally’ relegated, which was a mega, mega blow.

"It took me 12 years to get them back. West Ham played in the Premier League for every season bar one.

"Those connected with football didn't want to know. It didn't sour me but I think 'How unjust?' People say would it have been different if Sheffield United had cheated? West Ham would still have stayed up.

"I'd achieved so much in my mind earlier than anticipated and it was snatched away.

"Now we’ve been deducted two points for being slow in paying off other clubs for players. With West Ham cheating as they did, what did they get? They didn't get deducted any points whatsoever. We got something out of it (£21m in compensation) but in terms of building Sheffield United to be an even better club, we lost 12 years.

"If we'd demanded the money we agreed with West Ham (in 2019) as one payment, they'd have gone into liquidation."

That tells a story. Fifteen years on, even the poorest Premier League club can probably withstand a £21m hit, albeit uncomfortably. The millionaire's playground is now a billionaire's playground Prince Abdullah was found wanting in.

The Blades were in League One when, in 2013, after a couple of years searching globally for investment, the McCabes made him an equal partner in return for a £10m investment. When relations with his associates reached breaking point, McCabe calculated he could oust the Prince with £5m.

Under their agreement, the Prince could accept his bid or match it to buy McCabe out, but must also buy £50m of property McCabe suspected out of his budget. The Prince tried to avoid the extra bill but by the time the High Court got involved in 2019, the Blades were valued at £104m thanks to what McCabe calls "the bizarre, coincidental promotion". The Prince won control with the add-ons a price well worth paying.

Six years earlier the McCabes over-estimated him, with Simon – Kevin's youngest son – telling Mucky Boots: "Being a member of the Saudi royal family, we just assumed he ticked the boxes for wealth".

For someone who had spoken in our interview about the importance of trusted lieutenants, it seems a bad miscalculation.

"Having spent time in Saudi Arabia in the mid-70s I understood the wealth and how many princes there were (an estimated 12,000 to 15,000)," says McCabe senior. "In UK terms, he was a very wealthy man but to get information out of accountants and lawyers which you might do in this country to get a better feel, is nigh on impossible.

"I believed he'd have brothers or cousins who were princes. He'd been chairman of Al-Hilal, his brother was chairman. Did I do enough diligence? To suit me, yes.

"The Prince is someone I don't particularly dislike, but I have no affection for some of the people who took positions up at Sheffield United because they've not a clue."

But it begs the question had he won control could McCabe have funded a 2016 Premier League squad and a stadium development? He answers by talking about the shortcomings of the Prince’s team.

"Whoever comes in next (with the Prince’s time coming to an end), I'd willingly give them the masterplan to finish the (ground) off and always be bigger and better than Wednesday, which wasn't the case until Joe Soap here,” he says.

"I'd also be saying try and get two or three other people involved to get good sponsors – international sponsors, not the printer around the corner. Then there's the pure football. You need the skill on that side."

After all he has given to Sheffield United, financially and emotionally, does McCabe regret his involvement?

"I'm a resilient old bugger," he replies. "I don't regret it because I made decisions. I don't hide and say, 'It wasn't my fault, guv.’ Unjustifiable (legal) decisions happened."

The book mentions abuse his grandson Charlie received on social media.

"It didn't really exist when I first got involved in football," says Kevin. "I’ll go out to the car park. You'd say, 'You think you're p***ed off, what about me mate?' Now a proportion hide behind social media.

"If in the early 90s it was like it is today, I probably wouldn't have gone ahead."

And the modern history of Sheffield United might have been very different.

Mucky Boots: Trials and Tragedies of a Football Club Owner by Kevin McCabe with Peter Beeby is published by Pitch.