McCabe to take time but it may run out for Adams

McCabe, who lives in Brussels, flew into Yorkshire yesterday to hold a post mortem into the club’s relegation and to work out the best way forward.

He spent yesterday morning in talks with Adams before revealing he feels ‘ashamed’ by the club’s fall into League One – coming only four years after life in the Premier League.

Significantly, McCabe has not ruled out the possibility of another managerial change at the club.

The Blades employed four different managers this season – Kevin Blackwell, Gary Speed, John Carver and Adams – and that lack of stability did nothing to help the club avoid the drop.

But Adams, who was appointed on December 30, won only four of his 24 games in charge, a sequence of results that threatens his own future going into the summer.

McCabe said: “I think Micky has dealt with things calmly but he’s as disappointed as I am with the end result.

“I am now feeling the temperature before making what I believe will be a good, reasoned decision.

“I have a level of sympathy for the job Micky took on board and I am sure it has been more difficult than he imagined,” he added.

“I have no doubts at all that he is a good manager and a very honourable man who works extremely hard.

“I don’t think he can be held solely responsible. He inherited a squad that was probably more difficult for him to work with than he first envisaged. But statistics are statistics.”

Adams, a lifelong Blades supporter, has expressed a firm desire to stay and attempt to lead the club back to the Championship next season. However, yesterday was the first time in several weeks that the pair been able to sit down for talks.

“I had not had a chance to speak to Micky one-to-one for many weeks because I don’t live in the UK,” said McCabe. “This was our first opportunity to sit around a table and ‘throw a ball about’.

“We had a good session talking about the whys-and-wherefores of what’s happened in his session with us since December and also talking through his thoughts and views on League One, the players we have got, and the attributes of the youngsters,” said McCabe.

“Decisions will be made about all sorts of things affecting the reshaping of the club, now we are in League One, in these next few days.

“If it takes longer than a few days, it will be because there is good reason,” he stressed. “I have been around in business a long time and, in serious decisions, I am a great believer in sleeping on it, thinking about, talking to people who work here, other mentors in business. We are not ‘hire ‘em and fire ‘em’ type people at this club.

Chief executive Trevor Birch is set to play a key role in McCabe’s discussions over the next few days but his position, too, is expected to be scrutinised.

According to McCabe, the Blades will need to make major adjustments to their spending as relegation to League One brings losses in the region of £12m.

“Like it or not, we are in League One now, and we have got to adjust to the constraints of revenue as well as looking at the first team squad, the youth team squad, how it blends, what style of football we are going to play. All the issues which are healthy to debate now the season is over,” said McCabe.

“I have not had a chance to formulate my own thoughts yet. So I am talking to colleagues to get an overview of what’s happened in various divisions of the club. None more so than first team football. I believe in talking to loyal, honorable and talented colleagues.

“These are good people and I will listen to what they have got to tell me. But I am the one who will make the decision.

“We will re-shape, re-stabilise, and get on with it,” he added. “We are a great, great club. We have not lost the stadium, the Academy, or our youngsters – but we have got it wrong at first team level and you hold your hand up.”

McCabe feels that the departure of goalkeeper Paddy Kenny to QPR last summer – almost immediately after his return from a nine-month ban for failing a drugs test – was the first in a string of unexpected setbacks for the club.

“We lost the best Championship goalkeeper in circumstances that I would say were improper,” said McCabe. “We also lost Chris Morgan – not just the best centre-half in the Championship but the best leader in the Championship (to a serious knee injury), and we lost Darius Henderson, arguably one of the best old-fashioned type centre forwards for most of this season (also injured).

“There have been certain issues with key players that have cursed us. Of course, every club can give reasons when they fail but you have got to say ours started early doors and many managers, with the best will in the world, have attemped to find quick-term solutions.

“We relied on too many short-term deals rather than guys who wear the red-and-white stripes and give you 150 per cent,” he added. “They were not bad people or bad players but that’s what we have got to stop. I am told we have used 70 players in the last two seasons and that is unhealthy.”