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.......
(http://timesonline.typepad.com/fanzine_fanzone/2008/11/sheffield-uni-1.html)
