34-goal Sheffield United hotshot lifts lid on sensational transfer exit that set Blades back years

Sheffield United’s modern-day history is littered with “what-if?” moments. The Carlos Tevez affair that should have seen them retain their top-flight place. The years wasted in League One when star striker Ched Evans’ later-overturned conviction derailed their nailed-on promotion bid. And probably above all; would the Blades have qualified for Europe had Covid-19 not come along five years ago this month?

There’s no way of knowing definitively, of course, but it’s difficult not to ponder. Another big turning point came in January 2009, when United’s side - packed full of quality Championship players - were well-placed in the race for promotion. Striker James Beattie, signed 18 months earlier after relegation, was bang in form, following up his 22 goals the previous campaign with 12 by the turn of the year.

Then came the latest in a series of inexplicable departures, with Beattie prised away by Stoke City for a fee said at the time to be worth up to £3.5m in add-ons - which actually represented a loss on the £4m reported fee paid for the England international. Since then Beattie had banged in 34 goals in 57 starts for the Blades and was loving life at Bramall Lane.

After he was sold, United couldn’t rediscover their momentum and even resorted to signing Beattie’s namesake, Craig - who scored once in 18 appearances as the Blades lost in that season’s play-off final. Beattie (James, that is) ended the season as United’s top scorer despite leaving halfway through it and two years later, the Blades were relegated to League One.

Beattie went on to spells at Rangers and Blackpool after joining Stoke, before a second and less successful spell at Bramall Lane during the League One wilderness years. He is now director of football at non-league club AFC Totton, who ply their trade in the Southern League Premier Division South, and recently opened up about his experience with untrustworthy representatives in an episode of the World Class Stamp Podcast.

“I’ve got an example of that,” Beattie, now 37, said. “So I was at Sheffield United, I think we were second in the league and January comes around. I was very happy at Sheffield United, even though I had dropped out of the Premier League. Which I really didn’t want to do, leaving Everton. But having spoken to Bryan Robson for literally a minute, I wanted to play for him, with how he outlined the role that he wanted me to do at the club.

“So I go into Sheff United and we’re flying. We’re in second, in a good position. I was scoring goals, and we were going to get promoted. I think I was up to about 11 or 12 that season. It was January, 18 months after I’d joined, and I was at training one day. Kevin Blackwell was the manager, and he was great with me.

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“Kevin pulled me in the office and said: ‘The chairman says I’ve got to sell you.’ I was like: ‘What are you talking about? We’re going up, getting promoted to the Premier League ... I don’t want to go.’ He said: ‘He said he wants to sell you.’ Unbeknown to me, my representative had picked up the phone to Kevin McCabe, who was the chairman at that point, and said: ‘Oh, James wants more money.’

“Kevin wasn’t happy and said: ‘Right, I’m selling him.’ So my journey at Sheffield United was cut short by an agent - actually, a sports lawyer at that time - going in and asking, on my behalf, for more money. I never asked him.

“I’ve spoken to Kevin since about it and said: ‘Why didn’t you ask me?’ I was so happy there. I went to Stoke. The pull of going back to the Premier League was there, but I really wanted to stay at Sheff United and do the job that I had been signed to do. And that was the reason it fell down.”

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Asked if he had ever addressed the situation with his agent, Beattie added: “No, but there’s plenty of time.” McCabe gave his version of events in his book Mucky Boots, which was released last year and saw him appear to put the blame on Terry Robinson, who was United’s chief executive at the time of Beattie’s departure.

Kevin McCabe’s version of events

“I received a call from Terry Robinson, saying: ‘James Beattie’s agent has been in touch and James wants more money,’” McCabe said in the book. “James was 18 months into a generous three-year deal and I said: ‘No, I expect him to honour his contract.’ Robinson said James wasn’t budging on his demands and Stoke City were offering to pay £4m for him... so, we agreed to the sale.”

McCabe went on to note in the book that Robinson “knew Peter Coates [Stoke City’s owner-chairman] well and he ended up working for Stoke some months after I’d got rid of him. So, regrettably, as you talk me through it – it’s quite easy really – he tells me James Beattie’s agent’s been on and James wants an increase, blahdy blah … it does fit into place. It makes me think: What a bloody fool I’ve been!”

More bad decisions, more finger-pointing, more regrets and unanswered questions - with Sheffield United once again the ones to lose out.