How former Sheffield United chairman almost brought Brian Clough and future Tottenham Hotspur legends Ricky Villa and Ossie Ardiles to Bramall Lane

But the boyhood Blade lived the dream as the club’s chairman, and almost pulled off a coup in persuading one Brian Howard Clough to become the new Bramall Lane boss before his ill-fated spell at Leeds, and his legendary one at Nottingham Forest.

Born in Totley, Hassall worked for the family firm of Hassall Homes and was asked to join his boyhood club as a director, before being approached to be the Blades’ new chairman when Dick Wragg stepped down.

“What he found was a mountain of spiralling debts and relentless pressure from the bank to repay its overdraft, almost on a daily basis,” John Garrett, United’s club historian, remembers in his book Folklore and Fables II – an alternative look at United.

“His attention previously given to running a successful family business now had to be diverted into the running of a football club that was failing in health. The decision for John Harris to stand aside for the second time led to the quest for a new manager to take United forward and fast.

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“John was one of the party that met Brian Clough after his departure from Derby County to offer him the job at the Lane. The Sheffield Star’s long-serving Blades correspondent, Tony Pritchett, was always given information from Hassall ‘off the record’ – a trust Tony never betrayed, and this was one of those times.

“Clough forwarded the names of the players he would want to bring in to build on a backbone of Woodward, Currie et al and anyone who knows football of the era will guess each name – they all ended up at Nottingham Forest and many of them got a couple of European Cup winners’ medals for their troubles.

“But the money concerned gave the United board a heart attack and the rest is history. Hassall appointed Ken Furphy and played a part in taking us to our highest post-war league finish, just within touching distance of Europe, and his nights were often spent out on the road with the manager looking at players.”

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Clough had won the Second and First Division titles at Derby County before resigning, and had spells at Leeds and Brighton and Hove Albion before taking up post at the City Ground.

There, he won the First Division title again and delivered two European Cups to Nottingham amongst a host of other trophies and silverware.

Garrett also remembers Hassall struggling to get the Blades board to agree to sign Francis Lee because of his wage demands – Lee later winning the league at Derby County – while Hassall, who passed away in 2009, was in charge of United during their unsuccessful and much-documented attempt to sign a young Diego Maradona.

His son Paul later told Garrett that Ricky Villa and Ossie Ardiles were set to move to the Blades – until the board again got cold feet about the fee.

A friendship with then-Tottenham Hotspur boss Keith Burkinshaw saw Villa and Ardiles go on to sign for Spurs, and become legends at White Hart Lane – leaving United fans, not for the first time in their club’s history, to wonder what could have been.

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