Mucky Boots

Triumphs, Trials and Tragedies of a Football Club Owner

Kevin McCabe, Peter Beeby

• Publisher: Pitch Publishing
• eBook ISBN:
  9781801506502
• Year: 2024

Mucky Boots is the warts-and-all story of Kevin McCabe's two decades as Sheffield United's owner-chairman. McCabe grew up yards from Bramall Lane, where he watched Sheffield United FC and Yorkshire County Cricket Club play. He left school aged 16 and worked on a building site, where a few words of encouragement set him on a path to creating a billion-pound global property empire. McCabe's Sheffield United takeover was driven by his quest to beat local rivals, Sheffield Wednesday, and establish the Blades in the Premier League. Along the way, he took on the football establishment and saw a star striker imprisoned for rape. With his hopes floundering in the midst of a rancorous dispute with then co-owner Prince Abdullah, a chance encounter led to McCabe's appointment of Chris Wilder as Blades manager in 2016. In an ironic twist, as the Blades headed back to the Premier League, McCabe and Wilder unwittingly contributed to each other's downfall and departure from the club they adored.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• 1. Roots and Wings
• 2. Board Games
• 3. The Masterplan and Winning Back the City
• 4. From Warnock to Wilder
• 5. The Carlos Tevez Scandal
• 6. Internationalisation
• 7. Executive Disorder
• 8. The Curious Case of James Beattie’s Transfer to Stoke City
• 9. Ched Evans
• 10. The ‘Sharrow Lad’ and the Saudi Prince
• 11. Trials and Tribulations
• 12. The Family Club
• 13. Post Match
• Epilogue
• Bibliography
• Footnote
• Photos