Mucky Boots

Kevin McCabe, Peter Beeby

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Mucky Boots is a warts-and-all story of football club ownership. Raised within sight of Bramall Lane, Kevin McCabe built a global property business and bought Sheffield United. As Blades supremo, he took on the FA and, with bitter irony, lost his club in court as the Blades returned to the Premier League.

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. 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.