Geoff Horsfield is leading the Sheffield UTD player's claim for compensation against West Ham.

Geoff Horsfield did not play a single game for Sheffield UTD in the 2006/2007 season.

Geoff Horsfield can fuck off.

What a great week it’s been in the crazy world of football. We’ve had an almighty ruckus at the Emirates, we’ve heard Rory Delap claim that he can play on into his 40s and had everyone from Neil Warnock to Ken Bates wonder how they can get West Ham to pay for their summer holiday. (Yes, I’ll admit maybe scraping the barrel with the Delap story.)

After the out of court settlement reached by West Ham and Sheffield United for a reported £15 million, everybody who’s even seen Bramall Lane has contacted a lawyer to see how they can be part of football’s new, recession-proof gravy train.

Neil Warnock, commonly known as Colin (it’s an anagram, think about it), has claimed that he would still be a Premier League manager if it wasn’t for that nasty Mr. Tevez doing his job, and as such he is thinking of making a claim for loss of earnings. There are two things here, firstly, how somebody who is struggling to manage a Crystal Palace team who are so woefully inconsistent can be so deluded to think he belongs in the Premier League is beyond me, and secondly, my understanding on employment law is that an employee can only sue his former employer for loss of earnings.

There is also a group of around 20 former Sheffield United players who are thinking of suing on similar grounds. This list includes England’s Phil Jagielka. This is the same player who moved to Everton after Utd were relegated, doubling his wages in the process. Michael Tonge is in a similar position, earning Premier League wages with Stoke. I’m also looking forward to Paul Ifil and Claude Davis’ attempts to prove that they are still Premier League quality. Lest we forget poor Chris Morgan, who nearly killed Barnsley’s Iain Hume.

Ken Bates is another one. He believes that his Leeds side would have received add-ons from Sheffield United if Matthew Killgallon, Rob Hulse and Ian Bennet had kept them in the Premier League.  

It is hard to feel any sympathy for anybody in this sorry mess. People trying to make a quick buck seem opportunist, and West Ham get no sympathy because they broke the rules in the first place, even though Hammers fans get to watch Davide Di Michelle and Freddie Sears instead of Tevez.

This is set to rumble on and on, as everybody connected with Sheffield United believe they can make money off a decision which claimed that one player, a player who scored 7 goals all season, none of which came against Sheffield United, single-handedly sent the Yorkshire outfit down.

by Joe Walton

Sheffield United's self-styled 'Campaign for Fairness' has yielded a reported £10 million payout from West Ham, in an out-of-court settlement to finally end the Carlos Tevez affair.

Kevin McCabe, the Sheffield United chairman who's campaign has coincided with Sheffield United breaking the same 3rd party ownership rule as West Ham and seen them try to swindle out of paying compensation to the Barnsley striker Iain Hume after their captain, Chris Morgan, fractured his skull, has avoided a closer inspection of his claim by cashing in on West Ham's current money worries.

The West Ham chairman, Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, is currently looking for a buyer for the East End club after losing a vast proportion of his wealth as a result of Iceland's financial crash. In an attempt to make the club a more saleable asset, Gudmundsson has taken the decision to end the long running saga which has haunted the club for over 2 years. The settlement means that a future arbitration date, which was to look carefully at Sheffield United's compensation claim, will not now go ahead. This is a massive boon for McCabe who's claim had been likened by a legal expert to "a dodgy holiday compensation claim."

West Ham were originally ordered to pay compensation to Sheffield United after it was ruled that the club broke 3rd party ownership rules in a contract which stipulated that Tevez would be sold in the January transfer window should a bid of £600,000 be made. Such a bid was never made and thus the clause was never enacted. This didn't stop Sheffield United claiming that Tevez should never have been allowed to play and that his performances kept West Ham up and sent United down. A Premier League arbitration panel ruled that Tevez "without doubt" kept West Ham up, a ruling which was based on Gary Linker's comments on MOTD, Henry Winter's match report of one game and Rick Parry's evidence.

While no 3rd party influence was ever enacted over West Ham, the same cannot be said of Sheffield United. After selling Steve Kabba to Watford, the club entered into a "gentleman's agreement" with the buying club which stopped Kabba playing against Watford in a crucial relegation 6-pointer. Something which Sheffield United have never been punished for.

Although this compensation has come about completely against the logic of the law, and is in my opinion a farce, it will at least save my sanity by finally putting and end to it all.