In 1978, then-Blades manger Harry Haslam was on a tour of South America when he came across a short, scruffy looking player whose talent he had never seen in England. He immediately set up a deal to take Diego Armando Maradona to Bramall Lane and waited for the club to arrange the £200,000 needed to complete the transfer to be sent over. The club failed to deliver that amount, however, and so the deal was lost. Sheffield United were relegated the following season whilst the diminutive Argentine was fast becoming the world’s best player.
