Wednesday 24 September 2008

Blades show their steel

Sheffield United had the mettle to persist in their case against West Ham United and have got their just reward. Quite how much that will be remains to be seen, but the figure of £30m has been widely mentioned, plus anything they can extract from the Premiership. The Hampsters are consulting their lawyers, but it is difficult to see how they can overturn this arbitration decision.

The original decision not to deduct points from West Ham was taking by an independently constituted panel, but the suspicion hung in the air that the Premiership would prefer to have the Irons among their number rather than the less glamorous Blades from gritty Sheffield.

It's not clear when the Blades will get their compensation, but probably not until after the January transfer window which means that this year's competition will not be affected. Mind you, there is evidently quite a lot of work to do on the Sheffield United side, given their 6-0 defeat last night by an Arsenal side with an average age of 19.

Elsewhere, Leamington kept their cup dreams alive at Studley by beating them 1-0 in the Birmingham Senior Cup.

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