There is no love lost between West Ham United and Sheffield United.
It is a decade since the Carlos Tevez affair which spawned one of English football’s more recent rivalries between West Ham and Sheffield United.
The memory of Hammers favourite Tevez and the court cases that saw West Ham ordered to pay out £35million in compensation to Sheffield United and an additional £5.5m in Premier League fines remains as inflammatory as ever 10 years on.
Tevez’s arrival with Javier Mascherano at West Ham on transfer deadline day in August 2006 sowed the seeds of what has become a mutual loathing.
Third-party agreements concerning the players came to light and the independent Premier League commission’s decision to impose a world record fine rather than a points deduction “invited anarchy” according to then Blades chairman Kevin McCabe.
Anyone reading this most likely already story knows the history.
On the final day of the season 2006-2007 season West Ham completed the great escape when they went to Old Trafford to face Manchester United and got the win they needed with Tevez scoring the only goal of the game.
Meanwhile over at Bramall Lane Neil Warnock’s side needed only a draw to relegate their opponents Wigan Athletic but lost 2-1 and were themselves relegated as a result.
United lost an initial appeal against their relegation but a year later an independent FA tribunal found in their favour.
The chair of the tribunal, Lord Griffiths, judged: “We have no doubt that West Ham would have secured at least three fewer points over the 2006-07 season if Carlos Tevez had not been playing for the club.”
Under the guidance of owners David Gold and David Sullivan, the Hammers have slowly recovered from the financial hardship the affair left them in but resentment has festered between the clubs and their fans ever since.
And Hammers fans were quick to jump on an embarrassing gaffe from the Blades after they spelt the club’s name wrong on the official 2018 calendar.
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