Kevin Blackwell (From York Press)

Kevin Blackwell

9:58am Wednesday 12th March 2008

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Head-hunted and then your head on a platter - such is football management's wild nature.

But try telling Kevin Blackwell, who has endured both extremes of the managerial maelstrom, how pursuing such an occupation is at best precarious, at worst dangerous. He'll give you short shrift.

Despite a brace of hellish experiences - latterly in his reign at Leeds and then at Luton - Blackwell would not consider any other job.

Now back in the hot-seat at Coca-Cola Championship under-achievers Sheffield United, his second spell at Bramall Lane, though his first was as assistant manager to mentor Neil Warnock, Blackwell was unequivocal.

Said the man who this year celebrates his 50th birthday: "I am fortunate in still being fit enough to be out there on the training ground, which is what I really love.

"Management is my long-term strategy now. It's my long-term goal."

Blackwell, still sounding as Bow Bells as a fully-fledged whistle-and-fluted Eastender, would relish rediscovering his Yorkshire glory touchstone.

Yorkshire is the county in which he has enjoyed his greatest triumphs as a player, coach and manager, when his second full season at Elland Road advanced the Whites to a Championship play-off final at the Millennium Stadium.

Said Blackwell: "I've tasted promotion to the Football League as a player with Scarborough. I've had success too as a coach at Huddersfield, with semi-finals with Sheffield United, as well as a play-off final with Leeds United.

"So, yeah, my record is good in Yorkshire. I would love to do that for many more years in Yorkshire starting this season back at Sheffield United."

He has the top job at Bra-mall Lane until the end of the current campaign. But he wants it for a lot longer.

It's the hazardous nature of management which restored him to the mesmerising merry-go-round in the wake of Bryan Robson's departure after the Blades stuttered in the Championship from last season's dramatic Premier League descent.

"It's a fact of life that a lot of times you only get a new job in management when it's not going right at a particular club, and that's happened here with me," said Blackwell. "But it's a great club, which has changed dramatically since I was last here (in 2003).

"It has Premier League training facilities. It has an international standing and the fans are fantastic."

There's a palpable sense Blackwell has the materials with which to build a dynasty at Sheffield, which is both apt for his early days as one of the most brave and capable goalkeepers in the semi-pro strata, yet at odds with the lack of resources he had when in his previous managerial post at cash-strapped Luton.

As a youngster Blackwell was on Cambridge United's books where his manager was Ron Atkinson. However, a professional career did not materialise and Blackwell, on the advice of his dad, carved out a trade in the construction industry. By the age of 19 he had his own building sub-contractors' firm.

But the lure of the gloves kept pulling and he excelled twice at the old Wembley with penalty saves for Barton Rovers in the 1978 FA Vase final and for Boston United in an FA Trophy final.

Blackwell's glove affair with Yorkshire was launched when Warnock convinced the 'keeper he was a vital last component for a Scarborough team vying with Blackwell's then club, Barnet, to become the first winners of automatic promotion to the Football League in 1987.

"If it hadn't been for Neil I wouldn't have gone so far north," recalled Blackwell. "It was his persuasive powers that persuaded me and it proved the best career move for me."

Blackwell did slot in as the final piece in the Seadogs' jigsaw. They roared to the title and into the Football League with just one defeat in the 23 games after Blackwell joined.

It was the start of a friendship and professional football association that lasted through stops at Notts County, Torquay, Plymouth, Huddersfield, Bury and Sheffield United, by which time Blackwell was number two to Warnock. But in 2003 Blackwell was headhunted by Leeds to where he went initially as number two to Peter Reid. The parting from Warnock was initially acrimonious, but that has now dissolved so that the duo are back on good terms.

"Neil had been talking about retiring in a few years and I wondered where that would leave me. People would only associate me with working alongside him and with me being a number two," explained Blackwell.

"I always wanted to be a manager and I had gleaned so much from Neil that I also wanted to gain knowledge from other people like Peter Reid and then from Eddie Gray who was appointed Leeds boss after Reidy."

When Gray could not halt Leeds' relegation from the top flight the club turned to Blackwell. "I have no regrets whatsoever about taking the Leeds job," he added. "The club is still internationally regarded and so I was proud and privileged to be in charge. I will always remember that."

After a mid-table finish in his first season, Blackwell led Leeds to the play-off final at the Millennium Stadium where they fell at the final hurdle against Watford.

Seven games into the next season he was sacked from Elland Road to end a bewildering period in which he was involved in close on 70 transfers as Leeds' financial morass took its toll.

But it was an even more parlous plight he endured when taking over at Luton, where, after almost toppling Liverpool in the FA Cup, he was presented with having to sell all his best players as crippling cash problems bit.

Now back in a county where he is used to on-field success, he'd love nothing better than to restore the Blades to the elite and pit his motivational skills and training acumen against the best.

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