Wednesday fans force McKeever rethink - December 22, 2000
People power came to the fore yesterday when Sheffield Wednesday fans en masse bombarded the club chairman and manager Paul Jewell over the sale of Mark McKeever to Bristol Rovers. Their protests seem to have worked with the club making a u-turn over the proposed deal.
It seemed that Bristol were set to sign the highly rated McKeever for as little as £100,000 which got up the noses of the fans and they emailed and faxed en masse to the club.
To be fair to Jewell and chairman Culley they both answered their critics and took on board what they were saying.
Here is what one fan, Esk Smith, had to say: "After my near-hysteria at the thought of letting McKeever go to Bristol a couple of nights ago I did e-mail Culley and I did fax Jewell.
"HEC (as he signs his e-mails) got back to me yesterday afternoon to say that it was unlikely the player would be transferred in the near future.
"Got home from work tonight and Jewell's sent me a letter explaining that Rovers made a bid for McKeever, but Jewell wanted to loan him so 'he can play and we can also watch him play every game and assess his progress'. McKeever was 'talking to them to help him make his decision'."
"Obviously that was before the update on the news sections of both our site and Bristol Rovers'. But top marks to Culley and Jewell, for replying to what must have seemed like a total nutcase, doing it so quickly and not intending to let him go in the first place.
Bristol Rovers manager Ian Holloway confirmed the deal was off. He said: "Paul Jewell seems to have changed his mind about selling Mark because he was getting stick from his own supporters for letting go at a bargain price a player he had not seen.
"He felt he only wanted to let Mark come on loan but we weren't prepared to do that because the lad has got a slight thigh strain and while we were confident of his fitness long term, we couldn't guarantee it over the next couple of weeks."
"I am very disappointed that this has broken down but we'll now turn our attentions to making sure the group of players we have got produce their best."