Byline: NICOLE VEASH

SAMANTHA Kane is a 5ft 10in Iraqi glamour girl who wants to become chief executive of Sheffield United. Money is apparently no problem. She's got Pounds 500,000 of her own to invest, plus several million from Middle-Eastern businessmen.

Her expansion ideas are being taken seriously by the club board. She wants to start a satellite TV channel devoted to Arabic-speaking Blades fans, build a leisure complex and launch a high-profile marketing campaign. She's even had two job interviews with the outgoing chief executive, the most recent at the beginning of the week. Yet Kane, 38, isn't all she seems. Four years ago she was Sam Hashimi, a dark-haired man with de-rigueur Iraqi moustache. She had a wife, Trudi, and two children. All three are now estranged.After Pounds 40,000 of radical gender surgery it's hardly surprising that only a few things in Kane's life remain constant: her Middle East connections and her love for Sheffield...