THE DAY OF RECKONING
WARNOCK: Fans may hate Big Sam and Wenger, but they love me here... it’s why I’ll take Cardiff up
IT HAS taken him almost 40 years, but Neil Warnock has finally found a football love story that won’t end in tears.
The 69-year-old manager, who can earn a record-breaking eighth promotion today by leading Cardiff City into the Premier League, once said that his death would be marked throughout the land by a formal minute’s booing.
Arsene Wenger has talked about the end of a love affair at Arsenal, but, in the Welsh capital, Warnock has discovered something unfamiliar – genuine affection.
It’s a feeling, he says, that has renewed his energy levels and which, he believes, would mark him out in the unforgiving, hate-filled terrain of the Premier League.
“It’s strange, but I don’t know any fans here that don’t like me,” said Warnock, who will be liked even more if Cardiff beat Reading or if Fulham are unable to improve on the Bluebirds’ result.
“I’ll tell you now, you look at some of the managers in the Premier League – and even in the Championship – and their fans don’t like them.
“I think it’s horrible, that. That has given me more energy, because, if ever fans chanted for me to get out, they wouldn’t have to wait long. I couldn’t cope with what Arsene Wenger (inset, top) has coped with. Look at Sam Allardyce (inset, below), now. His record is unbelievable.
“When I started as a manager, there were no phone-ins. I think the first one came in when I was at Sheffield United.
“I was on a programme called Football Heaven and this guy called in and said, ‘Warnock – he’s got to go. How can he stay in a job after that?’ The host asked him if he’d been to the game and the guy said, ‘No, but I listened to it on the radio’.
“I thought, ‘Oh my god, there’s a new era beckoning here’. So, we just have to put up with all that now.”
Warnock remembers every insult, each perceived slight, all the spurned handshakes and neglected mentions that got under his skin over 38 years. They include some time spent in the Premier League with Sheffield United, QPR and Crystal Palace. But he recalls them all with a glint in his eye and the rueful relish of a pantomime villain. “I remember going for an interview for the Norwich City job and the first question they asked me was, ‘Do you really think our fans would enjoy a Neil Warnock team?’ he said. “I looked them all in the eye and said, ‘Yeah, I think your fans would enjoy a team that won matches for a change’. I probably knew I wasn’t going to get that bloody job.”
Cardiff’s board were not so squeamish and their reward could be a return to the top flight they crashed out of in 2014 with nothing but rancour, bitterness and a parachute payment that hardly covered their debts.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Russell Slade and Paul Trollope came and went as managers with little effect.
But Warnock has blended a team of misfits into a direct, intimidating, but exciting team. And he has the knack of being able to build players up, even if he knocks their delusions down.
“Sol Bamba thought he was Franz Beckenbauer, strutting around, passing the ball, dribbling,” said Warnock.
“That’s why he was looking for work – no club wanted him on board because he was an accident waiting to happen.
“Bamba is never going to be a Virgil van Dijk with the ball, nor is Sean Morrison. But, defensively, they can become very good players.
“That’s what you’ve got to do when you go to a club.
“It’s getting the best out of what you have – and making them believe in what they’re doing.”