The top flight Why Cardiff promotion could spell end for Neil

NEIL WARNOCK has hinted he could walk away from Cardiff in the summer if he succeeds in his bid for an unprecedented eighth promotion.

Today’s game at Birmingham falls on the eve of his first anniversary in charge; 12 months during which the Welsh side have risen from second bottom to the very top of the Championship.

However, his contract is due to expire in the summer and, in truth, the Premier League holds little appeal.

“Who is to say I am going to stay? I honestly don’t know if we go up,” Warnock said. “The main objective was to get promotion – they know I am not keen on the Premier League. I don’t like owners and chairmen talking to players like they do at that level. It belittles the manager.

“But it is hard enough anyway, without a player telling

the chairman exactly the sort of thing he wants to hear all the time. A player is hardly going to say you are doing a great job if you have just dropped him. Chairmen feel they have to have those sorts of conversation, though.

“But let’s cross that bridge when we get to it – it would be bloody nice to have the choice!”

At Championship level, Warnock is left to get on with it. His assistant Kevin Blackwell and first-team coach Ronnie Jepson have worked with him for years, while Craig Bellamy, the player development manager, gives the young Welsh players in particular something to aspire towards.

All five of them sit with the rest of the players, both the junior and senior squad, in the club’s separate canteen in the grounds of the impressive Vale Resort after a good morning

session in the light drizzle. There is a noticeable buzz about the place, animated conversations held over platefuls of cottage pie.

Modern sports science does not dictate that it always has to be pasta and in a very British way, Warnock, 68, is building success with his own tried-andtested recipe.

“When I came, everybody knew the club was fragmented,” he said. “But we have got the enjoyment back. I have got in the people I wanted and we spend more time down at the stadium, so the people there feel part of the club more. And the owner enjoys it more. The fans are enjoying it more.

“There is not a bad egg in the camp. It is not dissimilar to when I