Just isn’t for me
was at Sheffield United – we are all together. I said to the players before the season, ‘Listen lads, I’m after my eighth promotion – and the other seven, the squads still have reunions’.
“All of them – Huddersfield, Notts County, Scarborough, Plymouth. I told them they would have a reunion, too, because they are the same type of group.”
That strong, close-knit unity has been a consistent part of nearly four decades of success, although often long balls and uncompromising physicality come to mind when one discusses ‘The Warnock Way’.
This one stereotype more than anything wipes the smile away from the face of a man who is generally more than happy to laugh at his own peculiar idiosyncrasies.
“We have got to the top of the table but we’ve entertained as well,” Warnock insisted. “Blackie is a big one for stats, and we have 15.6 shots per game, more than any other team in the Championship; the most shots on target; the most shots from inside the
box. I used to love it after games at Sheffield United. Derek the kit man would bring me a cup of tea and I would sit back in a little slipper bath and think about all those young kids like I used to be, with short trousers, going home with their dads talking about ‘that’ shot, ‘that’ tackle, ‘that’ goal, ‘that’ header. Excited, and not being able to wait for the next game.
“That is how I want my football. I am going to enjoy my team as much as I can and hopefully the fans will too.”
Right now, it could not sound more like an antidote to the current performances of the England national team.
“I feel sorry for Gareth Southgate, because he has not got an achievable job,” Warnock said. “It is a thankless task.
“The FA want us to play so we’re comfortable on the ball, rolling it out, but we’ve done nothing like that since 1966. Let’s have shots and saves and headers – things that excite.
“I simply don’t enjoy watching. I followed the first 10 minutes of the Slovakia game before watching Scotland and on Sunday I was one of a million viewers, I read somewhere, who turned off halfway through. I watched a Neil Sedaka concert on Netflix instead.” There are few more damning indictments
than that.
THE WARNOCK WAY: CARDIFF’S MANAGER ON...
BEING HATED: I don’t think the fans at clubs I’ve managed hate me. People only hate me until they meet me. Cardiff fans say it all the time, ‘Couldn’t stand you before, but I’m glad you’re here’. LONG-TERM PLANNING: I had many interviews last summer and I said to one chairman, ‘I could get you promoted this year, then help you choose a new manager going forward’. They said that, while I was the best choice, they wanted to implement a three-year plan. The bloke they went for instead was sacked just a few months later. COPING WITH HIS WIFE’S ILLNESS: Sharon had breast cancer and it changed me. I wanted to be at home, away from football. Then I heard her telling the nurse: “He always splashes when he does the pots and he never makes a bed.” That day, I’d turned down Rotherham but I asked her if she wanted me out from under her feet. “Yes, get off!” she said. So I rang them back... BEING TOO OLD: Too old? Last weekend I saw Tony Bennett in New York – he was super, performed for a full 90 minutes... and he is 91. AFTERNOON NAPS: My assistant Kevin Blackwell came in one day to my office and I was slumped at the desk with my chin on my chest – I had gone. I sat up bolt upright and apologised, but Blackie said, ‘Get yourself back home for a nap’. He and Ronnie Jepson take a lot off my plate. TEAM-BUILDING OUTINGS: I am taking the lads bowling. I used to
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
CHAMPIONSHIP TOP SIX
1 CARDIFF 2 Wolves 3 Sheff Utd 4 Bristol City 5 Leeds United 6 Preston NE
CHAMPIONSHIP BOTTOM SIX
19 Aston Villa 20 Derby C 21 Wigan A 22 Blackburn R 23 CARDIFF 24 Rotherham P 11 P 11 P 11 P 11 P 11 P 11 GD 8 GD 8 GD 5 GD 9 GD 7 GD 7 Pts 24 Pts 23 Pts 21 Pts 20 Pts 20 Pts 20 P 11 GD -2 Pts 10 P 11 GD -4 Pts 10 P 11 GD -2 Pts 9 P 11 GD -8 Pts 8 P 11 GD -11 Pts 8 P 11 GD -14 Pts 6
average 185 when I worked in an alley in Chesterfield for two years. I said to Sean Morrison: “Don’t tell anybody and we’ll make a few quid because they are bound to give me odds.” JOB SECURITY: I was a trainee accountant at Burdall’s Gravy Salt factory when Chesterfield offered me a contract. “It’s a mistake, Neil,” said my boss Mr Harland. “I am on £20 a week and have job security soon that could be yours too. The football may only last 12 months.” Two years later the factory had been closed and the staff were made redundant. POETRY: I still remember my first poem, written when I was six, ‘Up in the morning before daylight, The milkman is just coming into sight, The clashing of his milk bottles white, And then the day begins to get bright. Then I have to go to school, With my friend, who is a fool. Then I come home and have my tea, Sit by the fire and watch TV’. When I get in the mood, I’ll do one on the Cardiff team for the Daily Express. INTERACTING WITH FANS: I will say to a couple of kids, ‘Oh dear, going home disappointed today, eh? Don’t be too down’. The fathers love it. Most players march past fans with headphones on – mine are told to sign at least three autographs. I remember waiting nearly two hours in the pouring rain for a Sheffield United player but he ran off, ‘too busy’ for autographs. I cried. PATRIOTISM: I have never heard an anthem like the Wales one at the Millennium Stadium for the Ireland game. You never get that at England matches – the only time I feel patriotic is on the Last Night of the Proms.