‘NOW WE’LL RUFFLE SOME FEATHERS’

NeIL WARNOCK promised his Cardiff side will ‘ruffle a few feathers’ when they go into the Premier League next season. The 69-year-old was celebrating a record eighth promotion from his 38-year management career after a 0-0 draw against Reading took them up thanks to Fulham’s defeat at Birmingham. And a man who at Christmas claimed that he did not want to manage in the top flight is instead promising to relish the chance to go back into the big time. ‘We will ruffle a few feathers, that’s all we can do,’ he said. ‘It is not rocket science, when you take out the top six in the Premier League then anybody can beat anybody. ‘We will be odds-on favourites to get relegated, but then we were 33-1 at the start of this season to get in the play-offs, let alone be promoted. ‘At my age you can’t help but enjoy it. I don’t like the idea of losing four or five games on the trot and everybody telling you what you are doing wrong, but if it goes pearshaped I will just leave. I don’t think we should worry about it too much. ‘You get what you see with us and that is 100 per cent, and we have a bit of ability too. ‘We won’t be silly. I won’t destroy what we have built. Given the state of this club when I came in, and what had gone on, this has to be the best job I’ve done in my life in football. This is the best achievement. If you only knew what I have to deal with off the field.’ Warnock’s first problem will be to see what funds he will get from owner Vincent Tan, who remains shell-shocked from how his last attempt at spending Premier League cash went wrong. The Malaysian billionaire made a rare visit to share the promotion experience, and when asked about a transfer kitty said only: ‘We will discuss that, we will look at it. ‘It was an easy decision to appoint Neil Warnock. Mehmet (Dalman), the chairman, recommended him and when I heard his track record I said, “Yes, he is the man for us”. ‘We were positive when he took over, even though we were in the relegation zone. We believed we could get there and we’re here now.’