Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I started coaching when young ’urchins’ said: Come and train us.. I was like the ’Bobby Charlton’ teacher in Kes
NEIL WARNOCK ON HIS EARLY YEARS AS A MANAGER EVERGREEN BOSS REVEALS HOW HE FIRST GOT HOOKED ON GAME HE LOVES
NEIL WARNOCK says his “addiction” to management started when “urchin” kids knocked on his door 50 years ago asking to be trained.
The 71-year-old agreed to be Middlesbrough’s new permanent manager last week, his 18th job in a 40-year career.
“I’ve got that desire still. I look at managers and say, ‘I am better than him’,” said Warnock yesterday as he was officially unveiled. “I’ve got four games to go for my 1500th, eight promotions. It is a great career.”
That coaching bug, Warnock has revealed for the first time, started on the Teesside coast at Seaton Carew in his early 20s when he was playing for Hartlepool.
He said: “These kids had nothing, looked like urchins.
“They knocked on my door and said, ‘Would you like to train us’. I thought, ‘Well, I’m not doing anything.’
“You know that film Kes? I felt like him, whistle around my neck. Today I am Bobby Charlton! We only had a green square where I lived in my digs. They got the knack and responded.
“So we joined a league. It was lovely to see a group of lads, under-13s, who had no coaching at all, organised.
“When we scored from a setpiece I ran up and down the line. And that’s what attracted me to it.”
An addiction? “I’d say so,” he said. “Although I do enjoy a nice whiskey! I like collecting rare ones from Scottish islands.
“I don’t feel 71. I know I don’t look it. I’m a very good looking lad for my age. I feel good around people I can get something out of. Football must be addictive. I look after myself. I train on a daily basis. I have a heart man who looks after me every year.
“Some people have struggled to find it! But I have got one.”
His fitness regime included cycling to work and Boro fans recently captured his commute on video.
Warnock said: “I am getting camouflage. I have a new bike too. Oh yes, still an electric one.
“I don’t like going up hills. I do turn the power off a lot, and when I do 35-40k, you’ve put a shift in.”
His wife Sharon agreed to him taking the Boro job – time away for good behaviour.
Warnock said: “I have plumped the cushions a bit more lately. I’ve even made my bed, but she remakes it.
“It was nice for Sharon to say, ‘Yeah, I don’t mind.’
“She knows how many times I have said, “I’d love to show that owner what I can do’.” Bossing in the North East fills a gap in his CV, having turned down Sunderland in the early 1990s.
And he knows transforming Boro from a lastday relegation scare into promotion contenders will be a “massive challenge” having stepped in on June 23 as caretaker until the end of the season after Jonathan Woodgate was axed.
He said: “I am not a magician, so no guarantees. I love making players better. Bad players, average. Average players good, and good players great.
“I don’t want to be halfway up the league. I’d be out fishing or feeding the ducks if I wanted to be halfway.
“I look back at what I have done, QPR and Cardiff were similar, struggling. I do back myself.”
‘Football an addiction? I think so. I have a heart man who looks after me. Some have struggled to find it but I have got one’