NEIL STILL LOVING IT AT 70
®Êby MATT DUNN
NEIL WARNOCK admits his love of the game is keeping him young as he contemplated turning 70 tomorrow.
After cutting his teeth in management with Gainsborough Trinity, 15 clubs and a record eight promotions later Warnock is as busy as ever preparing for the visit of Wolves tonight.
“The football is keeping me young,” he said. “It frightens me what will happen if I don’t have it any more. It is the humour keeping me so alive.
“My boys are my life, really, in football. I have given them the opportunity to play at the top level and I want to see them repay me by enjoying it. The day-to-day buzz is the main thing.
“I know I have not got long left. I think about life – and death – all the time. I blow my nose and I think I have got flu coming on. Talk about a hypochondriac!
“The problem is when you look at the papers today, there is always somebody younger than you passed away.
“Glenn Hoddle’s recent illness brought things back to the fore, how you have got to look after yourself. You have got to look at wills and things like that.”
It is a brutal reality but one Warnock had to face honestly when his wife Sharon was diagnosed with breast cancer.
She insisted he take the Rotherham job just over two years ago to get Warnock out from under her feet while she got on with getting better – and thankfully she is enjoying her time in Cardiff now.
Eggs
Her recovery means they can plan for life after football, although Warnock’s ideas may differ from those of his wife.
“Sharon tells me we’ve got places to see and things like that,” he said. “But whenever I have been out of work I would collect the eggs from the chickens, take the kids off to school, then wonder how many coffees you could have out in one day and how long you could walk the dogs for.”
That said, his Cardiff players have been giving Warnock a vision of what the future could have in store.
“The lads have put my face onto of a picture of Harry Redknapp in the jungle and hung it up in the changing rooms,” added Warnock. “They are saying, ‘Are you the next one, boss?’.”
Sadly, though, he has spotted an immediate flaw with the ‘I’m A Celebrity’ format.
“Trouble is, I would have to do every trial going,” he said. “Football fans up and down the country would ring in to see me suffer.”