WHEN BLAKEY MET WARNOCK: TWO CITY LEGENDS CHAT BLUEBIRDS

meant it. I wouldn’t swap him, not in a million years.

I wouldn’t swap him and Sean Morrison for any other pairing, in fact. If we were in the Premier League tomorrow, they would be fine.

Just look at the way Burnley and Brighton have gone about it.

People laugh when I say I wouldn’t swap Sol and Mozza for the Liverpool or Arsenal centre-backs, but why would I?

These two are real leaders, make my job easier. If there are any problems inside the dressing room, they deal with it before it gets to me. I’m not entirely sure Arsenal have had that since Tony Adams.

I know I can totally trust my two.

Blakey: What about Manga then, the third one? He’s such a good defender, yet I sense he doesn’t always concentrate.

Warnock: He was an accident waiting to happen at times. When I first spoke to Bruno I said ‘Do you understand properly about defending – heading it, tackling, kicking it into the stand if necessary?’ I said if he played like I wanted him to, he would be as good as anyone in our division. Even the Premier League. He has that much talent. But he needed certain things reinforced.

Bruno has been fabulous, too. It’s great to have those guys at the back.

Blakey: Speaking of players who’ve got better, what on earth did you say to Kenneth Zohore?

Warnock: Funny story here. The first time I saw him he was playing in the reserves, but stuck out on the left wing. It was a sunny day, but he was wearing gloves which I thought a bit strange.

Anyway, one of the staff was telling me: ‘That’s Immers, that’s Zohore, that’s someone else.’ I was getting to know them when suddenly Zohore knocked the ball past the full-back and raced clear.

Hello, where’s that come from, I thought? This guy’s got something.

One or two were sceptical, but I tried him up front in a few practice games, picked him on the bench for the first team. We were 1-0 down against Wolves, had no pace or legs up top and couldn’t see how we were going to get back into it. Their defenders had cigars out.

There’s a green wheely bin by the shower area in the dressing room and at half-time Kenneth and I were standing either side of it. He was leaning on the bin with one arm, I was leaning on the other bit. I can still picture it today.

‘Ken’, I said, ‘I’m going to put you on. They are telling me you’re going back to Belgium. If you’re rubbish this half you WILL be going back to Belgium, I can assure you of that. But I want you to go out there and work your socks off, win the headers, put yourself about, be prepared to make runs even if the ball doesn’t come. Can you do that? Can you show me you have a future here? But the thing is Ken, YOU have to do it, not me.’

He was an absolute revelation and we came back to win 2-1. Ken hasn’t looked back since, although sometimes I speak to him and tell him to be a bit like you, Blakey. You were a right handful to play against, we could never get the ball off you.

Ken’s had a little blip but the best thing we did was sign Gary Madine, who’s come in and provided competition, which is great. I do want to try those two together more at some point, mind. What a handful they will be for defenders.’

Blakey: Backed up by Callum Paterson, of course. Warnock: Here’s another funny story. I saw him play right-back in Scotland, didn’t think he could defend as well as I perhaps wanted, but had real talent. Trouble was Callum was out injured at the time. I had to somehow persuade Vincent to let me sign him for £325,000 – even though he wouldn’t be fit for months!

I was saying to Mehmet, ‘We can’t miss out on this one. Tell Vincent he will be a good player, because he will be when fit.’

Paterson has proved a big plus. We’ve played him at full-back, in midfield, but I told Kevin Blackwell (No.2) ‘I’m going to stick him behind Zohore’.

One or too perhaps had their doubts, but we couldn’t lose really. We knew we would still get the usual big defensive shift from Callum, so wouldn’t miss out on that side of his game, but pushed further forward I fancied he would get goals, too.

Which he has done. He’s the type of player who can just smell a goal, goes into the box at exactly the right time and the ball inevitably arrives. You can’t really coach that, some players just have it and Callum is one of them.

What he also does is take the pressure off Zohore by winning his share of headers. If the ball goes to our wide men, they know Zohore and Paterson are in the box waiting for the cross.

Blakey: So, can I mention the big ‘p’ word?

Warnock: You can, but we genuinely don’t discuss it inside the dressing room. The only thing I can think of was the other night when we beat Brentford and Sol and myself said to one another ‘If we’re not careful, you know...’

Blakey: So many wrote you off, still are doing. Is that an incentive?

Warnock: They are, but I ask the players ‘who has had seven promotions – the outsiders dismissing our chances, or me?’ I’m proud of each and every one of those. At Scarborough we were 50-1 rank outsiders, but we did it.

A lot was said about Cardiff before a ball was kicked this season, but look at where we are.

We do look at results of other teams. Bound to, plus who they’ve got coming up. There are sides up around us, Villa, Wolves, Fulham, who have spent far more money. We shouldn’t even be in there by rights. But we are and we will be right to the end.

Wolves and Villa were expected to go up, so there is plenty of pressure on them. People say Fulham have the easiest run-in on paper, but there is no such thing. They too are under pressure in every single game. Heck, I’m told they’re paying Tom Cairney £50k a week.

We just carry on game by game. Yes, we have some hard fixtures coming up, but no harder than the others have got.

And in many ways our toughest game is the next one, Burton at home on Friday. They’re scrapping to avoid relegation, many will expect us to win. Those kind of matches are real challenges.

Blakey: You’ve seen a capacity stadium for the Manchester City game, wouldn’t it be better for the crowds to be bigger?

Warnock: I suppose we’d rather have more, but the only thing we can really ask is that the ones who do come make a lot of noise and get behind us. That has certainly been the case, the players love playing in front of them and hopefully there are even better times ahead.

I’m sure I must be under pressure, but if so I genuinely don’t feel it. I really don’t. I said to Vincent ‘We’re aiming for the top two, but we’ll be in the play-offs at the very least and that’s a pretty good effort. If so we might win them, we might lose. But even if we lose, we would have another right old crack next season.’

I can’t just be putting up with mid-table. I want that eighth promotion.

We’re loving what’s happening, we really are. I don’t feel pressure, I just smile and encourage the players to as well. I do enjoy watching my team, I really do.

Blakey: So do I Neil, so do Cardiff fans everywhere. Fingers crossed, we’re fully behind you.

Cardiff City season tickets are on sale for 2018-19. To buy yours head to the club website, ticket office or call 0845 345 1400. They are priced from £249 to £549 for adults, which would be among the cheapest in the Premier League were the Bluebirds to go up, and from just £49 for under 16s