Thanks for the memories, Neil .... I already miss you
BLUEBIRDS COLUMNIST SCOTT JOHNSON
IT was probably always going to end like this, wasn’t it? Neil Warnock has walked. The king is dead.
It leaves a void at the very centre of the football club and a hole in your soul. Warnock was Cardiff City and Cardiff City was Warnock. He was born to manage Cardiff and found a spiritual home here.
He often referred to Cardiff fans as “my kind of people” and he was very much our kind of manager.
Warnock may have softened in his advancing years, but he still retained that desire and fury. To be a Cardiff manager, or player, you need that bit of edge. Of course, he was also charm personified and had everyone eating out of his hand from the moment he walked through the door.
What he inherited was a shadow of a football club.
The rebrand, Cardiff’s personal Brexit, split the fanbase and the rift affected everything. It threatened to bring down the club, but Warnock found a way to heal the situation in no time with wisdom, common sense and the force of his personality.
For that alone, we owe him a debt than can never be repaid and should never be forgotten.
On the pitch, he made Cardiff look like Cardiff again.
The current obsession is attractive football, pretty much above all else. I’m sure it will be a priority for some supporters now that the search has begun for a successor, but I’m not sure that brand of football is in the club’s DNA. It’s certainly not in Warnock’s, but he showed that there is beauty to be found in a well-executed alternative.
Warnock created a side in his image and set them up to overpower opponents. Big, powerful and unrelenting, Cardiff came of age in the promotion campaign and could beat you in any number of ways. You want to trade blows? Bring it on. Pin us back? We’ll hit you on the break. Fly out the blocks? We’ll bide our time and do our damage late on.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a Cardiff side with as much team spirit and mental toughness. They led from the front, chased all the way by a brilliant Fulham side, but they were so driven, they never looked like letting their lead slip. It must have been so disheartening for Fulham, as it was for Cardiff’s opponents every single week.
The Premier League has never been Warnock’s happy place and that didn’t change with Cardiff. Warnock’s approach was no longer quite so bold and it sometimes felt like damage limitation was the main priority. The players looked intimidated and by the time they found their feet, it was too late to secure survival.
The way Warnock’s former club Sheffield United have attacked the Premier League with real gusto this year makes you wonder what might have been.
So, too, did the 2-0 win at Old Trafford on the final day of the season. When the pressure was off, Cardiff started to enjoy themselves and the goodwill from that performance lasted all summer.
Unfortunately, as soon as the new season kicked off, that soon vanished. On the eve of the first game, Warnock announced that this would be his last year in charge and you wonder if he now regrets doing so. Maybe he was trying to galvanise the squad, but it looks like he instead gave them an excuse and they did not rise to the challenge.
They subsequently lost at Wigan on the opening day and it served as a short, sharp reality check.
It’s not uncommon for relegated sides to suffer from a Premier League hangover, but Cardiff have at times been far too casual in their approach and got exactly what they deserved.
In short, they have looked nothing like a Warnock side.
Even on their best day, they’ve got nowhere near the standard of their promotion season. The performance at Reading was so bad that Warnock admitted that he considered leaving and that was only three games in. The writing was probably on the wall from that point.
They’ve tried every combination of variables and nothing has stuck and despite spending a lot of money in the summer, there is a void in quality left by the players that departed.
Cardiff are better than this, but it remains a rather one-paced, stale squad. The irony is that they need someone like Warnock to come in and sweep them off their feet all over again.
The backing of the fans was always of the utmost importance to Warnock and that has waned in recent weeks. Two limp derby performances would not be tolerated at the best of times, but under the circumstances, they proved to be a point of no return.
The circle of Warnock’s time in charge began and ended at home to Bristol City. Warnock was never going to need to be pushed and he has left on his terms, with the club in a far better position than when he took charge.
I don’t envy the club in their attempts to replace him, though. In many respects, he’s irreplaceable. Cardiff need a new voice and a new direction. Warnock probably just needs a rest.
The Emiliano Sala tragedy took a visible toll on him and I’m not sure he has ever quite managed to get back on track after that, which is hardly surprising. The whole situation still takes your breath away.
Warnock will be missed, more than any of us really appreciate yet: the honesty of his press conferences and the integrity of his actions. I’m not sure anyone else could have achieved what he has in the past three years and that is probably the greatest compliment you can pay him.
Cardiff now need to move on very quickly, but Warnock can reflect on a job well done, safe in the knowledge that he will always remain a sainted man in this part of the world and I already miss him.