WARNOCK SET FOR 70s CLUB
NEIL WARNOCK joins the very exclusive Premier League septuagenarian club next week – but can still tell you the exact time and place when the dug-out first called.
“It was Hartlepool, 1972,” said the Cardiff City manager, who will turn 70 on Saturday and join Roy Hodgson (below), Sir Alex Ferguson and the late Sir Bobby Robson as those who bossed it into their eighth decade.
“I had a manager called Len Ashurst and we got beat at Boston in the FA Cup,” said Warnock. “He called us all in the next day and started on every player and what he thought of them.
“He got to me and I’ll never forget what he said – what we should have done and why we let him down and the club down.
“But it struck me there that I was a journeyman footballer. Someone told me I’d made a success out of being a failure. I knew I could never get to the top. I wasn’t good enough. I was a quick, brainless winger.”
Not brainless enough, though, to ignore the lure of the sheepskin, even at the tender age of 24.
By the time he stopped playing at 31 in 1979, Warnock was ready to conquer, if not the world, then certain parts of Yorkshire and other northern outposts.
“I had played 300-odd games over 10 years, but I realised the only way I could get to the top was as a manager. I loved talking when I was playing and telling people what to do.
“I started coaching in a Sunday league, at Todwick, then went to Gainsborough and Scarborough. I knew that to become a good manager I had to serve my education.”
He may now rub shoulders on the touchline with Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho, in their Armani suits and grey and black V-neck sweaters, but Warnock’s first taste of management sounds more like the four Northerners sketch from Monty Python.
“At Todwick, I took the washing to the launderette on a Sunday morning. I’d give the girl eight quid to do it all.
“The treasurer used to collect 50p subs from players for the electricity and we’d train twice a week under one floodlight, having changed outside the dressing rooms.
“It was the same at Gainsborough. I used to take the players to the pub after training and we’d play darts and dominoes with the fans to try and give something back. Burton and Scarborough were similar.”
From Scarborough, he want to Notts County, Torquay, Huddersfield, Plymouth, Oldham, Bury – “the only real disaster” – Sheffield United, Crystal Palace, QPR, Leeds, back to Palace, back to QPR, Rotherham and then Cardiff.
“When you get to my age, you look at the newspapers and watch the news and everybody you knew seems to be passing away,” added Warnock.
“Am I a dinosaur? I think I am, regarding my date of birth. But you can’t do this job at this age unless you’ve got enthusiasm – the players keep me feeling young.”