‘Dinosaur’ Warnock loving it
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,” says the Cardiff City manager who will turn 70 on Saturday and join Roy Hodgson, Sir Alex Ferguson and the late Sir Bobby Robson as those who bossed it into decade number eight.
“I had a manager called Len Ashurst and we got beat at Boston in the FA Cup. He called us all in the next day and started on every player. He got to me and I’ll never forget what he said.
“It struck me there, 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. 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 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.”
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 news and everybody you knew seems to be passing away,” says Warnock, whose Bluebirds face Wolves on Friday.
“Am I dinosaur? I am regarding my date of birth. And that’s one of the more complimentary words used to describe me. But you can’t do this at this age unless you’ve got enthusiasm and it’s the players who keep me feeling young.”