Neil was so furious with me I was sold the next day
Shaun Derry learnt the hard way not to question Warnock but insists he is a great man-manager
Ifirst met Neil Warnock when he was Sheffield United manager and I was a 22-year-old midfielder who thought he knew a thing or two about the game.
After one match at Grimsby, I questioned his decision to substitute our right winger, who I reckoned was having a decent game. Neil was furious – so furious he sold me to Portsmouth by lunchtime the next day.
Seven years later, I was at Leeds United and Neil signed me on loan at Crystal Palace. I had grown up a bit by then and I realised that Neil did not hold grudges. He saw I had changed and made me one of his leaders in the dressing room. Every Warnock side will have five or six players who run the dressing room and he will generally leave them to it unless he feels he has to get involved. One occasion where Neil felt he had to take a stand came a few years later, at QPR. Neil had gone there after leaving Palace and had taken me with him, but one Thursday he pulled me into his office and told me he was going to slaughter me in training the next day. He thought standards were slipping and explained if he went for me – a senior player – he felt it would put the frighteners on the rest. By the end of that training session, the whole atmosphere had shifted. Standards were back to where they should be.
Neil does not scream and shout as much as people might think. Times have changed and so has he. He is an excellent man-manager. At QPR, we needed a spark and he decided Adel Taarabt would provide it. Adel could be a big baby and was rarely on time, but he got us promoted and no other manager has been able to get as much out of him as Neil did.
I also think he would like one last shot at the Premier League. He deserves one more go at it for what has been an amazing job at Cardiff. Just a word of advice to his players – do not criticise his decisions!
Shaun Derry played for Neil Warnock at Sheffield United, Crystal Palace and QPR