LALLANA: POTTER CAN DO A KLOPP
NEIL WARNOCK says his “addiction” to management started when “urchin” kids knocked on his door 50 years ago asking to be trained.
The 71-year-old agreed to be Middlesbrough’s new permanent manager last week, his 18th job in a 40-year career.
“I’ve got that desire still. I look at managers and say, ‘I am better than him’,” said Warnock yesterday as he was officially unveiled.
“I’ve got four games to go for my 1500th, eight promotions. It is a great career.”
That coaching bug, Warnock has revealed for the first time, started on the Teesside coast at Seaton Carew in his early 20s when he was playing for Hartlepool.
He said: “These kids had nothing, looked like urchins.
“They knocked on my door and said, ‘Would you like to train us’. I thought, ‘Well, I’m not doing anything.’
“You know that film Kes? I felt like him, whistle around my neck. Today I am Bobby Charlton! We only had a green square where I lived in my digs. They got the knack and responded.
“So we joined a league. It was lovely to see a group of lads, under-13s, who had no coaching at all, organised.
“When we scored from a setpiece I ran up and down the line. And that’s what attracted me to it.”
An addiction? “I’d say so,” he said. “Although I do enjoy a nice whiskey! I like collecting rare ones from Scottish islands.
“I don’t feel 71. I know I don’t look it. I’m a very good looking lad for my age. I feel good around people I can get something out of. Football must be addictive. I look after myself. I train on a daily basis. I have a heart man who looks after me every year.
“Some people have struggled to find it! But I have got one.”
His fitness regime included cycling to work and Boro fans recently captured his commute on video.
Warnock said: “I am getting camouflage. I have a new bike too. Oh yes, still an electric one.
“I don’t like going up hills. I do turn the power off a lot, and when I do 35-40k, you’ve put a shift in.”
His wife Sharon agreed to him taking the Boro job – time away for good behaviour.
Warnock said: “I have plumped the cushions a bit more lately. I’ve even made my bed, but she remakes it.
“It was nice for Sharon to say, ‘Yeah, I don’t mind.’
“She knows how many times I have said, “I’d love to show that owner what I can do’.” Bossing in the North East fills a gap in his CV, having turned down Sunderland in the early 1990s.
And he knows transforming Boro from a lastday relegation scare into promotion contenders will be a “massive challenge” having stepped in on June 23 as caretaker until the end of the season after Jonathan Woodgate was axed.
He said: “I am not a magician, so no guarantees. I love making players better. Bad players, average. Average players good, and good players great.
“I don’t want to be halfway up the league. I’d be out fishing or feeding the ducks if I wanted to be halfway.
“I look back at what I have done, QPR and Cardiff were similar, struggling. I do back myself.”
ADAM LALLANA believes Brighton are on the road to forging the kind of winning mentality Jurgen Klopp has constructed at Liverpool.
The Seagulls’ new signing – on a three-year deal after leaving Klopp (inset, below) and Anfield as a free agent – had been chased by several clubs.
But the philosophy at the Amex
Stadium under manager Graham Potter (inset, above) was key to persuading him to join up.
Lallana, 32, he revealed: “In terms of a way of playing, they want to control play and dominate possession – they are some of my strengths.
“It excites me to play like that. If you get the right mix by being successful with and without the ball, that’s a formula to do well.
“It’s a project and it takes time to build. I saw it at Liverpool where we won the league in Jurgen Klopp’s fifth year. It’s a phase-by-phase development process.
“You might not get results overnight, but if you stick to it, then you’ll be working towards something. That’s what I can sense we’re going to do at Brighton. There’s much more I can learn under the head coach. You’re never too old to learn – you can always improve.
“It’s important that, as a team, we keep showing signs of progress. That doesn’t happen overnight, which is why the head coach has done such a fantastic job in terms of making that change to the playing philosophy and keeping Brighton in the league.”
Lallana was impressed by the club’s goal of breaking into the Premier League’s top half and said: “It’s going to be difficult because the league is so competitive, but the team have top players.
“At Southampton, we went through League One and the Championship, like Brighton. Mauricio Pochettino came in and tweaked the mentality and belief. We finished eighth – and that is definitely possible at Brighton.
“The template is in place and it’s about implementing that – there is no reason why we can’t do that.”
The Seagulls completed the season in 15th place with 41 points.