AGONY OF CARDIFF BOSS WARNOCK My tears for Sala
NEIL WARNOCK fought back tears as he admitted he can understand why Emiliano Sala’s family want to carry on the search for the striker.
Warnock, Cardiff and the whole of football has been devastated by the disappearance of Sala after the plane carrying him to his new Premier League home went missing just over a week ago.
Warnock met Sala several times before signing him in a club-record £15m deal and had already struck up a friendship with the striker.
He has spent every waking moment since the Argentinian forward’s disappearance wishing he had done something differently.
That is why he admits he can understand why Sala’s sister Romina and mother Mercedes are refusing to give up hope even after the official search was called off.
“Even now I can’t get my head around the situation, when I look at Romina and the family, I think it’s such a difficult time,” said Warnock at his first press conference since Sala and pilot David Ibbotson disappeared somewhere over the English Channel.
“I quite understand Romina’s stance. If it was my kid, I’d want everybody looking forever.
“It’s such a strange situation. Everybody is hoping like the family are.
Battled
“I keep looking at my children and thinking about what I would be doing.
“It’s very traumatic and my sympathies are with them.”
Warnock was always up against the odds this season with Cardiff as he battled to beat relegation and viewed Sala as the player who could score the goals to keep them up.
The Bluebirds boss had flown to France to watch him several times for Nantes having tracked him for two months and believed that the South American would fit in perfectly.
“I said to him that he’s what I call an ugly footballer, a scruffy footballer,” said Warnock.
“I said that is why he would go down well with us, not just for his gear but he gave everything, he gave 100 per cent every time he played.
“He didn’t always play well, but he scored some great goals and I think he was just so looking forward to the challenge of coming here.
“But I think we would all agree we would rather Emiliano were here and we get relegated, do you know what I mean? Life is far more important than football. He came down to see us. He came to the training ground halfway through his medical on the Friday as we were preparing.
“He had holes everywhere in his trousers and looked like a tramp. I said he’d fit in very well with our team because we’ve got quite a few like that. That’s the memory I’ll have because we had a laugh. He said, ‘I’ll score you the goals,’ and I said, ‘I know you will.’
“I do keep thinking back. I said to him, ‘Why don’t you come up to Newcastle and watch us play tomorrow and have a look?’ You’re not asking yourself should I have made him come up, because it’s after the event.
“But he wanted to go back and see his team-mates, and family, and get his belongings for the following week so that’s what happened. I just thanked him and off we went.”
Warnock admitted that he has felt like quitting and walking away from football after 50 years in the game. It has clearly shaken him to the core.
The Cardiff boss has had counselling through the League Managers’ Association while the club and the Professional Footballers’ Association have also offered support for the players who have struggled to deal with the tragedy.
They face Arsenal tonight in their first game since the tragedy and Warnock said: “It’s probably not the lads that you’d expect but the lads you don’t expect probably that needed more help.
“I don’t think it does any harm to talk to somebody else because you can’t just put things under the table.
“Different lads have different outlooks. It has been noticeable this last week that three or four lads have been really poor – really poor – in training.
“We’ve decided that tomorrow, for example, we feel we’ve got to go more regarding who we think will get more out of it than probably the team that we would have picked.
“I’ve had another chat with the lads this morning. One or two I think it was only right that they speak to people who might help them in this situation because you don’t realise the trauma that it causes a lot of families.
“I’ve been surprised at the number of players who’ve required a little bit of help from outside as well as inside the club.
“I don’t really know how it’s going to be the next 24 hours if I’m honest.
“From a personal point of view I’ve never experienced anything like it.
“It’s unknown territory, I think that’s how I would say it. Things like this just don’t happen.”