The second part of our in-depth chat with Cardiff boss Neil Warnock
NEIL Warnock had just left Rotherham. Revived and refreshed after the fairytale of New York, his stock had rarely been higher.
“I went for interviews,” he says. “At Blackburn. At Forest. I spoke to Derby. But nothing materialised. I made the mistake of saying I only wanted one year to give it a real go. They came back and said ‘Sorry, we’ve got a two- or three-year plan – then sacked the manager after six months!”
By October 2016, only one interested party remained. Then, during a holiday in Scotland, Cardiff chairman Mehmet Dalman called.
“I flew down to London and we had a long, breakfast-type meeting” recalls Warnock.
“Cardiff’s reputation wasn’t the best at that time, but I just liked him. I’ve always gone on my instincts with people.
“We talked for a bit, and I said ‘Ok, I’ll come’.
He said ‘What? We haven’t even discussed money yet’. But I said ‘Don’t worry, we’ll sort that later. Shake my hand, I’ll come’.
“He went out and spoke to Vincent (Tan, the Cardiff owner). I was supposed to be ringing this other club who were chasing me and Mehmet knew about that.
Serviette
“So he came back in and was desperately searching for a piece of paper, a napkin, anything I could sign to seal the agreement!
“I said ‘Listen, Mehmet, I’ve shaken plenty of hands with plenty of chairmen and it’s probably cost me a couple of million quid because two of them reneged on me. But that’s not me. Trust me’. He was still there when I left, begging me to sign this serviette!”
Dalman’s eagerness proved well founded. Second-bottom when Warnock took charge, the Bluebirds are now challenging for promotion to the Premier League.
A directionless team has been transformed from pedestrian plodders into snarling battlers. What Warnock calls “up-and-atem” football.
“For a fan, there’s nothing better than seeing your team have a go,” he insists. “Whenever we won at Sheffield United, I used to get in a little slipper bath while the lads were warming down. Derek, the kitman, would bring me a drink of tea.
“I used to sit there and think back to when I was a lad, going home with me dad. Talking about this shot, that save, the referee, the goalkeeper. Wow, Dad, did you see how we played? I was so excited.
“And it was lovely to think that my team had sent kids home feeling the same way. I still feel that way now – that you’ve got a responsibility to try to entertain. To give people things to talk about.
“Stats-wise, our possession isn’t very good. But that doesn’t matter to me. I look at how many shots, how many saves, how many crosses. The things that excite people. And, when it comes to things happening in the last third, we’re as good as anybody in the league.
“People get carried away with possession stats, but I don’t think they prove anything. Look at Italy against Sweden in the World Cup play-offs. Keeping the ball, passing it around. There were five minutes to go and I’m thinking ‘What are you doing?’
“It’s why I’ve never enjoyed watching England. Me and Blackie
(Kevin Blackwell) have always wondered why we try to change our style for the rest of the world.
“These top coaches all tell us you can’t play the English way in tournament football, but I don’t see any evidence of that.
“We’ve spent ten years trying to copy different styles and where has it got us?
“We’d all love to see England playing like Pep, but we haven’t got a David Silva or a Kevin De Bruyne. So give fans what they want – crosses, shots, tackles. Oohs and aahs, people going home happy. That’s what you get in this division. For me, that’s why it’s the best in the world.” Warnock’s commitment to entertainment peaked with his remarkable indulgence of the maverick playmaker Adel Taarabt at QPR. No manager before or since has eked a decent season out of the temperamental Moroccan, whose extravagant skills were fatally undermined by childish tantrums and tactical indiscipline. But in 2010-11, Taarabt sparkled. Nineteen goals, a Championship player of the year award and, for the Hoops, promotion to the top flight. “Adel was already there when I took the job,” explains Warnock.
“I spoke to a few people and they said ‘Neil, if you play him, he’ll get you the sack’.
“So I told Adel what the people were saying about him. I said ‘Adel, I’m going to play you every week. And, if you have a bad game, I’ll play you again. And, if you have another bad game, you’re playing again. And you’re not going to get me the sack are you, son?’
“He said ‘No, no, I won’t gaffer’. I took the senior lads aside. People like Clint Hill, Shaun Derry and Heidar Helguson.
All fabulous pros. I said ‘Look, if you get behind me in what I’m doing with Adel, he’ll get us promoted and you’ll all be Premier League players’.
“I said there’d be days when they wanted to kill him and there
were. Derry especially. He’d wear gloves in the summer. He’d try to nutmeg someone on the edge of his own box and, if he lost it so what? He wasn’t tracking back
“He was so irresponsible I banned him from getting the ball in our half. If anyone passed to him it was a £50 fine, then £100 for a second offence!
Signalling
“I remember one game against Hull, when he got kicked and didn’t get a free-kick.
“He was walking around, trying to take his shirt off. He lost interest completely.
“Then my assistant, Keith Curle, said ‘Gaffer, he’s signaling - he wants to come off’. I said ‘Curley, don’t even look at him. Let him have his tantrum’. We totally ignored him.
“It’s strange because getting the best out of him went against
Give fans what they want – crosses, shots, tackles. Oohs and aahs, people going home happy. This division is the best in the world Neil Warnock Cardiff City manager
everything my teams are. But to see him win us games with that magical ability, it was worth it.
“I can still see a goal now, though not one he scored.
He was in front of the dugout at QPR, a couple of lads charging towards him.
“He hit a ball with the outside of his foot. It bounced once and Wayne Routledge chested it in. Didn’t even have to break stride. It was the best ball I’ve ever seen.
“And down here, at Cardiff. We were 2-0 down, but Adel conjured up two goals out of nothing to make it 2-2. Nobody else would have scored those.”
Taarabt played 50 times in the Premier League for Rangers but is now on loan at Genoa after failing to impress at AC Milan and Benfica.
“A couple of times he’s called and said ‘Gaffer, do you want me again?’ laughs Warnock. “And I go ‘I can’t have you again mate, it’d do my head in!’
“I once said to him ‘It’s such a shame Adel, you should be playing at the top level’. And he’d say ‘Yes, boss, but I’m on £50,000 for the next five years’. What can you do? But, believe it or not, he’s actually a lovely lad.”
Of course, taking such risks is a lot easier when you’re financially secure and closing in on 70 with a rock-solid reputation.
“It’s true,” he acknowledges. “I’m at a stage in my career now where I don’t care about getting sacked.
“When I was younger, I used to worry about that, like all young managers do. It was ‘Will I get another job? Will I be able to pay the bills?’ Now – and this isn’t me being arrogant or disrespectful – Cardiff probably need me more than I need them.
“But on the flip side, I’m not thinking about my career either. “I genuinely want to do well because the folk round here are such nice people. “I go down to the Valleys to do fan forums. The most recent was Porthcawl. There were 250 tickets and they were sold in an hour. “I’ve done four now and I have a right laugh because they’re my type of people and they know I’ll tell it like it is.” The affection is mutual. The skirmishes and jibes of three confrontational decades in football mean Warnock carries more baggage than a hotel porter. Rarely have any club’s fans welcomed him warmly, though the majority are ultimately won over. Cardiff were the exception, as his wife famously found out. “She rang me the day I was appointed and said ‘I’ve been on the message boards and I can’t believe it. Everybody loves you’. I said to her ‘Why are you saying it like that, I’m a very loveable person!’” With the Bluebirds soaring, he certainly is. But football, Warnock admits, is a volatile business and, should cupid’s arrow ever become dislodged, the 68year-old has promised not to outstay his Welsh welcome. “It’s harder to be a manager now,” he says. “Everything’s social media and phone-ins. Everyone’s an expert.
Background
“When I was managing Notts County, the chairman Derek Pavis was telling me how I’d got my tactics wrong for a particular game.
“Now, Derek was a lovely bloke but he didn’t have a football background. I was thinking ‘What does he know about this?’
“But I went along with it and at the end I said ‘Derek, who’ve you been talking to?’ He said ‘Oh… my gardener’. Three promotions, god knows how many games and he’s wanting me to take tactical advice from a bloody gardener! “You have to laugh. “But everyone’s got the chairman’s ear now, haven’t they? Some of the bile that comes out online is awful. I couldn’t put up with that at my age. I couldn’t do an Arsene Wenger, ploughing on through all that criticism.
“I love him and I admire him. The guy has more comebacks than Frank Sinatra. But, if my relationship with the Cardiff fans broke down like that, they wouldn’t need to sack me. I’d be gone.” And if all is rosy? “Well, I don’t think I’ll retire at the end of the season,” he says. “I’ll do another one, whether that’s here or somewhere else. I quite like the idea of being a Red Adair. Have a nice Christmas, turn up somewhere every February and save the day. That doesn’t sound like a bad life, does it?”