Reply With QuoteThat last paragraph is Warnock to a tee!!
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The article's entitled "Mad as chips".
https://www.theguardian.com/football...sport.comment2
'I don't suppose Gary will be wanting to have a pint with me afterwards... but then not many people do.'
- Neil Warnock, after the 'Battle of Bramall Lane', Sheffield, Saturday, 16 March
Even as he was logging his entry for quote of the season (even as we wondered if Gary Megson and West Bromwich Albion would find it remotely funny) our Neil was bracing himself for what he rightly suspected would be a rocky few days.
For all his capacity to self-deprecate, Warnock must have known that this time, after the match was abandoned because his Sheffield United team had only six players on the pitch, he might have stepped in it good and proper.
The Football League on Thursday ruled that Albion should retain the points for their 3-0 'win' and left any disciplinary action up to the Football Association. A heavy fine is possible, for manager and club. On top of all that, some critics even suggest Warnock will lose his job at the club he has supported since he was growing up in Mosborough, in the United heartland of south Sheffield.
'It's been an absolute bloody nightmare,' he said on Friday. 'For me, for my wife and the kids. It's absolutely devastated me.'
Journalist and former player Lawrie Madden, who knows Warnock and Sheffield well, spoke to him after United beat Millwall 3-2 on Tuesday and said: 'For the first time I got the impression that what was being said about him was getting to him. He thought the comments were brutal.'
Ben Robinson, chairman of Burton Albion, where Warnock learned some of his early managerial tricks, said: 'He's totally dedicated, a fiery character, determined, great motivator, a professional. I'm surprised at the suggestion he's been cheating. Although he was part-time with us, he would think nothing of driving somewhere at 11pm to sign a player. He was outspoken, certainly, and occasionally would come into conflict with officials. But, generally, he was a bouncy, effervescent character, and that rubbed off on people. He was a great ambassador for the club.'
Warnock did well enough at Westfield Comprehensive (with 2,000 students, one of the biggest in the country) to qualify as a chiropodist. He also had a fruit-and-veg stall in Sheffield market. But, as much as he adored United, he made his mark in other places. Warnock was a left winger in the lower leagues, turning out for eight clubs. He started at Chesterfield and, 326 matches, 11 seasons and 36 goals later, he ended with Crewe Alexandra.
As a manager, he started with Gainsborough Trinity in 1980, moved to Burton, then, in 1986, took Scarborough into the League, the first team to win promotion rather than be elected. There is still a 10ft-high photo of Warnock and team holding the trophy at the McCain Stadium. How comically apt that a tribute to one of football's genuine eccentrics should end up in a stadium that so closely echoes a local saying, 'Mad as chips'.
The highlight of Warnock's managerial career - so far; he still dreams of getting United into the Premiership - was taking Notts County from the old Third Division to the First in one unstoppable charge. He turned down Chelsea after Ian Porterfield left, mainly, he says, because he was not allowed to bring with him some of the young players who had performed so well at Meadow Lane.
'Well, I'd brought them young lads up,' he recalls, 'right from the start, and they were all nobodies. And they'd all got things to prove. I had to know every strength and weakness of all of them. I knew all their families, I knew a lot of them would never play in the Premier League again, are you with me? And I just felt morally obliged to stick with 'em. That's why when people talk to me about loyalty I say, well I was loyal there... and 12 months later I got the sack.'
But last week's version of the Warnock variety show was more subdued than usual. It was not the Warnock who has practical-joked his way through seven League clubs over 16 seasons; who has made his players drink sherry and raw eggs then go for a long run to break a long sequence of poor results; who made his players play travel bingo on away trips until he won a game; who once convinced a player he could run faster on aspirin; who was accused of sending an assistant to listen into the opposition's half-time team talk; who once turned up to a press conference in a towel; and who was red-carded for ranting at the linesman and then vaulted the fence to spend the rest of the match in the crowd.
In a week in which ITV Digital said they want to cut their funding of the Football League by £128million because nobody can be bothered watching their product, nobody could argue that Neil Warnock doesn't provide a robust alternative to Ceefax.
He warmed to the subject as he trawled over the highs and lows of his career, a career to rival the likes of Brian Clough, Barry Fry, Colin Murphy, Bobby Gould, Joe Kinnear, Bobby Robson, Kevin Keegan and Malcolm Allison for uninhibited daftness.
He does regret never having managed a big club - 'I've always had clubs with no money' - although some might say he is better suited to the scufflers, making do with little by encouraging long-term loyalty. Seven players have been with him at two of his clubs. Three players have been at three clubs. Adrian Littlejohn has been at four.
'Who's been with me longest? Kevin Blackwell. I signed him as a goalkeeper at Scarborough in '86 and he's basically been with me my whole career. He's been my goalkeeper, reserve goalie, now my assistant manager.'
He has a host of memories. Most of them hilarious, few better than the monkey feet episode.
'We'd had a great run in the FA Cup, Burton Albion, and we had three to four thousand people watching us so the TV cameras came up and we did a story. I still had my surgery then, my chiropody practice. So I put my white coat on and got my scalpel out. We got one of the lads up on the table and I said, "This lad, he's had a problem with his feet for a number of weeks." So they started filming, right. Now I'm not saying the guy was thick, but the player had on a pair of monkey feet, I was taking the piss, and this guy just filmed it - hair everywhere and six claws. And he put it in! They showed it on telly. It was about a minute in until they clocked it, and all the lads absolutely collapsed.'
Warnock says he has always been a players' manager. When opposing managers have lost to any of his teams - usually to their total surprise - and asked afterwards what they might do, Warnock has invariably replied: 'Take 'em t'pub.' Although he's not sure Glenn Hoddle took that advice after his team lost to one of Warnock's sides.
His favourite, unsurprisingly, is Cloughie. He remembers when he was at County and Clough would be on Forest's adjoining, and palatial, training ground. 'He'd just look over and shake his head. I had a couple of luncheons with him and he used to say to me, "Young man, I don't know how you got success at that club".'
And after the Battle of Bramall Lane? 'I want to get these lads into the Premiership. We've got some great young players, worth millions, and we'll never have a better chance than next season. I've always said this would be my last club. I only want another two more years, me. I've got a young family and I think, if anything, what's happened the past week or so brings home to you how important your family are.'
If he does leave Sheffield, it might be to a mix of cheers and raspberries. Warnock's most recent apology to Wednesday and their fans came after an interview he gave in the current issue of 4-4-2 magazine.
Asked what he would do if given the Wednesday job, he replied: 'As long as the whole of my massive salary was paid within 28 days, then I would buy so many tosspots - although, come to think of it, their current squad would do - and **** 'em up so badly. Then I'd retire to Cornwall and spend the rest of my life laughing my ****ing head off.'
Some people have got no sense of humour.
As player Joined
Chesterfield July 1968 Rotherham June 1969 Hartlepool July 1971 Scunthorpe February 1972 Aldershot March1975 Barnsley October 1976 York May 1978 Crewe Dec 1978 Burton Albion Aug 1979 Overall record (as left winger/forward): 326 league games, 36 goals.
As manager Joined
Gainsborough Trinity 1980 Burton Albion Feb 1981 Scarborough Aug 1986 Notts County Jan 1989 Huddersfield Town August 1993 Plymouth Argyle June 1995 Oldham Athletic Feb 1997 Bury June 1998 Sheffield United Dec 1999 Overall league managerial record: Played 757, W 286, L249, D 222
Highlights
· Took Scarborough to promotion in his first season: McCain Stadium still has a 10 foot high photo of him.
· Took Notts County from third to first in successive seasons.
· Won fourth promotion in nine years with Huddersfield.
Romance
Expressing his life-long love for Sheffield United. 'I remember the day when they sold Brian Deane and Jan Aage Fjortoft. It was like when President Kennedy got shot.'
That last paragraph is Warnock to a tee!!
beat me to it. some people have no sense of humourOriginally Posted by emjayblue
I like the bit where he says he only has 2 more years in him - in 2002!
Wonder who he'll be managing in 2027?
Quality
Asked what he would do if given the Wednesday job, he replied: 'As long as the whole of my massive salary was paid within 28 days, then I would buy so many tosspots - although, come to think of it, their current squad would do - and **** 'em up so badly. Then I'd retire to Cornwall and spend the rest of my life laughing my ****ing head off.'
Some people have got no sense of humour.
The last paragraph is Warnock to a tee!Asked what he would do if given the Wednesday job, he replied: 'As long as the whole of my massive salary was paid within 28 days, then I would buy so many tosspots - although, come to think of it, their current squad would do - and **** 'em up so badly. Then I'd retire to Cornwall and spend the rest of my life laughing my ****ing head off.'
Some people have got no sense of humour.
I feel terrible now as I see you laughed at my Whitts CCMad joke :sadfacesmiley:
don't worry mate I don't think anyone noticed
we have got away with it lol
don't worry mate I don't think anyone noticed
we have got away with it lol
Warnock arriving at training on the pre season tour
Pre-Season Moments: The Gaffer arrives for training in style at @DuchyCollege!#CityAsOne ��⚽️��⚽️ pic.twitter.com/XVL8XMc1WW
— Cardiff City FC (@CardiffCityFC) August 1, 2017
Cumon on then car geeks, what model Triumph is that. ?
Herald?
Dolomite
Dolomite was more squarish, than streamlined
https://www.the-blueprints.com/bluep...nt-1973-80.gif
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