Reply With QuoteNeeds a subscription - can you post a summary?Originally Posted by light up the darkness
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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football...-manager-2018/
Compelling and wonderfully accurate for a sports journalist 👌
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He’s right in the sense that whilst Warnock appears to have mellowed somewhat, I bet the same fires and sense of injustice is always burning privately.
It is nice that Warnock is getting some deserved recognition for the unbelievable job he has done since he became City manager. I doubt if any of the so called ‘old managers’ could have achieved what Warnock has with this group of players.
This needs a few deep breaths and a pause before typing. In fact, my fingertips feel they are actively repelling an attempt to justify the most extreme footballing opinion since Manchester United decided Fred was worth £52 million.
Nevertheless, here we go. The idea cannot be suppressed any longer. Ladies and gentleman, the undoubted manager of 2018 is … Neil Warnock, of Cardiff City.
Forget Pep Guardiola with his billion-pound squad, Zinedine Zidane adding to his collection of Champions League wins, or even Didier Deschamps with a World Cup triumph, proving it is possible to blend some of the greatest players ever into a victorious but unutterably boring team.
What Warnock has achieved in South Wales over the past 12 months is a triumph of man management, defying every modern coaching trend and keeping the home fires burning for old-school Englishmen muttering under their breath about foreign coaches.
Many thought Warnock would have been sacked by the second international break, wrongly anticipating his side to be well adrift at the bottom. We all had visions of the Cardiff board thanking Warnock for his services in defying the odds to gain promotion as they reprinted the same press statement as Queens Park Rangers in 2012. “Thanks Neil, but you’ve taken us as far as you can.”
Sean Morrison of Cardiff City and Neil Warnock, Manager of Cardiff City lift the cup to celebrate their promotion
Warnock defied the odds to gain promotion with Cardiff last season CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES
Instead, Cardiff sit three points above the relegation zone after victory over Leicester City. Television production crews should be tentatively researching the “The Miracle of the Bluebirds” documentary in 2019, Warnock dusting down a career’s worth of passive-aggressive interviews where he comes across as the friendly uncle delivering withering asides with a trademark s******.
Warnock is not everyone’s cup of tea – unless you like your brew with a hint of acid. He divides opinion. Some find his interviews unbearable, while others have mastered the art of switching the TV channel before he speaks.
He has succeeded in giving the broader impression that he has mellowed because he no longer directly indulges in random post-match insults, instead camouflaging his digs with suspicious anecdotes about conversations he had “with the wife” or players before or after the game.
I was just saying to the lads, ‘That hopeless referee gave you nothing today and we’ve come against a right bunch of cheaters and divers who didn’t cause us much trouble other than those 10 shots on target in the first half’, so I’m delighted for them to have snatched this win. They deserved it, really [chuckle, chuckle].”
Privately, I sense Warnock is how he has always been, but results speak for themselves and those connoisseurs of a more purist form of football must see 2019 as an opportunity to remove their head from their backside and acknowledge the Cardiff manager is no Mike Bassett.
If he keeps Cardiff up, it does not matter who wins the Premier League. Warnock will be manager of the year.
If the definition of “old school” is publicly talking up the qualities of players, defending them against all accusations that they have limited quality, and creating a siege mentality where rivals, rather than your own club, are the enemy, there are plenty of high-profile modern managers who can take lessons from ancient habits.
Cardiff have the smallest wage bill in the Premier League and invested just £28.5 million on their squad last summer. There is no logic to the idea there are three worse teams in the division.
The Premier League – world football, in fact – needs Cardiff to succeed. Not because of their style. Not because we love an underdog. Not because it shows complicated tactical systems can be overcome by the primitive idea of getting the ball into the final third as quickly as possible and fighting like bloodhounds for every point. Not even because it will be further evidence that those managers consistently moaning about transfers should spend more time making the most of what they have.
But because it may finally stop Warnock going on that Goals on Sunday sofa and bitterly moaning about the circumstances of his relegation with Sheffield United in 2007.
For his sake and ours, let Neil put a chirpier record on when revisiting his Premier League experiences. If Cardiff survive, it will earn him the recognition and reward his management career deserves.
A good read so I Posted the entire article below/above
Enjoy
And have a happy new year
Chuc mung nam moi
I agree with a lot of it but I do wish we could wait until the end of the season for all this back-slapping. We are doing fine but there is a long way to go yet.
That’ll be in 2019
Good man! Happy New year to you and yours too
Not only that..but Etheridge and Bamba selected in Jason Burt's team of the week, in the same newspaper
Wouldn't it be nice that football voted for a manager of the year based on real effort ,one delivered against the odds, and only working with your basic tools or limited budgets , consider the performances against the backdrop of the talent at hand, you could argue those managers with multi million pounds squads and finances at their disposal have less to deliver than those like Warnock which has to delivery from a much lower point .
Thanks for that
Back to back manager of the season would be some achievement fingers crossed he does get it
It's a different challenge - Klopp identified players that would improve his squad, waited for them and got them rather than Man United who seem to have spent each window only to need to spend again the following window - but I will be fascinated to watch how Liverpool's title race goes if they lose their £66 million goalie and/or £75 million CB for any period of time. Nor do I think Man City wining the league would be that impressive having spent £x hundred million over the last several windows even they can claim they spent less in the last two than Liverpool. Pochettino in third definitely and arguably Sarri in fourth have had much better premier league campaigns thus far than Klopp and Pep given each of their circumstances.
My list of managers of the halfway stage would shine the light on:
1. Pochettino
2. Sarri
2. Hughton
4. Benitez/Warnock
5. Javi Garcia at Watford
Lets keep the praise relative until the end of the season though. I doubt any of the above 6 teams will want the award at the halfway point only to drop-off until the end of the year.
Got to say he's done an unbelievable job (*said through gritted teeth
)
No bitesGot to say he's done an unbelievable job (*said through gritted teeth
Happy new year
I wonder how Warnock would manage with an unlimited budget. He has never been given a fair shot always managing clubs with relatively little spending power. It seems to me that managers like those at Man U, Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool etc are lauded by the press but they have such an advantage over those lower down the leagues their achievements are as much to do with their ability to spend money and assemble squads than anything else. Conversely how would the managers of these clubs do managing Cardiff? Not very well I guess.
That aside well done to Warnock. He has done a fantastic job irrespective of how matters conclude at the end of the season.
Garth Crooks on the BBC had Camarasa as well https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46718255
And to you all. May 2019 be the year Jenkins and co get thrown into the Pit of Sarlaac
Seriously whatever anyone says about Colin it is a miracle considering what he inherited
Terrific article in the Telegraph - thanks for posting. NW is one of the best motivators in the game..... a realist who says what he thinks. Whenever he goes, he will always (for me) rank alongside Jimmy Scoular as the most enjoyable times for watching CCFC.......as well of course as 1959/60 under Bill Jones.....
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