Originally Posted by
the other bob wilson
Bit of a feeble response there if I may say so. Same here as far as the highlighted text is concerned and I'd say it's true of all, or very close to all, of the people who post on here. Strange therefore, that Warnock was, apparently, unable to see what quite a few on here could when the summer transfer window closed unusually early last season - in particular, regarding the Morrison/Flint centreback pairing and in general regarding his putting together of a squad very much in his image which paid no regard to what had happened to the Championship in the season we'd been away.
I always feel that Neil Warnock's time as City manager can be split into two periods of almost equal length. In the first, he was superb as he galvanised an ailing club, we easily pulled clear of relegation despite a pretty modest budget and we also played a brand of football which was a lot more enjoyable then I expected it to be. If anything, Warnock did even better for the first portion of the following season, but as soon as he was given significant money to spend (i.e. the signing of Gary Madine) some of his limitations were exposed and we entered the second phase of his time with us. He and the players still deserved credit for battling through to second place while under increasing pressure, but that's what it was, a battle and the quality of our football reflected that.
As is often said, if Warnock had decided to call it a day after we'd won promotion, I think he could have been rated our best ever manager, but, instead he destroyed so much of what he had built in terms of reputation by almost wholly poor buys, his "plucky little Cardiff" routine during our season in the Premier League and clearly wrong tactical decisions which came to a head in that vital game at Fulham. Following our promotion, Warnock's loss percentage was 55 per cent over a season and a third - in stark terms, a record like that should have led to the sack sometime before he left us, but his past glories kept him in his job.
LOM, for some reason, wants only to talk in terms of a direct comparison between the two Neils. For me, the only time you can make a comparison between them on something that were virtually like for like terms was last season and, surely, there can be no one who would argue that Neil Warnock was the more impressive of the two based on the work they both did at the club during 19/20?
If ever there was an argument against seeing things in only black and white terms it surely is Neil Warnock's time as manager of Cardiff City. So much of it was very good, but it was followed by stuff that was just plain poor for someone with his record and experience - he took over us when we were last but one in the Championship and we were nine places higher than that when he left us. I reckon that's a pretty accurate reflection of his spell here and so to talk of "Sir Neil" as if he was some sort of miracle worker is as wrong as it is to claim that he was a complete disaster at Cardiff.