NEIL WAROCK: " HIS LIFE AWAY FROM FOOTBALL "
Thu Dec 08, 2016 7:50 am
Neil Warnock on his wife's cancer treatment and why he has come out of retirement for a SEVENTH time to take charge of Cardiff: 'Sharon's ill - but she wanted me out from under her feet!'
Warnock admits his wife Sharon, who is currently being treated for breast cancer, was keen and happy for him to return to management when Cardiff offered him the job
Warnock, who turned 68 on December 1, is currently the oldest manager in English football
Warnock has managed 15 clubs in his career admits he is most at home in the Championship
Neil Warnock came out of retirement for the seventh time to take charge of strugglers Cardiff
Daily Mail
Thursday 8th December 2016
It is early October and Neil Warnock is chatting on the phone to his wife Sharon. She is stunned by something she saw on the internet.
Her husband, who has just accepted the manager’s job at Cardiff City, listens as she explains.
‘Darling, you’ll never believe what I’ve been reading,’ she says. ‘I’ve been on the Cardiff forums and all the fan websites.’
The Bluebirds boss was wanted by fans - as his wife noticed on plenty of Cardiff fan forums
‘What did you do that for?’ he asks. ‘You are sad looking at those blinking things, darling, come on now.’
‘No, you don’t understand,’ she says. ‘I’ve been reading them and everybody likes you at Cardiff. I can’t believe it, they like you. All these fans say they actually like you.’
The Bluebird telling the tale two months on has laughed himself red. Warnock is talking about why it felt right to abort his latest trip into retirement to manage a relegation contender 200 miles from the family home in Cornwall, where Sharon is being treated for breast cancer.
‘I’ll never forget my wife on the phone telling me, in this right shocked voice, “Can’t believe it, they like you”,’ he says.
‘It was so funny. There are a good few people out there who have far ruder things to say about me. Usually it’s blue murder when I turn up. But from the start, I felt like I had a fit with this club. When I first spoke to Mehmet (Dalman, the chairman), he said, “I don’t want to interview you, I want to offer you the job”. Something nice about being wanted, isn’t there?
‘But it was the timing too. It was right for both my wife and me. She said to me, “I want you to have another year while my hair grows back and I have my treatments”. In other words she didn’t want me under her feet.
‘With all that, you would come back into it all, wouldn’t you?’
And so it came to pass that Warnock’s seventh attempt to retire from football went the same way as the other six.
Warnock admits his wife Sharon, who is currently being treated for breast cancer, was keen and happy for him to return to management when Cardiff offered him the job
Warnock's new club battled for a 0-0 draw against Brighton in the Championship on Saturday
Instead, at 68, this marmite Yorkshireman is still going, the oldest manager in English football and one who has spanned 36 years and 1,346 games on the sidelines, acquiring 540 wins and a record-equalling seven promotions from four different divisions.
By his admission he ‘never enjoyed the Premier League’. By common view he has long been among the very best working outside it, a specialist in a Championship with its own quirks. ‘This league is where I’m at home, my muck and nettles,’ he says.
But the football has only ever been part of his story. Take his Wikipedia page, for instance. Under the ‘Disputes’ section is a 29-strong list of folk with whom he has rowed, from the ‘sewer rat’ El Hadji Diouf to referees, managers, chairmen, directors and the actor Sean Bean. The section runs to more than 2,000 words.
‘If I have something to say, I tend to say it and pay the fine later,’ he adds. ‘Fair to say that’s always been my way.’
Warnock has enjoyed success and guided Sheffield United to the Premier League in 2006
Sportsmail has been invited into his office to go over the wars and the wins from almost four decades of management, and the visit happens to fall on his 68th birthday. Mellowed with age? Not exactly. At the end of last month Cardiff lost at Aston Villa and Jack Grealish apparently tried to get a player booked.
Warnock picks up the tale: ‘I went and waited for him in the tunnel. He took ages at the end of the game because he went to the other end of the pitch and took his shirt off.
‘I waited so long I almost had to sit down, but I got a word with him in the end. And I hope he took it in because there was no need to do what he did. Yep, we had a word.’
Warnock admits he waited 'ages' to confront Aston Villa's Jack Grealish in the tunnel recently
Warnock hopes the Villa player 'took it in' after the pair exchanged words
Warnock took charge of Cardiff in early October and the Bluebirds are currently in 22nd place
Warnock chuckles. On his table is his daily stack of newspapers and Jose Mourinho’s charge for kicking a water bottle brings a shake of the head and a memory.
‘Can’t believe that, me,’ he says. ‘The thing about Jose is he hasn’t been enjoying it and the frustration is coming out. But to get charged for kicking a bottle? Come on. The game would be in a sorry state without people like him who care.
‘But kicking bottles is one thing I won’t do and I’ll tell you why — I had a lesson at Macclesfield Town one day when I was manager at Burton Albion in the Eighties.
‘We were winning 1-0 and they equalised in the seventh minute of stoppage time. And the ref had played too much, I can tell you. I was livid. I came in and flames were coming out of my mouth.
‘I saw a plastic thing on the floor and kicked it as hard as I could. But under it was the old-style shoe horn, solid metal attached to the floor.
‘I thought I’d broken my toe, but I couldn’t let the lads know so I walked into the bathroom and bit my wrist until blood came out. I’ve never kicked anything since.
‘I will get another one-game ban before my time is up, those referees will see to that, but it won’t be for kicking some plastic bottle.’
The Cardiff manager sat down and spoke exclusively with Sportsmail's Riath Al-Samarrai
Conversations with Warnock have a delightful habit of going this way, opinions fused with stories from earlier times. ‘Football has changed,’ he says. ‘You adapt if you want to survive. At the root of it, motivating players, is the same.
‘I still remember getting the boys at Gainsborough when I started to wear their matching blue v-neck jumpers and their club tracksuits — make boys feel like they are in a team. That goes for today. But now you have lads on 20 grand a week who won’t blink at being fined. The authority of managers has been going for a while, especially at the top, which is partly why I never enjoyed the Premier League.
‘I remember at Palace having players telephoning the chairman. Come on.
‘So you have to find new ways to control things. That’s today’s challenge. What worked in the past won’t always work now.’
His mind goes back to Torquay in the early Nineties. ‘I was asked about this Rooney drinking stuff the other day,’ he says. ‘When I went to Torquay we were next to bottom and had not won in months. I told them to report in their suits to this nightclub at 7pm.
‘We got there and I said, “The only rule is you don’t leave before 1am. If you do it’s two weeks’ wages”. I spoke to each of the lads that night and learned about them all. We stayed up with a game to spare.
‘Telephones have ruined that now. Rooney wouldn’t have got a mention in the past. Now, my assistant Mick Jones looks after me. If a young lady has asked for a picture with me, I never think anything of it, but then you see Mick jump up and get in the shot! He’ll say, “You have me in as well, love”, because he knows how someone might try to make it look. Sad, really.’
Warnock has managed 15 clubs in his career admits he is most at home in the Championship
What happens next with Warnock remains to be seen. He inherited a freefalling squad but is convinced ‘two or three new signings’ next month would set the foundation for a surge and a promotion push next season. He says he will decide on his own future, together with Sharon, in the summer.
Retirement has never quite worked, despite the appeal of walking his two dogs in Cornwall, giving his opinions on talkSport and regular golf. ‘I’m a golf cheat,’ he says. ‘But it’s OK because my playing partners don’t mind. I’ll tee off on the fairway.’
The lure to keep going beyond this season is the same one that brought him back in October. ‘An eighth promotion would be a record,’ he says. ‘I’ve always said I’ve achieved everything I wanted in management — all I wanted was to be a good manager because I was only an average player.
‘But an eighth promotion would be a nice thing to go on top. Let’s see.’
They really would quite like him in those parts if he pulls it off.
Warnock admits his wife Sharon, who is currently being treated for breast cancer, was keen and happy for him to return to management when Cardiff offered him the job
Warnock, who turned 68 on December 1, is currently the oldest manager in English football
Warnock has managed 15 clubs in his career admits he is most at home in the Championship
Neil Warnock came out of retirement for the seventh time to take charge of strugglers Cardiff
Daily Mail
Thursday 8th December 2016
It is early October and Neil Warnock is chatting on the phone to his wife Sharon. She is stunned by something she saw on the internet.
Her husband, who has just accepted the manager’s job at Cardiff City, listens as she explains.
‘Darling, you’ll never believe what I’ve been reading,’ she says. ‘I’ve been on the Cardiff forums and all the fan websites.’
The Bluebirds boss was wanted by fans - as his wife noticed on plenty of Cardiff fan forums
‘What did you do that for?’ he asks. ‘You are sad looking at those blinking things, darling, come on now.’
‘No, you don’t understand,’ she says. ‘I’ve been reading them and everybody likes you at Cardiff. I can’t believe it, they like you. All these fans say they actually like you.’
The Bluebird telling the tale two months on has laughed himself red. Warnock is talking about why it felt right to abort his latest trip into retirement to manage a relegation contender 200 miles from the family home in Cornwall, where Sharon is being treated for breast cancer.
‘I’ll never forget my wife on the phone telling me, in this right shocked voice, “Can’t believe it, they like you”,’ he says.
‘It was so funny. There are a good few people out there who have far ruder things to say about me. Usually it’s blue murder when I turn up. But from the start, I felt like I had a fit with this club. When I first spoke to Mehmet (Dalman, the chairman), he said, “I don’t want to interview you, I want to offer you the job”. Something nice about being wanted, isn’t there?
‘But it was the timing too. It was right for both my wife and me. She said to me, “I want you to have another year while my hair grows back and I have my treatments”. In other words she didn’t want me under her feet.
‘With all that, you would come back into it all, wouldn’t you?’
And so it came to pass that Warnock’s seventh attempt to retire from football went the same way as the other six.
Warnock admits his wife Sharon, who is currently being treated for breast cancer, was keen and happy for him to return to management when Cardiff offered him the job
Warnock's new club battled for a 0-0 draw against Brighton in the Championship on Saturday
Instead, at 68, this marmite Yorkshireman is still going, the oldest manager in English football and one who has spanned 36 years and 1,346 games on the sidelines, acquiring 540 wins and a record-equalling seven promotions from four different divisions.
By his admission he ‘never enjoyed the Premier League’. By common view he has long been among the very best working outside it, a specialist in a Championship with its own quirks. ‘This league is where I’m at home, my muck and nettles,’ he says.
But the football has only ever been part of his story. Take his Wikipedia page, for instance. Under the ‘Disputes’ section is a 29-strong list of folk with whom he has rowed, from the ‘sewer rat’ El Hadji Diouf to referees, managers, chairmen, directors and the actor Sean Bean. The section runs to more than 2,000 words.
‘If I have something to say, I tend to say it and pay the fine later,’ he adds. ‘Fair to say that’s always been my way.’
Warnock has enjoyed success and guided Sheffield United to the Premier League in 2006
Sportsmail has been invited into his office to go over the wars and the wins from almost four decades of management, and the visit happens to fall on his 68th birthday. Mellowed with age? Not exactly. At the end of last month Cardiff lost at Aston Villa and Jack Grealish apparently tried to get a player booked.
Warnock picks up the tale: ‘I went and waited for him in the tunnel. He took ages at the end of the game because he went to the other end of the pitch and took his shirt off.
‘I waited so long I almost had to sit down, but I got a word with him in the end. And I hope he took it in because there was no need to do what he did. Yep, we had a word.’
Warnock admits he waited 'ages' to confront Aston Villa's Jack Grealish in the tunnel recently
Warnock hopes the Villa player 'took it in' after the pair exchanged words
Warnock took charge of Cardiff in early October and the Bluebirds are currently in 22nd place
Warnock chuckles. On his table is his daily stack of newspapers and Jose Mourinho’s charge for kicking a water bottle brings a shake of the head and a memory.
‘Can’t believe that, me,’ he says. ‘The thing about Jose is he hasn’t been enjoying it and the frustration is coming out. But to get charged for kicking a bottle? Come on. The game would be in a sorry state without people like him who care.
‘But kicking bottles is one thing I won’t do and I’ll tell you why — I had a lesson at Macclesfield Town one day when I was manager at Burton Albion in the Eighties.
‘We were winning 1-0 and they equalised in the seventh minute of stoppage time. And the ref had played too much, I can tell you. I was livid. I came in and flames were coming out of my mouth.
‘I saw a plastic thing on the floor and kicked it as hard as I could. But under it was the old-style shoe horn, solid metal attached to the floor.
‘I thought I’d broken my toe, but I couldn’t let the lads know so I walked into the bathroom and bit my wrist until blood came out. I’ve never kicked anything since.
‘I will get another one-game ban before my time is up, those referees will see to that, but it won’t be for kicking some plastic bottle.’
The Cardiff manager sat down and spoke exclusively with Sportsmail's Riath Al-Samarrai
Conversations with Warnock have a delightful habit of going this way, opinions fused with stories from earlier times. ‘Football has changed,’ he says. ‘You adapt if you want to survive. At the root of it, motivating players, is the same.
‘I still remember getting the boys at Gainsborough when I started to wear their matching blue v-neck jumpers and their club tracksuits — make boys feel like they are in a team. That goes for today. But now you have lads on 20 grand a week who won’t blink at being fined. The authority of managers has been going for a while, especially at the top, which is partly why I never enjoyed the Premier League.
‘I remember at Palace having players telephoning the chairman. Come on.
‘So you have to find new ways to control things. That’s today’s challenge. What worked in the past won’t always work now.’
His mind goes back to Torquay in the early Nineties. ‘I was asked about this Rooney drinking stuff the other day,’ he says. ‘When I went to Torquay we were next to bottom and had not won in months. I told them to report in their suits to this nightclub at 7pm.
‘We got there and I said, “The only rule is you don’t leave before 1am. If you do it’s two weeks’ wages”. I spoke to each of the lads that night and learned about them all. We stayed up with a game to spare.
‘Telephones have ruined that now. Rooney wouldn’t have got a mention in the past. Now, my assistant Mick Jones looks after me. If a young lady has asked for a picture with me, I never think anything of it, but then you see Mick jump up and get in the shot! He’ll say, “You have me in as well, love”, because he knows how someone might try to make it look. Sad, really.’
Warnock has managed 15 clubs in his career admits he is most at home in the Championship
What happens next with Warnock remains to be seen. He inherited a freefalling squad but is convinced ‘two or three new signings’ next month would set the foundation for a surge and a promotion push next season. He says he will decide on his own future, together with Sharon, in the summer.
Retirement has never quite worked, despite the appeal of walking his two dogs in Cornwall, giving his opinions on talkSport and regular golf. ‘I’m a golf cheat,’ he says. ‘But it’s OK because my playing partners don’t mind. I’ll tee off on the fairway.’
The lure to keep going beyond this season is the same one that brought him back in October. ‘An eighth promotion would be a record,’ he says. ‘I’ve always said I’ve achieved everything I wanted in management — all I wanted was to be a good manager because I was only an average player.
‘But an eighth promotion would be a nice thing to go on top. Let’s see.’
They really would quite like him in those parts if he pulls it off.
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Re: NEIL WAROCK: " HIS LIFE AWAY FROM FOOTBALL "
Thu Dec 08, 2016 7:53 am
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... paign=1490 
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Re: NEIL WAROCK: " HIS LIFE AWAY FROM FOOTBALL "
Thu Dec 08, 2016 9:35 am
From Facebook
Neil Disson
Football is insignificant in these circumstances. My best wishes to him and his family
Neil Disson
Football is insignificant in these circumstances. My best wishes to him and his family
Re: NEIL WAROCK: " HIS LIFE AWAY FROM FOOTBALL "
Thu Dec 08, 2016 11:44 am
What Neil Warnock's wife told football's Mr Marmite
Wednesday 8th December 2016
By Phil Smith
Wife Sharon's surprise at Bluebirds supporters love of the Yorkshireman after she told him to take job while her hair grows back after breast cancer.
Neil Warnock has revealed how his wife’s ‘sad’ scouring of the Cardiff City messageboards hammered home he was doing the right thing taking on the Championship basement boys back in October.
The 68-year-old Marmite Yorkshireman had already agreed to take over the Bluebirds from Paul Trollope when wife Sharon called and expressed her amazement by something she saw on the internet.
He told the Daily Mail: "She said 'darling, you’ll never believe what I’ve been reading'.
"'I’ve been on the Cardiff forums and all the fan websites.
"'What did you do that for I asked? You are sad looking at those blinking things, darling, come on now.
"'No, you don’t understand', she said.
"'I’ve been reading them and everybody likes you at Cardiff. I can’t believe it, they like you. All these fans say they actually like you'."
It was just the reaffirmation Warnock needed to again come out of retirement in his stunning Cornwall home and move to South Wales while his wife is being treated for breast cancer.
"It was so funny. There are a good few people out there who have far ruder things to say about me," Warnock added.
"Usually it’s blue murder when I turn up. But from the start, I felt like I had a fit with this club.
Neil Warnock at his first press conference with Cardiff City chairman Mehmet Dalman.
"When I first spoke to Mehmet (Dalman, the chairman), he said, 'I don’t want to interview you, I want to offer you the job'.
"Something nice about being wanted, isn’t there?
"But it was the timing too. It was right for both my wife and me. She said to me, 'I want you to have another year while my hair grows back and I have my treatments'.
"In other words she didn’t want me under her feet.
"With all that, you would come back into it all, wouldn’t you?"
It was the seventh time Warnock has come out of retirement and it seems 36 years and 1,346 games on the sidelines hasn't blunted his fiery temper and all-embracing passion for the game.
And any suggestions Warnock has mellowed in the game were well and truly dispelled in their 3-1 Championship defeat at Aston Villa at the end of last month when he lost it with home midfielder Jack Grealish for apparently trying to get one of his players booked.
"I went and waited for him in the tunnel," said Warnock.
Aston Villa's Jack Grealish in action against Cardiff City at Villa Park last month
"He took ages at the end of the game because he went to the other end of the pitch and took his shirt off.
"I waited so long I almost had to sit down, but I got a word with him in the end. And I hope he took it in because there was no need to do what he did. Yep, we had a word."
It's that passion that might just see Warnock extend his stay in South Wales into a second season as he looks to bag a record eighth promotion.
"An eighth promotion would be a record," he added.
"I’ve always said I’ve achieved everything I wanted in management — all I wanted was to be a good manager because I was only an average player.
"But an eighth promotion would be a nice thing to go on top. Let’s see."
One thing's for sure if a golden ticket to the Premier League was achieved, there would be no need for wife Sharon to look through the Cardiff City messageboards a second time to check if the blossoming romance between the fans and Warnock had hit a rocky patch.
Video thumbnail, Phil Smith reacts to Cardiff's goalless draw with Brighton
Wednesday 8th December 2016
By Phil Smith
Wife Sharon's surprise at Bluebirds supporters love of the Yorkshireman after she told him to take job while her hair grows back after breast cancer.
Neil Warnock has revealed how his wife’s ‘sad’ scouring of the Cardiff City messageboards hammered home he was doing the right thing taking on the Championship basement boys back in October.
The 68-year-old Marmite Yorkshireman had already agreed to take over the Bluebirds from Paul Trollope when wife Sharon called and expressed her amazement by something she saw on the internet.
He told the Daily Mail: "She said 'darling, you’ll never believe what I’ve been reading'.
"'I’ve been on the Cardiff forums and all the fan websites.
"'What did you do that for I asked? You are sad looking at those blinking things, darling, come on now.
"'No, you don’t understand', she said.
"'I’ve been reading them and everybody likes you at Cardiff. I can’t believe it, they like you. All these fans say they actually like you'."
It was just the reaffirmation Warnock needed to again come out of retirement in his stunning Cornwall home and move to South Wales while his wife is being treated for breast cancer.
"It was so funny. There are a good few people out there who have far ruder things to say about me," Warnock added.
"Usually it’s blue murder when I turn up. But from the start, I felt like I had a fit with this club.
Neil Warnock at his first press conference with Cardiff City chairman Mehmet Dalman.
"When I first spoke to Mehmet (Dalman, the chairman), he said, 'I don’t want to interview you, I want to offer you the job'.
"Something nice about being wanted, isn’t there?
"But it was the timing too. It was right for both my wife and me. She said to me, 'I want you to have another year while my hair grows back and I have my treatments'.
"In other words she didn’t want me under her feet.
"With all that, you would come back into it all, wouldn’t you?"
It was the seventh time Warnock has come out of retirement and it seems 36 years and 1,346 games on the sidelines hasn't blunted his fiery temper and all-embracing passion for the game.
And any suggestions Warnock has mellowed in the game were well and truly dispelled in their 3-1 Championship defeat at Aston Villa at the end of last month when he lost it with home midfielder Jack Grealish for apparently trying to get one of his players booked.
"I went and waited for him in the tunnel," said Warnock.
Aston Villa's Jack Grealish in action against Cardiff City at Villa Park last month
"He took ages at the end of the game because he went to the other end of the pitch and took his shirt off.
"I waited so long I almost had to sit down, but I got a word with him in the end. And I hope he took it in because there was no need to do what he did. Yep, we had a word."
It's that passion that might just see Warnock extend his stay in South Wales into a second season as he looks to bag a record eighth promotion.
"An eighth promotion would be a record," he added.
"I’ve always said I’ve achieved everything I wanted in management — all I wanted was to be a good manager because I was only an average player.
"But an eighth promotion would be a nice thing to go on top. Let’s see."
One thing's for sure if a golden ticket to the Premier League was achieved, there would be no need for wife Sharon to look through the Cardiff City messageboards a second time to check if the blossoming romance between the fans and Warnock had hit a rocky patch.
Video thumbnail, Phil Smith reacts to Cardiff's goalless draw with Brighton
Re: NEIL WAROCK: " HIS LIFE AWAY FROM FOOTBALL "
Thu Dec 08, 2016 1:49 pm
Great read, thanks for that. Good luck to Mrs W!
Re: NEIL WAROCK: " HIS LIFE AWAY FROM FOOTBALL "
Sat Dec 10, 2016 8:27 am
Warnock is not perfect. He is not the greatest manager in the world.. but how refreshing to have a 'character' and such a lovely and honest man at the helm.
Our club needed a real football man and that is what we got.
He will make mistakes and sometimes the football will not be the greatest... but he is helping our club restructure and put football back into the centre of all of the decision making.
If he keeps us up, makes up competitive again, brings some flair and excitement onto the pitch and starts giving some of the youngsters a chance this will be my favorite season since before Malky took over (who set us back light-years on the pitch as far as I'm concerned and subsequent managers even further).
Our club needed a real football man and that is what we got.
He will make mistakes and sometimes the football will not be the greatest... but he is helping our club restructure and put football back into the centre of all of the decision making.
If he keeps us up, makes up competitive again, brings some flair and excitement onto the pitch and starts giving some of the youngsters a chance this will be my favorite season since before Malky took over (who set us back light-years on the pitch as far as I'm concerned and subsequent managers even further).