Sat Oct 03, 2020 1:03 pm
Sol Bamba on Neil Warnock ahead of the manager's 1,500th game
Neil Warnock will take charge of his 1,500th game today when Middlesbrough welcome Barnsley.
Saturday 3rd October 2020
Here is what Cardiff City hero Sol Bamba said of him to GazzetteLive.
Sol Bamba remembers the first time Neil Warnock told him he wanted to sign him.
It was in the middle of a game and Bamba was playing for the opposition!
"I was playing for Leicester at the time," Bamba recalls in a conversation with Teesside Live.
"He was the manager at QPR. I was playing the game and I went for a tackle near the touchline. He grabbed me and said 'you get away with murder, you should come and play for me!'
"He said 'you'd be a better player and be in the Premier League by now'. I was like, 'what'? That was during the game!
"Even Sven (Göran Eriksson, Leicester's manager at the time) had a go at him After the game he came to see me, he said 'you have to come and play for me, son. You're a good player but you get away with murder, you dribble at the back, and take the risks; if you work with me you won't do that, I'll make you a top player'."
Warnock had to bide his time but five years later he got his man. At that stage, he was in charge of Cardiff, although when he contacted Bamba and told him he wanted to sign him he didn't actually have a job.
"Before he moved to Cardiff I was leaving Leeds," says Bamba, taking up the story.
"He called me and said 'just wait, don't go anywhere'. He said he will get a club and will take me with him. I was panicking because I didn't have a club, I had a family to look after, but he said, 'honestly son, just trust me, wait'. I did wait, I could have signed for Derby or gone back to France, but as soon as he moved to Cardiff he took me and I haven't looked back."
Bamba played a key role as Warnock transformed the Bluebirds from Championship strugglers to promotion winner.
Up in the top flight, Warnock once famously said Bamba was a better defender than Virgil van Dijk just after the Dutchman's £75m switch to Liverpool.
"I get asked about this a lot," laughs Bamba.
"That is the gaffer all over. He makes you feel a million dollars. He gives you so much confidence. That was an example.
"We were doing well, I was doing well personally, and he just kept giving me more confidence.
"To compare with me with Van Dijk is just crazy, I went to him after and said 'gaffer, what are you doing?' He said, 'now you need to perform even better or I'll look a fool!'.
"For me, Neil is the best manager I've played for. Him and Sven.
"It's Neil's man management. He knows how you feel, when you need a rest, when you can play, when he can shout at you, when he needs to put an arm around you. I always say to him funnily enough, 'gaffer, how do you do that? How do you know that I'm in a bad mood, if I'm happy or whatever?'.
"He said he can just feel it. It's a big strength, he knows it. I don't know if you can teach that or learn it, I just think you either have it or you don't.
Neil Warnock celebrates promotion
"1,500 games. Incredible. That won't happen anymore. To be able to stay that long in the game and to be so successful, it's testament to him. And to have that drive. He's made his money, he's comfortable, but he's still got that drive. You should see him when he loses a game!
"I still regularly speak to him. He calls me when he needs information about players he wants to sign.
"We've just got a great relationship and I'll be in touch with him for a long time. It's not just football, we talk about family, my kids, I will never forget him and how good he's been for me."