Telegraph/Oliver Brown Farewell to Neil Warnock - an eccentric entertainer who will be sorely missed So farewell Neil Warnock, the unlikely renaissance man. He was, to invoke David Brent briefly, âa friend first, a boss second probably an entertainer thirdâ. This bluff son of Sheffield had forgotten more about the vagaries of football management than Tony Fernandes, counting his Airbuses from an office in Kuala Lumpur, could ever hope to know. What follows, then, as he cedes command at Queens Park Rangers, is no mere eulogy from his one-man appreciation society. It is a lament. Are we no longer to hear his priceless witterings about female intuition, myopic referees, or the time he once felt aroused by Kelly Holmes? Must we be deprived of his infamous (and highly creative) touchline diatribes? It would, after all, be difficult to surpass the moment in 2003 when he told Liverpool's Phil Thompson: â---- off Pinocchio. Get back in your ------- cupboard.â Visits to QPRâs Harlington training ground, a ramshackle compound under the Heathrow flight path, will never be the same - especially when his successor, Mark Hughes, tends to project all the personality of a chair. To many, Warnock is an irritant, a squat and sniping figure who couches often outrageous accusations in his eeh-bah-gum south Yorkshire patter. But amid all the sanitised, evasive Premier League manager-speak, his candid monologues could be electrifying. His verdict on the loathsome El-Hadji Diouf - âI was going to call him a sewer rat, but that might be insulting to sewer ratsâ - merely expressed a sentiment his contemporaries had been too timid to utter. One wishes Warnock, who, at 63, is just two years off pensionable age, a happy period of reflection after his firing by Fernandes. He ought, perhaps, to spend a few weeks in his beloved Cornwall, where he once took QPR for pre-season friendlies against Truro City and Bodmin Town. Equally, he could whisk wife Sharon away on some exotic mini-breaks. For here is a man who knows how to show a girl a good time. Last year he walked her through the souks of Marrakech, writing: âWe saw all the snake-charmers with their cobras. I was a bit disappointed no one offered to swap Sharon for a camel, but she wasnât. I think it was her dark hair. Iâm told blondes are more popular.â It sounded like classic casual misogyny from the unreconstructed northern male. But Warnockâs personality has always been more nuanced. He acknowledges great deference to the wisdom of Sharon, with whom he has four school-age children, recognising that her calmness serves as the perfect counterpoint to his own lunacy. How many other top-flight managers do you know who would take prospective signings back to their homes, to be judged by their wives? âI like my missus to see them,â he explained. âIf I donât get the player I say, âThat was down to you, loveâ. Women have got more idea about people.â Well, quite. He tried this unusual audition technique out on Danny Graham, with great success, at least until the striker spurned QPRâs advances for those of Swansea City. Warnockâs methods were eccentric, but they remained the product of constant refinement. Here, indeed, was a man who had earned his chance, whose apprenticeship had in some respects never ended. Up through the managerial food chain he had toiled, from the Sunday leagues to Loftus Road via Burton, Scarborough, Torquay, Huddersfield, Plymouth, Oldham, Bury, Sheffield United and Crystal Palace, scattering his brand of maverick inspiration wherever he happened to cast anchor. Such a nomadic existence was no choice for a man in his seventh decade, though, and Warnock made no secret of his relief at laying down roots in London. He looked upon his five years in the metropolis, first at Palace and latterly at QPR, as his reward for a half a lifetime of provincial graft. âI absolutely love London,â Warnock once said from the lounge of his rented Richmond home. It was, to be sure, a disarming admission from such a proud Yorkshireman. âI never thought Iâd say that. I used to think you needed a passport to go south of Watford.â For this settled lifestyle to be suddenly snatched away, by a Malaysian entrepreneur with more money than sense, seems a trifle cruel. Warnock had, in his 32 years in the technical area, engineered seven promotions. He knew how to excoriate his players - as witnessed in a notorious televised team-talk during his spell at Huddersfield - but equally, he grasped the art of praise. Few could watch his dressing-room address at QPR after last seasonâs promotion, when he singled out centre-back Clint Hill as a âheroâ, and fail to be moved. His exile from the game is only four days old, but already Warnockâs contribution is acutely missed Telegraph Good quotes here - I love the one about Phil Thompson!
God I am going to miss Warnock but don't worry lads we have Mark Hughes who tends to project all the personality of a chair and I think thats being kind!
The sh**s and giggles work in the lower leagues but in the premier league, whats needed is someone serious, professional, with a bit of class. Hopefully we've now found that man.
I completely agree. NW got us up against the odds and we're all grateful for that but change was needed. Time will tell us if TF has made the right move but as well as lamenting the loss of NW, this article smacks of a dig against our new owners - not sure that is justified.
We will have to wait and see or TF will be choking on his DECISION, you may have guessed I am not convinced yet.
Those negative vibes from Utrecht.......time will tell, though one thing is certain, we will miss the pure entertainment value of NW.
True SB they are a little negative but I have decided to keep to my beliefs and not go with the flow anymore, tbh I have always liked MH as a player and manager but I am simply not convinced TF has made the correct decision and I really hope he proves me wrong because if we go down I think we will be up to our necks in the brown stuff and that worries me.
If Hughes manages to keep us up, or even better (for you optimists out there), and brings in Alex, Samba, Onuoha, etc, I will always wonder - as these were also Neil's targets - what might have been. Was it the manager who kept us up, or the help of the new players? Sadly we will never know.
True, we'll never know. But from what I've seen of NW's tactical acumen in the Premier League I think I can make a good guess!!
EXACTLY. People who think I'm a WUM need to open their eyes and wake up. This description is spot on about Hughes. It's what I've been saying all along.
None of which Hughes has, as the man has no idea how to express his thoughts. He doesn't have a vocabulary, he never studied.
No we will never really know. And I reckon many of us will come to different conclusions at the end of this season too! I don't see this article as a dig at the new owners or MH (c'mmon, some old worn out chairs have lots of personality!), but a good description of the very likeable parts of Neil's personality. He is one of a decreasing number of real characters left in top English football. But who knows we may all come to enjoy MH's wry humour in time.
There was nothing wrong with NW's tactics. Has it ever occurred to you that the teams who beat us were just a tad bit quicker, taller, stronger and gelled a little bit better than us at the time? If we couldn't keep the ball (such as when SWP lost the ball), made a couple of bad passes that were cut out, couldn't get our head on a cross or missed a couple of gilt-edged chances, if we didn't get back as a team to defend - what do you expect? Those wouldn't be the manager's faults - it's on the player. You have to question the players' skills and commitment. And by tactics, how do you mean? What did he do wrong, specifically? What would you call his tactics? Explain your superior knowledge, please.
What did he do wrong? Playing SWP on the left or in the middle not making subs quick enough ie not responding to the Norwich triple sub despite Clint Hill Pleading with him to change the formation playing 6ft4 Bothroyd out wide pumping in balls to a 5ft6 DJ not even bothering to try and win at the big clubs as hes just happy to be there Playing 1 up front at L1 MK As an ex player said, "he doesnt do tactics" which is not good enough for the PL. Hows that for starters?
Well "not even bothering to try and win at the big clubs" is b*ll*x for a start! You forgotten Chelsea, and the performances against City and 2nd half Spurs? We were down to 10 men against Norwich and he was still going for 3 ponts rather than 1 or 0, which I think was right. Managers and Coaches shouldn't react every time a defender wants to change the line up! Nothing wrong with playing SWP down the left or in the middle sometimes either, though I agree he is best mainly used wide on the right. When I seen Bothroyd he's not been pumping balls anywhere ! -Apart from Spurs and City when he was good ,he has played the holding striker role, but forgot the striker bit!
I said at the big clubs. We havent been to the bridge yet. We went to every game hoping for a 0-0 and only started playing once we went behind. Contrast that with how we did against Man City and chelsea. Home games were fine against the big teams, the away games were awful. We didnt even try until we went behind. Do you think we would have had a better chance of getting something out of the game playing like we did in the 2nd half for the whole game or go there and not even bother having a shot on goal? SWP is useless anywhere except on the right. He turns into a pub player if hes not there and what makes it worse is that this was all done to accommodate mackie. Tactically Warnock nears Holloway for the worst manager tactics Ive ever seen.
Actually, our performance against 9-man Chelsea was pretty woeful even if we came away with the never-to-be-forgotten win. And that was a direct result of NW not adjusting the tactics to match the circumstances. Contrast that with Norwich's 2nd half performance against us when they spayed the ball all around the pitch to keep our 10 men running and made bold substitution choices. The one exception to all this was the City game when NW had clearly decided that attack was the best form of defense and the asked the players for once to keep the ball on the ground. One swallow does not make a summer however and for most of the season we have been relying on Warnock's ability to motivate players rather than his tactical set ups which have been bordering on the naive. If I see long hopeful punts up to a lone-striker on Saturday I will be very surprised.
I'd liked to have seen us giving it a better go at Liverpool and Arsenal, yeh, but playing like that with lots of players back and hoping for something on the break of from a deadball situation is what most managers of bottom half teams do at Liverpool, arsenal etc while it is still 0-0 anyway. That don't make Neil bad tactically, just normal and possibly wise. Probably MH will do the same, even though I like to see more too.
The management team said they didn't want us to play the 2nd half like that against chelsea. They were trying to get us to pass it around, hold posession, but the players couldn't manage it. They took Adel off because he kept giving the ball away trying to do too much.
