This is a great piece from todays Telegraph....enjoy! QPR manager Neil Warnock: Donât mention Carlos Tevez On Sunday Neil Warnock will come face to face with Sir Alex Ferguson in a Premier League dugout for the first time since he was struck off the Scotsmanâs Christmas card list because of his criticisms of Manchester United during the Carlos Tévez affair four years ago. By Jason Burt, Deputy Football Correspondent 10:00PM GMT 16 Dec 2011 Itâs been a few years since I had one,â he admits. âBut when I see Cathy [Fergusonâs wife] I have a nice chat with her. I was struck off his Christmas card list, OK. But it doesnât take away my admiration for him.â That admiration for Ferguson is stronger than ever. âThere will never be a manager as good as him ever again, make no mistake,â he says. And maybe, just maybe, the Premier League will never see a manager like Neil Warnock again, either. âWhen I get down people tell me, âGaffer, you are one of only four English managers in the Premier Leagueâ,â he explains, a mix of pride, humour and resilience in his distinctive voice. âAnd itâs hard to think, hereâs a ------ chiropodist [his chosen profession after his player career finished and before he went into management] from Sheffield, a steelworkerâs son managing in the Premier League.â The Premier League matters to Warnock. It matters a lot. Twice during this interview he admits to having had tears in his eyes during the events of last season and the summer â when Queens Park Rangersâ promotion was threatened over the inquiry into midfielder Alejandro Faurlinâs transfer (a bitter irony through rules introduced post-Tévez) and then whether the clubâs previous owners were going to sack him despite having gained that promotion. âIt was like, âeveryoneâs ganging up on meâ,â he says. âI spent the whole summer with my hands tied behind my back thinking, âWhy me?â Not only that, I was thinking, âWhy me â twice!â There were a few times when I felt like crying, to be honest.â It is evident that he remains deeply affected by his last Premier League campaign, when he took Sheffield United into the top flight only for that dream to die on the final day of the 2006-07 season. âWe only went down by one goal [difference] and we had the Tévez thing,â he recalls of that traumatic May day as if it scarred his soul. The âTévez thingâ resulted in a huge fine â but no points deduction for West Ham, who stayed up â over the issue of third-party ownership, while Warnock incurred Fergusonâs wrath after criticising United for fielding a weakened team on that final day when they lost at home to West Ham. Who else but Tévez scored the only goal. âNo, I will never get over it,â Warnock says. âBut I did laugh when I saw Kia [Joorabchian, Tévezâs adviser] a while ago and I suggested he got Tévez to play for us next year as a favour to me â because he cost me millions. "I like West Ham, Iâve no problem with West Ham. I just felt let down by the Premier League.â That is the Premier League organisation â not the league he manages in. He loves that, craves that and is now still working, aged 63 and having promised his family he would retire by now, because he has unfinished business there. âI wanted one more go,â he says. âI was going to retire at Sheffield United but one or two things were said when I left and because of that I was going to get another team. I was going to show them.â That sense of grievance, too, has always driven him. âI think I was always meant to be the black sheep of football. And I donât mind that. "I used to love the non-League clubs in the FA Cup and when I played football [11 years as a self-styled âbrainless wingerâ with the likes of Chesterfield, Rotherham and Hartlepool]. "I didnât play for the big clubs. I like the underdog and I guess Iâve been that throughout my career. âI had to do everything from the bottom upwards and I donât regret it because it made me a better manager. Martin OâNeill did the same.â That unfinished business took him first to Crystal Palace but the clubâs financial plight meant the Premier League dream started to fade. Then QPR â after nine managers in four years â came calling. âI took it for one reason only,â he says. âAmit Bhatia.â Bhatia is the clubâs vice-chairman, and son-in-law of steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, who, after an acrimonious split with former owners Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone, returned to take over with the Malaysian entrepreneur Tony Fernandes. âThey are both like little kids,â Warnock says. âThey both want to be supporters â they want to be the manager, they want to be a player. "The enthusiasm rubs off on you and I have to calm them down and there are not a lot of managers who can say that about their owners. QPR are so lucky to have this ownership.â Cash has been injected â a flurry of players arrived at the end of August and at least two more permanent deals and two loans are planned for next month â to give Warnock a fighting chance of remaining in the top flight. And a fighting chance is all he is asking for. Warnock gained promotion last season but, he says, did not enjoy it because of the ownership uncertainty. âI was getting a bit irate,â he admits. âGetting QPR promoted was the best job I have done my whole life. It was a remarkable achievement and yet I didnât win manager of the year. Iâm the only one thatâs happened to. âWe had billionaire owners but we didnât spend. And then I couldnât do anything and it was by far the worst summer I have ever had. I was watching Swansea and Norwich sign players left, right and centre and people kept saying ânoâ to me.â Nevertheless the troubles â now thankfully over â bonded him with the QPR supporters who, he knew, were sceptical at his appointment in the first place. âMaybe they thought, âheâs loudâ or angry or whatever they had heard or read about me â but since I took over they have been absolutely fantastic,â Warnock says. âItâs almost as if our fans know how far and how fast we have come. "The highlight of probably my whole career now, apart from winning things, was when I was stood on the touchline at Fulham and we were losing 6-0 [in October] and thereâs god knows how many minutes left and our fans start chanting âthereâs only one Neil Warnockâ.â There were tears, again, Warnock admits. âI just filled up about it, to be honest,â he says. âI will never forget that for the rest of my life. Thatâs how I feel about QPR and the fans and why I am there and thatâs why we are all going to enjoy every game.â
Neil Warnock: I can't wait for United but Dyer injury shows life can be cruel The local derby against Chelsea was a great occasion; it was a terrific night when Manchester City, the league leaders, came to Loftus Road; but tomorrow lunchtime the Sky cameras return for what is probably the biggest game of all when the champions visit us. There is something about Manchester United that gets the pulse beating faster. It's the glamour and everything to do with the club. I'm really looking forward to the match, not least because I've rarely come face to face with United. I've managed more than 1,300 games but only four have been against Manchester United. I played them twice with Notts County, and twice with Sheffield United. It's not many weeks since all the media were writing Man United off – don't they realise that's what spurs Sir Alex on? Yet if they beat us tomorrow they go back on top of the league, even if only for a few hours. Alex must rub his hands every time the media start on his team. He won't be alone. Just look what's happened to Wenger since the press picked on him. And now I think about it, Chelsea have picked up since AVB got some stick. So by my reckoning, if Mancini gets some stick now, they'll run away with the league – though I suppose Tottenham could catch them "now that their bubble has burst". Enough of my riddles. I know every QPR fan tomorrow will be so looking forward to this game more than any other, many still can't believe we are eating off the top table. A whole new generation of young Hoops fans will be coming to the game, talking about seeing Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand, Patrice Evra and Ryan Giggs. It's not a bad team considering all the injuries United have. That's the thing about the top teams. They have such depth, and also a few more young lads they can bring in to put on the bench who are not in the 25-man squad list. That doesn't half help. One player who won't be playing against us is Darren Fletcher. It really is an energy-sapping illness he has picked up. The medical advice has forced him to stop playing as he tries to fight back and relaunch his career. How frustrating that must be for a top player who has so much to offer. We have our own injury problems, with the latest blow befalling poor Kieron Dyer. In a reserve game he had a recurrence of the ankle injury he suffered on the season's opening day. All the hard work he has put in to get back to fitness over the last few months has been to no avail and he has to go in on Monday for an operation. Life does seem cruel at times and both players will be asking 'why me?', but they are both fighters and I wouldn't write either off. Kieron, although he won't play again this season, will be staying with us because he's excellent around the club, and we still think he can have an impact when he does get fit. 2. Stop press. Xmas party passed without incident My heart skipped a bit on Sunday morning when the phone rang and it was Paul, the press officer. The lads had stayed up in Liverpool following Luis Suarez's latest demonstration of how good he is, to have their Christmas party. So before Paul could speak I said, "Don't tell me, the players' party last night." I was so relieved when he said, "No gaffer, nothing to do with that." Thank goodness. I think they all had a good time, and it went off without incident, but the way things are these days we had taken the precaution of hiring four security men to be with them all night. You just have to do that now. 3. I am sticking up for referees – it's official It was an intriguing match on Monday between Chelsea and Manchester City, but I have to take issue with pundits who criticised the referee Mark Clattenburg for not awarding a penalty for the "foul" on David Silva, which would have made it 2-0 to City. I thought Mark had a cracking game and that includes the penalty. I watched the incident four times and I couldn't tell 100 per cent if it was a penalty, and I don't see how a ref can give it unless he is 100 per cent sure. I have every sympathy for him. It reminded me when I was younger, with Burton Albion in non-League. Mossley were the top dogs and I went to see them play a Lancashire derby against Runcorn. There were tackles left, right and centre, and the young ref was handling it with common sense and not dishing cards out. As I was watching I realised a man near me was an ex-referee. I said hello and he told me he was assessing the referee. I said to him, "In such a physical local derby, and being so young, isn't he doing well?" The assessor said, "He's not running his diagonals properly, and his communication with the linesman's not good enough." It just made me think back to my dad reffing. He didn't have to worry about an assessor. He could just man-manage the game and always got the respect of the players. This young referee was in total charge of one of the most difficult games in non-League and he had earned the respect of the players. Yet I knew he would get a bad mark as he didn't adhere to the assessor's checklist. What makes me feel Mark Clattenburg will also be wrongly judged for last Monday? 4. Sharon doesn't have a Monopoly on all the fun Sharon said to me last Sunday, "You never play anything with the kids", so I played Monopoly with William. Can you believe the modern game isn't £200 for passing Go? It's £2m and it goes on a credit card. It turns out we have the Simpsons edition. So instead of Mayfair and Park Lane it is the Springfield Glen Country Club and Burns Manor. I'm sure the fact I couldn't get my head round what was what is why he wiped the floor with me. That and the fact that for the first time in my life I was determined not to cheat. There were so many opportunities as well, as it went on for hours. I was feeling quite proud of myself playing fairly, until I remembered I did cheat on a remortgaged property near the end, just before I threw the towel in. On Thursday, on my day off, I went to my chairman's Formula One factory in Norfolk where his team, now called Caterham, is based. It was absolutely amazing to see how they develop everything. I had to rush back to pick William up from school as they had finished for Christmas. He was playing nicely with his mates so I asked if they wanted to bring a couple back for a sleepover, then go training with us on Friday. That might sound a mistake, especially as Sharon was away with Amy, but we had a great night. They played rugby in the lounge, having moved all the breakable things we could see, then a feast, a Chinese takeaway. Just like the good mum I am I did all the washing up afterwards while the lads played on the Xbox. 5. My shock at winning Sports Personality I had some good news this week when BBC Radio London presented me with a lovely trophy for being BBC London Sports Personality of the Year 2011. I would like to thank all my family for voting well into the night for all those days. Only joking, thanks to everyone involved in the selection. 6. I'm not in my element discussing Higgs boson Is it me, or am I just thick? I listened to every news bulletin to see if I could grasp exactly what the Higgs boson is, and I still haven't got a clue. They obviously don't do news bulletins for people with average intelligence. Talking about TV, so what if the polar bear babies in Frozen Planet were in a zoo? Or in somebody's bath? It doesn't bother me, it's still a fantastic programme, and if they have to do something like that to get pictures they are unable to film in the Arctic, I am not bothered. The series was amazing, we should concentrate on all the good things about it. It is the only programme we've all watched as a family and you could hear a pin drop. I bet it would have been fantastic in 3D. I have to finish on my favourite programme of the minute on Sky1 on Wednesday nights called The Café. There's nothing to it, and that's what I love. It just gets you feeling good through watching it, and how many things can you say that about? iReader
