http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/jun/14/neil-warnock-small-talk There is more on the link than below.... Hi Neil, your book is called The Gaffer: The Trials and Tribulations of a Football Manager, and weighs in at 354 pages without any pictures. You don't half go on, eh? I know, bloody hell, I was surprised there wasn't any pictures. I thought they would put a few in but they didn't want to. It started off as something I was going to do at Palace, about me and looking behind the scenes of how managers cope with different problems, but when they went into administration, all of a sudden I found I had even more problems. I thought, well, I'll put it in writing and then I went from the frying pan into the fire at QPR, with all the things that were happening there. You should have stayed up north and well away from the Big Smoke. Ha! I always thought if you went below Watford it was the pits, the end of the world. But I went to Crystal Palace and QPR and absolutely loved London ⦠I never realised how beautiful and interesting it is. Cycling round Richmond Park ⦠it's amazing. I really don't regret a single thing now about leaving Sheffield United because I've had so many experiences since. HQ for the Warnock family is in Cornwall, which is a mite more peaceful than London. Oh, I love Cornwall, it's so special. We bought the house when I was with Plymouth Argyle and we've just kept that on and kept modernising things. It's a lovely part of the world, really ⦠you want your kids to grow up in Cornwall if they can. The number of professional people that retire there is ridiculous. I don't think you can put a price on coming out of the rat race and living in a place like that. Are you out of the rat race now? You didn't seem quite sure at the end of the book. Yeah, I think 24 hours a day I am. Last week I went to Scotland with the kids and the phone never went football-wise. When I woke up in the night I wasn't thinking about agents or different managers, or players I was signing or selling, or whether I was talking to directors about getting different players or pre-season friendlies. I was just thinking that we were going quad-biking the next day, or we were going fly-fishing or canoeing. It was great. But ⦠But I'm sure when the fixtures come out I'll start thinking of how we beat Tottenham in the Cup last year. Knowing you've beat a club with Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon and the satisfaction your fans have got. When that final whistle goes, it's hard to see how you'll replicate that. I still think there might be a role for me at a club between the manager and the directors or the new owners, as there's so many coming into the game now. There's got to be a role for an experienced football person helping the manager; not being a threat to the manager, but helping and sorting out a lot of the hassle he has, you know? Letting him concentrate on managing the football side. Ah now, you wouldn't be able to help yourself. Small Talk reckons you would stick your neb in and annoy him. A lot. [Laughs] No, I think I could take a back seat. A lot of clubs now are cutting back and thinking of the pennies and thinking that they don't need anybody else, but sometimes you've got to spend a bit more to win. I think there are so many clubs now where you've got people without any experience making big decisions â I worry for some of them. Back to the book, is it true you recorded the audio version yourself? Yes, I had to do! They sent me a copy of a chapter that they'd had done and it sounded to me like a young, Lancastrian actor telling my story. You can't re-tell my stories if you've got a Lancaster accent or you're under 25 or whatever. He sounded terrible and my wife Sharon said 'You've got to do it! It's the last one you're going to do, it's the only one you're going to do!'. So I spent three days doing it and I don't regret it. I was doing the audio book and, at least four times when I was doing it, I got goose-pimples from reading my own book! An actor couldn't have a feeling like that from a book. I could feel, when I was talking, how important it was to me and so I was really pleased that I managed to get through it all. You probably wish it hadn't been 354 pages long with no pictures. The publisher told me after I'd finished that I was only contracted to do about 250 pages! The Great Gatsby is only about 180 pages long, nowhere near as entertaining and that's flying off the shelves at the moment. You could have saved yourself a lot of trouble. I know. Still, at least it's out for Father's Day. I've been signing a lot saying 'Happy Father's Day'. There's a quote on the cover from Harry Redknapp saying "this book tells you what managing is really like". Can you categorically confirm that Harry has read all 354 pages? I spoke to him about a few of the chapters and I know he's read some, but I won't tell you which ones. Small Talk can guess which ones the QPR manager has read. Yeah, ha-ha! And I think we just appreciate each other because he's had a great career as well, hasn't he? This book, it goes behind the scenes. I was hoping it might give everyone a sense of what it's like, 24 hours a day, to manage a club, even at Championship level. It's a very time-consuming job. Large tracts of the book seem to consist of you arguing with yourself over whether or not Adel Taarabt is a complete pain in the arse and you don't ever actually seem to reach a conclusion. Would his existence have been such a source of internal conflict if he was no good at football? If Adel was no good at football I wouldn't have touched him with a barge-pole! But right from the start I made up my mind that I was going to have a go with this kid, which is unusual for me. Yes and you persevered and look where it got you: slung out on your ear. Adel's a lovely lad. You have to take him as you find him if you want to use him in your team and that's what we did in the end; we built a team around him. Will he ever come good? I think it's difficult for him in England. I think England was probably the wrong place for Adel. You get one or two bad results and people like Adel are always a target. I think they're an easy target because they have so much ability and if you don't get him in the right areas, he's not going to contribute much to the team. If he's not contributing to the team he is a bit of a passenger in that respect, so I think you have to be committed totally to having him in your team. At one point, things were going bad at QPR, you found yourself in Richmond Park talking to a deer. What did you discuss? Yes, I was riding around on my mountain bike and its head just popped up and frightened me to death. It was a massive stag. Our eyes just sort of met and I said "It's alright for you in here; you're not having to decide who you're going to drop on Saturday!" It was things like that. Did he have any advice for you? No, he just stood there. He never ran away or anything, it was so amazing. I can see the funny side of it now but I didn't say anything at the time because people would have thought I was round the bend. But it was just appropriate at the time, you know? Talking to a stag in the park about my team selection. It was one of those moments that you don't forget. You had to get your own credit card out a lot as a manager at financially struggling clubs to pay for things like coach travel and, in one instance, a player's surgical procedure. What does Mrs Warnock make of this largesse? I don't think she knew until she read the book. If I'm honest, it wasn't something that I'd sort of ⦠really, tell people. Especially Sharon. People might be surprised to read about that side of you. Yeah, look, it was important at the time, really, and I had to make quick decisions. You're a cricket buff, by what score will England win the Ashes series? I think probably one draw and three wins. I think the Aussies might win a Test. Will you be going to any of them? I'd like to think so, but it's difficult. Unless I get posh seats it's difficult going with Joe Public because I get pestered â they either don't like me or they love me! I'm like Marmite; love him or loathe him! It's difficult going to cricket matches. I went to The Oval with mates one night and it was okay until the rain came down. Everyone's drinking lagers except me, because I don't drink lager and all of a sudden there's 10 West Ham fans, there's 10 bloody Millwall fans, there's 10 Arsenal fans and you're in the middle of it. It does get a little bit nervewracking and hair-raising. Did you get any pleasure from seeing QPR relegated this season? None whatsoever. I've looked on with interest and I do wish that I'd been supported when I left, but I don't have any bitterness about that at all. They made a decision and I wouldn't want to be at a club where I'm not wanted. You settled a few scores in your book: the Palace administrator, Pascal Chimbonda, Gary Megson, Gary Johnson, Rob Styles and Graham Poll all got a little bit of flack. Was that fun? I think they've all spoken well of me in the past. I could've left them out but I didn't see any reason to. Most of the people you've mentioned have had a dig at me at some stage or another, but I keep my own council. I think there's a right place â they don't have to buy my book and they don't have to have anything to do with me. The people who buy my book will want to buy it and you can't have a book without some controversy. You have our number, Neil. Now, we know what the last book you wrote was, but what's the last book you read? Ian Holloway's autobiography. I do like reading autobiographies, if I'm honest. I've read a couple of Cloughie's books, and Kenny Dalglish and that kind. I don't really read much fiction.
And more from his Independent column .... http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...-same-since-the-john-terry-storm-8659820.html Anton Ferdinand has not been the same since the John Terry storm I was looking forward to playing Chelsea. I’d been told at the start of the season if we beat them QPR director Amit Bhatia’s father-in-law, Lakshmi Mittal, the steel billionaire, would give me a million pounds. That was quite an incentive. Our build-up was difficult. Training had not been very good. The players had heard Adel Taarabt was out the night before the games against Fulham and Blackburn and they had a meeting among themselves that had come to my attention. Adel said he wasn’t out. He doesn’t drink anyhow so even if he was it wasn’t the issue it would be with some. You have to give him the benefit of the doubt, but all week it had been festering. Then there was selection and tactics. We were a bit at sixes and sevens. Joey Barton and Dezza [Shaun Derry] wanted to play three in central midfield and one player wide. I felt we needed Adel or someone putting his foot on the ball or doing something to stretch Chelsea. Curly [coach Keith Curle] wanted wide players to stop their full-backs pushing on but I thought we’d then just end up in our own half and get beat anyhow. I decided to pick Adel and have a go at Chelsea. I’m the one responsible for results after all, but I had to convince the players it would work. I started with the full-backs. They like to stay out, but Chelsea’s wingers like to come in and Juan Mata and Daniel Sturridge would cause problems if we allowed them to do so untracked. So the full-backs had to come with them and the spare centre-half would cover the space. Then I brought in Joey (below) and the midfielders and we had a really good morning running through how we were going to play. I decided to bring Clint Hill back from Forest as I wasn’t convinced either Danny Gabbidon or Armand Traoré would be fit. Armand had an adductor strain and he’s the type that if he sneezed he felt he had flu or pneumonia. We started well, the plan with the full-backs worked, we won some great tackles and headers and Chelsea began to show signs of panic. That was underlined when David Luiz made a stupid challenge on Heidar Helguson. The ref gave a penalty and Heidar tucked it in. Then Adel put a great ball through for Shaun Wright-Phillips and José Bosingwa pulled him down and got sent off. They were just rejigging their line-up when Didier Drogba made an horrific lunge on Adel and got a straight red. They were down to nine and a goal behind. It seemed unreal. Watching it from the bench it seemed like Drogba’s dismissal was in slow motion. Then a minute before the break they pulled off Juan Mata and put on Nicolas Anelka, which I couldn’t understand. Not only was Mata the player I thought could rip us apart, doing it then meant we knew how they would play in the second half. I thought they would have given themselves a bit more time and decide what to do during half-time. At half-time I said to my lads: “We can’t sit back because of the quality of their passing, be positive.” But it was difficult. We let them have the ball and their players are so good technically they kept it, even with nine men. We were chasing shadows. I substituted Adel with Tommy Smith with about 25 minutes to go to give us fresh legs. Once again he stormed off down the tunnel. He never shook any hands, not mine anyway as I didn’t even look at him – I could see what he was going to do. There was a tense finish and I saw John Terry having a set-to with Paddy Kenny, and another with Anton Ferdinand, but it didn’t seem like there was anything out of the ordinary given it was a competitive derby match. We held on to gain a fabulous result. I went out on the pitch to savour the atmosphere, which was deafening, and immediately had Adel coming up to me for a moan. “Gaffer, why you substitute me, blah, blah, blah.” “Look around you,” I said, “this is not about Adel Taarabt, this is about Queen’s Park Rangers. Queen’s Park Rangers are more important than you. A lot of people would not even have picked you. You should be thanking me for picking you instead of having a go at me.” I think he’s a lovely lad, and he is unique, but he hasn’t got any idea sometimes as he only worries about himself. Most players do. Joey and Anton lingered on the pitch with me. I said to them: “Just take in the atmosphere, I’ve never heard anything like it.” I drank it in. A lot of our fans had never seen a victory against Chelsea – it had been 16 years – and they were revelling in it. When the three of us got to the tunnel all hell had broken loose. The tunnel was compacted with bodies; there was shouting and screaming. Chelsea weren’t very good losers to say the least and, as our players had to go past their dressing room to reach ours, there was plenty of opportunity for confrontation. I screamed at our lot: “Get in the dressing room.” They did. Mick Jones, my assistant manager, who had come down earlier, said the referee must have sensed what was going to happen, as he got off quickly, into his room, and shut the door behind him, leaving the players to sort it out themselves like in the old days. I thought it was a good move. The police were there too and one of the officers said to Mick: “Keep your lads in check and this won’t go any further.” These things normally last a minute or two and are then forgotten, and with neither the ref nor the police looking to pursue the matter, that is where it would have ended. But, of course, there was another aspect this time with the Terry–Ferdinand incident. That would take almost a year to play out. We weren’t aware of anything out of the ordinary when we left the ground and I drove home still feeling elated. I’d just got in the front door when I received a text telling me there were these scenes on YouTube of John Terry shouting “you black c...” or whatever, towards Anton. There was a link and even viewing it on my phone I thought it looked pretty obvious. Anton hadn’t seen it at the ground because I don’t let them have phones in the dressing room. So when John had pulled him after the game and asked, “There’s no problem?”, Anton agreed because he hadn’t seen it. But when he did see it he was furious. I spoke to him and told him not to say anything to the press. Then I spoke to [QPR owner] Tony [Fernandes], who said he would ring Anton and give him the club’s total backing. The previous week the Luis Suarez–Patrice Evra affair had erupted and I realised this had the potential to become a big issue – but I had no idea how big the ramifications would be long term. That night John Terry made a statement saying he was just repeating what Anton allegedly had said, and that was why he said it. That confirmed he had used the words. He should have just kept his mouth shut, as Anton never heard anything. The police were probably the first to appreciate how things might escalate, as the following day they called Mick Jones (why they chose him neither he nor anyone else knew) and told him Anton’s home had to be secured, and would he go along with them to the house to help them do that. Then they rang him and said they wanted Mick to be responsible for Anton’s safety getting into the ground at the next home match – they needed to know where to take him to minimise the risk of anyone attacking him. Mick’s my assistant manager, not a security expert, so he replied: “You must be joking, that’s your job.” We were off Monday, but matters continued to develop. Anton was still very angry, so the club made an official complaint to the FA. The Met Police also got involved more formally after someone made a complaint to them. On Tuesday the FA announced, in response to our complaint, they would investigate. We trained as normal, but FA people came to the ground in the afternoon to talk to Anton and myself, plus Shaun Derry and Clint Hill, who the cameras showed were nearby when the incident happened. But what could we say? None of us had heard anything. I wanted to carry on as normally as possible, so at lunchtime we had a couple of presentations. I gave extra Championship winners’ medals I’d had struck to reward some of the unsung staff, and we had birthday cake for Shaun Wright-Phillips, but we didn’t really enjoy that buzz you get at the training ground after a great result because it was overshadowed by the controversy. The FA came back on Friday and interviewed Anton again, for two hours. It wasn’t the best preparation to face Tottenham and it showed. Anton was poor and continued to be so. I don’t think he ever played well for me again. His mind was affected – understandably given he even had a type of bullet sent to him in the post – and I don’t think he has ever been the same player. His concentration levels were poor and he had that many meetings with solicitors, the police (who by Tuesday after the Spurs game said they were launching a formal investigation), the FA and PFA that he missed a lot of training and his sharpness dropped. It didn’t help the team’s preparation either because you need your centre-half, especially if working on defending set pieces. Shortly before Christmas the Crown Prosecution Service said they were charging Terry with racially abusing Anton. By the time Terry appeared in court to plead not guilty I had left QPR, but I followed events from afar. When, in September, the FA found him guilty of racially abusing Anton and banned him for four matches it finally seemed to indicate a line could be drawn under the events of 23 October, 2011. Actually, there is still one outstanding issue. I’m still waiting for that £1m bonus from Amit’s father-in-law for beating Chelsea. I’m sure it’s in the post.
and a bit more at it was too long ..... QPR couldn’t sign campbell – they didn’t have any money On trying to make signings as QPR prepared for their return to the Premier League, I was finally allowed to bring in a player who actually cost money, verbally agreeing a £1.25m fee with Blackpool for DJ Campbell. He’d not only scored goals for them in the top flight, he was a QPR fan as well. Crucially co-owner Flavio Briatore rated him and wanted to sign him too. I had DJ round the house, he agreed terms, he passed a medical, he even trained with us. It was a done deal, or so it seemed. Then, before a press conference, the media guy told me not to talk about DJ and when I asked what he meant, he said: “We can’t put it through yet, we haven’t got enough money.” We hadn’t sent the letter to Blackpool making a formal bid because we couldn’t pay if they accepted. It turned out there was no money in the pot until we got the first payment from the Premier League. ‘I’ll ram that bottle down your throat’ It is QPR’s promotion run-in. The players are due back in Saturday ahead of a televised Monday-night match against Derby County, but Adel Taarabt fails to turn up. I found out he’d been with his Moroccan friend from Arsenal, Chamakh. Then he rang up and claimed I’d said “come in Sunday”. He’d put weight on as he was not training and it was not good enough. I had a one-to-one with him on the Sunday and told him what I expected of him. When the game arrived, Adel’s lack of sharpness showed. Robbie Savage, who’s more than a decade older, man-marked him and Adel didn’t work hard enough to lose him. I had to pull him off after about 65–70 minutes. When he came off Coxy [Nigel Cox], like a stupid physio, gave him a bottle of water that he deliberately threw down in disgust. All the while the TV cameras were on him. I didn’t say anything at the time but later in the week, during a staff meeting, I said to Nigel: “If you ever give another bottle of water to Adel when he’s been substituted I will ram it down your throat.” I think he understood. We laughed about it later. Arsène has the final word At the Emirates the technical areas are a long way apart. When I went there with Sheffield United for my 1,000th game as a manager, I stood with Arsène Wenger (above) in the centre circle and turned towards them. I said: “Look at the dugouts, Arsène, they are miles apart, you’ll never hear me.” He pondered, looked down at me from his great height, smiled wryly and said: “You will find a way.”
not interested in a self publicising prick like COLIN.. So what...he did his job. Thanks. Never liked the bloke but eternally grateful for the way he took us up and made us look like complete amateurs in a mans league, assembled a team he knew could not cut it them has a dig at others when he hasn't done it himself..couple all the comments he has made since leaving and Colin is a COLIN Dont understand why anyone want to read the ramblings of a bitter Yorkshire man who's been relegated and sacked so many time that no-one wans him? still; if it sells books then lets the fodder continue !
You may not be interested but others of us are. Some of us are grateful for what he did and the conditions that he did it under. He, more than anyone, was responsible for the best season we've had in many, many years, and as for no one wanting him, there are many on this forum who still mourn his sacking. I downloaded his book this morning and am looking forward to reading it.
I'm getting the feeling that everyone around you must be perfect. If not, you think they're a useless so and so. Having fiercely critical and unforgiving opinions that you publicly announce is a way of telling everyone how great you (think you) are.
Looking forward to reading this. He maybe many things but we have a lot to thank NW for . When will we next sing 'top of the league' or 'that's why we're champions' again!?
Stop being a pr**k mate, just because ei don't like him has nothing to do with my expectations of others. Looking for an argument for no reason..I said a long time ago when we got Colin that I didn't like him but he was probably what we needed...( Flyer & Judo wil confirm that for you) Maybe I should go with the board rules where we all agree you and Col are correct and all say what you want us to say.. Have you no backbone or beliefs..I get the feeling that you....yiou know what? I aint gionna bother..you carry on with your wonderfull life ! good luck Becoming increasingly obvious why some have chosen to depart this board. Majority on here are great people who post as they believe; but; f-me; go against the grain and you become public anaemy no1. Ajy or what ever...keep your personal **** to yourself and let others have a say....Personally I cant stand COLIN. I you want to read hisbook as per zroller, then good luck to you. Am I not allowed to say I think he's a to**er? TBH..how honest and real is it anyway...Itys a book, designed to make as much money as possible....You believe what you want mate..?!! Maybe if we print it in the Sun then everyone might say its crap and not believe it?..Knock yourself out mate
Don't think it's got anything to do with going against the grain or having no back bone, more like people are bored with you labouring the same point over & over again. Gets tedious. I'm sure there's more to you than hating Adel & Warnock but that's all we seem to know/hear from you.
Me too, I have a copy en route off eBay, shipped from Norwich of all places for just 40p - hopefully not by surface mail on a tramp ship! Is £13.27 a reasonable price for this book? http://www.ebay.ca/itm/281116749562?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_8wt_674
Great stuff Roller! This is a book I look forward to reading. Colin is a Legend for me. TF's first big mistake was sacking him.
I agree, in hindsight, despite those 5 home wins on trot under Hughes, we may have also stayed up with Warnock, if allowed a few signings in the January transfer window, and then built on that last season, instead of going backwards.
That will be because i get sick of people telling me how wonderfull they are/were. Mate we are relegated and Colin & Adel did f-all to stop that but are also not soley to blame. if people would stop kisiing Adels arse then i wouldnt have an argument would I? As for Colin. as i said before i dont like him. Also dont like Barton, DJ, hughes, Ramage, Wild thing Ainsworth, Sheeran or Bos or Malaysia Like Rowly, Cookie, Vinnie J, reading, photography, cars & all sports....Any chance of a date then?
