FOR all you Marmite people out there…
After the return of Jose Mourinho, if you believe the interview of the new Humble One then Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is in for a very happy and enjoyable ride.
Neil Warnock will be fondly remembered by the majority of Cardiff fansCredit: Getty Images – Getty
In the less auspicious surroundings, we saw Neil Warnock walk away from perhaps his last managerial role at Cardiff, a club he dragged up by its lapels into the Premier League with an owner — Vincent Tan — who seems to have had little love or enjoyment from many of his managerial relationships.
Warnock, the last bastion of a certain type of English management, is loved by clubs who employ him (often in retrospect) and loathed by clubs and fans who played against his sides.
He embodies a culture that is in short supply — pure character and heart.
Warnock’s path from Gainsborough Trinity to Cardiff City, taking in 15 managerial roles and seven promotions along the way, doesn’t have the glamour of the likes of Mourinho, Jurgen Klopp or Pep Guardiola.
But there is something quintessentially English about the authenticity of his career.
On the journey he had his fair share of challenging owners, from Flavio Briatore at QPR to Cardiff’s Tan. And perhaps even yours truly.
When I employed him at Crystal Palace in 2007, there was a sharp intake of breath.
Two headlines spring to mind: “A marriage made in hell” and “Football’s two most combustible figures working together”.
The most difficult relationship is the one often described as the most important — between the chairman and manager.
Lots of managers cannot manage up but Warnock is a football operator par excellence. Every chairman he works for “is the best chairman I’ve had”.
In taking the job with me, he said: “This is my last job in football.” Six more jobs came after Palace but I knew what he meant.
I had difficult relationships with bosses — numerous dismissals, injunctions on one manager and in the instance of Iain Dowie, taking him successfully to the High Court for fraudulent misrepresentation.
In my time with Neil I saw for the first time what it’s like when you have a football club together with everybody for one another.
It wasn’t the usual football mentality of all one for one and f*** all for anyone else. Warnock brought things together
He’s a crafty bugger, though. After narrowly losing in the play-offs in 2008, he asked me: “Do you think I’m the best manager in the division?”
“Of course you are,” I answered.
“Then how come Dave Jones at Cardiff is getting £250,000 a year more than me?”
“I guess he won’t be any more.”
It was the quickest quarter of a million pay rise I handed out!
The game needs characters, it needs feeling and emotion and with Warnock you got your money’s worth.
After conceding a late goal to Bristol City, in a post-match interview he complained the referee punched the air in celebration.
After being charged, in the written mitigation he then accused the ref of having dilated eyes and being on drugs!
As a chairman I sometimes sat in a room adjacent to the dressing room, listening to various managers give team-talks, often thinking I’d heard more Churchillian speeches from 20-year-old sales managers in my retail business.
But not with Neil. He made me want to play for him let alone pay him.
If this is the last we see of Neil Warnock in the dugout, then we should recognise the qualities of a rather unique football character.
SIMON JORDAN’S Final Word is on talkSPORT every Sunday from 5-8pm
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
