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    Neil Warnock says there’s still life in old dog yet as Middlesbrough boss, 71, claims wife would choose pets over him

    NEIL WARNOCK was HOUNDED out of retirement by his missus.
    The Middlesbrough boss was content to spend quality time with Sharon at home without football – but he soon found he was playing second fiddle to his two dogs in the battle for his wife’s affections.

    Boro boss Neil Warnock was hounded out of retirement by his wife Sharon

    Neil Warnock enjoys some quality time with his dogs Monty and Donald

    And Mrs Warnock was soon growling and barking at him for being useless at household chores.
    So when Warnock opted to take the Boro job in June and then commit himself for this season, it was music to her ears.
    He said: “At home we’ve a Shih Tzu called Monty and a Norfolk Terrier named Donald. They rule the roost.
    “If Sharon had a choice between having me and the dogs, they would win. I’d come a distant second!”

    Warnock has been promising to call time on a managerial career spanning 40 years for more than a decade.
    He had aimed to finish with Sheffield United but was not happy how his time ended there in 2007 – falling out with chairman Kevin McCabe and relegation following the Carlos Tevez-West Ham controversy.
    Since then, he has had ‘one last job’ at Crystal Palace, QPR, Leeds, Palace (again), QPR (again), Rotherham, Cardiff and now Middlesbrough.
    But Warnock revealed he really had settled on retirement five years ago after his month in caretaker charge at QPR following Chris Ramsay’s dismissal … until his missus had other ideas.

    The Boro boss said: “I was at home with Sharon, who had just had chemotherapy on a double mastectomy.
    “I had finished collecting chicken eggs in the garden – and, with me sat there reading the paper, she told the nurse, ‘He never washes a pot and when he does he splashes water everywhere. I’ve never seen him make a bed. He never fluffs the cushions.’
    “So I told her, ‘Tony Stewart, the Rotherham chairman, rang me this morning offering me a job? I’ll go until the end of the season if you want?’ Without hesitation, she said, ‘Go! Get off.’ That’s how I came out of retirement.”
    And it was his brief 16-match stint in charge with the Millers – leading the team to safety in the Championship – that got his juices flowing again.
    He said: “We were six points adrift when I went there and had to play seven out of the top eight straight away. We stayed up on the next to last game.
    “That was my biggest achievement ever and that was all down to Sharon!
    “I love making, with no disrespect to those Rotherham lads, average players feel invincible.”
    After another spell driving Mrs Warnock around the bend with his lack of domestic skills, Warnock took on his next big project Cardiff City.

    My wife told the nurse, ‘He never washes a pot and when he does he splashes water everywhere. I’ve never seen him make a bed. He never fluffs the cushions.'”
    NEIL WARNOCK

    And he tells a great story about the unorthodox contract he signed to take him to the club.
    He said: “I had spoken to a number of clubs and chairman Mehmet Dalman rang me one morning asking me to meet him.
    “I was in Scotland so flew down and within 15 minutes I shook his hand. He said, ‘We haven’t talked money yet.’
    “I said, ‘No, I just like you.’
    “He wouldn’t have it. He left the room and came back, saying, ‘Vincent Tan wants you to sign something.’
    “I said, ‘What are you talking about? I’ve just shook your hand, I’m a Yorkshireman!’
    “But he insisted and got a serviette out, because we were in a gentlemen’s club, and I signed it. That was my contract at Cardiff!
    “Mehmet was brilliant. I couldn’t do anything there without his help. He was a calming influence. I said to him once, ‘You’re like my father’, even though he’s nine years younger!”

    Neil Warnock led Cardiff to his eight promotion and fourth to the top flight
    During his time in South Wales, Warnock won his eighth promotion and fourth to the top flight.
    He enjoyed eight months out of the game after leaving Cardiff last November but believes he was fated to manage Boro even though he could not live any further away in Cornwall.
    He said: “Steve Gibson has been a friend of mine for years and I’ve always wanted to show him what a good manager I am.
    “When I took over the media guy, Paul Dews, said an airline was thinking of doing flights from Newquay to Teesside. I thought, ‘This is a dream.’ I went to meet the people at the airport and within a matter of days they were flying to Cornwall.
    “It’s a 40 minute drive to Newquay airport from my house so I can do the journey door to door in around just two hours. It means Sharon can fly up and I can commute sometimes too. It was fate I came here.”
    Having been successful in keeping Boro up, Warnock believes he has a special group of players capable of winning his FIFTH promotion to the top flight.
    This, he says, became apparent to him when he invited the whole squad down to his Cornish home.
    He said: “I knew in the summer that I had something special happening at Boro.
    “All the lads came for a BBQ. In the past, at almost every club I’ve been to, I’ve taken the players down there. More

  • in

    Neil Warnock insists there’s still life in old dog yet as Middlesbrough boss, 70, claims wife would choose pets over him

    NEIL WARNOCK was HOUNDED out of retirement by his missus.
    The Middlesbrough boss was content to spend quality time with Sharon at home without football – but he soon found he was playing second fiddle to his two dogs in the battle for his wife’s affections.

    Boro boss Neil Warnock was hounded out of retirement by his wife Sharon

    Neil Warnock enjoys some quality time with his dogs Monty and Donald

    And Mrs Warnock was soon growling and barking at him for being useless at household chores.
    So when Warnock opted to take the Boro job in June and then commit himself for this season, it was music to her ears.
    He said: “At home we’ve a Shih Tzu called Monty and a Norfolk Terrier named Donald. They rule the roost.
    “If Sharon had a choice between having me and the dogs, they would win. I’d come a distant second!”

    Warnock has been promising to call time on a managerial career spanning 40 years for more than a decade.
    He had aimed to finish with Sheffield United but was not happy how his time ended there in 2007 – falling out with chairman Kevin McCabe and relegation following the Carlos Tevez-West Ham controversy.
    Since then, he has had ‘one last job’ at Crystal Palace, QPR, Leeds, Palace (again), QPR (again), Rotherham, Cardiff and now Middlesbrough.
    But Warnock revealed he really had settled on retirement five years ago after his month in caretaker charge at QPR following Chris Ramsay’s dismissal … until his missus had other ideas.

    The Boro boss said: “I was at home with Sharon, who had just had chemotherapy on a double mastectomy.
    “I had finished collecting chicken eggs in the garden – and, with me sat there reading the paper, she told the nurse, ‘He never washes a pot and when he does he splashes water everywhere. I’ve never seen him make a bed. He never fluffs the cushions.’
    “So I told her, ‘Tony Stewart, the Rotherham chairman, rang me this morning offering me a job? I’ll go until the end of the season if you want?’ Without hesitation, she said, ‘Go! Get off.’ That’s how I came out of retirement.”
    And it was his brief 16-match stint in charge with the Millers – leading the team to safety in the Championship – that got his juices flowing again.
    He said: “We were six points adrift when I went there and had to play seven out of the top eight straight away. We stayed up on the next to last game.
    “That was my biggest achievement ever and that was all down to Sharon!
    “I love making, with no disrespect to those Rotherham lads, average players feel invincible.”
    After another spell driving Mrs Warnock around the bend with his lack of domestic skills, Warnock took on his next big project Cardiff City.

    My wife told the nurse, ‘He never washes a pot and when he does he splashes water everywhere. I’ve never seen him make a bed. He never fluffs the cushions.'”
    NEIL WARNOCK

    And he tells a great story about the unorthodox contract he signed to take him to the club.
    He said: “I had spoken to a number of clubs and chairman Mehmet Dalman rang me one morning asking me to meet him.
    “I was in Scotland so flew down and within 15 minutes I shook his hand. He said, ‘We haven’t talked money yet.’
    “I said, ‘No, I just like you.’
    “He wouldn’t have it. He left the room and came back, saying, ‘Vincent Tan wants you to sign something.’
    “I said, ‘What are you talking about? I’ve just shook your hand, I’m a Yorkshireman!’
    “But he insisted and got a serviette out, because we were in a gentlemen’s club, and I signed it. That was my contract at Cardiff!
    “Mehmet was brilliant. I couldn’t do anything there without his help. He was a calming influence. I said to him once, ‘You’re like my father’, even though he’s nine years younger!”

    Neil Warnock led Cardiff to his eight promotion and fourth to the top flight
    During his time in South Wales, Warnock won his eighth promotion and fourth to the top flight.
    He enjoyed eight months out of the game after leaving Cardiff last November but believes he was fated to manage Boro even though he could not live any further away in Cornwall.
    He said: “Steve Gibson has been a friend of mine for years and I’ve always wanted to show him what a good manager I am.
    “When I took over the media guy, Paul Dews, said an airline was thinking of doing flights from Newquay to Teesside. I thought, ‘This is a dream.’ I went to meet the people at the airport and within a matter of days they were flying to Cornwall.
    “It’s a 40 minute drive to Newquay airport from my house so I can do the journey door to door in around just two hours. It means Sharon can fly up and I can commute sometimes too. It was fate I came here.”
    Having been successful in keeping Boro up, Warnock believes he has a special group of players capable of winning his FIFTH promotion to the top flight.
    This, he says, became apparent to him when he invited the whole squad down to his Cornish home.
    He said: “I knew in the summer that I had something special happening at Boro.
    “All the lads came for a BBQ. In the past, at almost every club I’ve been to, I’ve taken the players down there. More