OnE-ON-ONE Does he treat his players’ feet? Would he take the England job? And is he ready for a war of I love soppy films. I don’t cry in cinemas, words with Jose and Sir Alex? but on my settee, I’ll Your questions answered by... let the tears flow NEIL WARNOCK Interview Nick Harper Portrait Stuart Wood Neil Warnock stretches across a comfortable Who did you have the most run-ins with the people I worked under. I probably got sofa in one of Bramall Lane’s hospitality suites, during your playing days? Did anyone go most from Len Asher at Hartlepool. He had growling expletives in FourFourTwo’s out of their way to kick you, or vice versa? a bit of everything; good man-management, direction. Having posed patiently for a series Simon Bayles, West Yorks good tactical nous... But I’m very much my own of happy, smiling images to accompany this I had run-ins for about four or five years with man as a manager. You have to do it your way. interview, the FFT photographer has the a lad called John Peverell at Darlington. I was temerity to ask him if he can “do us a moody at Hartlepool at the time and he was a full-back When did you first consider management? face”. “Fuck off,” he snarls, slipping on my wing. He put me in hospital in a derby Were you always interested in the tactics, effortlessly into the pantomime villain role, once with a ruptured spleen and a hairline organisation and motivation sides of it? before breaking out into a broad smile. fracture of an ankle – that’s not the sort of Alan Stiles, via e-mail It’s late July, and Bramall Lane is gearing thing you forget, really. But that was how it When I was at Hartlepool and about 25, I started up for a return to the top flight after 12 years was when I played, the defenders were told managing an under-10s in Seaton Carew. Then away. The press box is being expanded to cope to soften the wingers up. He had no option when I came down to Barnsley in about 1975, with the demand, the stadium is being banged because I was so quick back then [laughs]. I started managing my local Sunday team in and hammered into shape, and Warnock had Sheffield – Todwick. I liked managing, even been busy attempting to add new faces to his Which manager you worked under is when you had to collect the subs and wash squad and addressing the never-ending closest in style to you? the kit as well as decide the tactics. I started to requests for a few minutes of his time. “There Sarah Templeman, via e-mail do more and more on the management side just aren’t enough hours in the day,” he There wasn’t just one, I took something from and when I got my first break, at Gainsborough, complains, but he insists that he and the team all of them. I knew early on that I wasn’t going I did the same things I’d done at Todwick. will be ready by August 19. But for now, his to make the top-grade as a player, but I wanted time is being eaten up by your questions... to try and do it as a manager so I listened to Not many managers combine running the team with a job as a chiropodist. Do you Were you actually any good as a player? Open the treat your own players’ feet? My dad says that although you lacked pace, gate, it’s Tim Banks, London you certainly had your moments. Who in Warnock It started out because I had bad feet and wanted the modern game are you closest to in – the once to treat myself, so I started taking the basic terms of how you played? speedy qualifications and then decided to qualify Jim Coker, via e-mail winger properly, which took about four years. So I set Lacked pace?! My only asset was pace. I was up a surgery in Sheffield in 1980, working in very quick but I was brainless. At Rotherham the department stores, and I was going to do they used to shout “Open the gate!!” when it full-time, until I got the job at Scarborough. I was going down the wings, but I’d run out I tried to juggle both but it was impossible, of breath before I got there. I got my brains so I had to make a choice. I still do it from time as a player when I was about 31, but by that to time; in fact, I worked on Mikele Leigertwood’s S point my legs had gone... Who was I most ingrowing toe-nail today. I was always good EMPIC like? Ronaldinho, only without the skill. at ingrowing nails and Mikele’s got two! 16 September 2006 FourFourTwo OnE-ON-ONE OnE-ON-ONE we would have given them a cracking game. But he missed and it all just drifted away. It was one of my most disappointing times. With the disappointment of the 2004-05 campaign and “Warnock Out” chants on the final day, did you consider leaving? Jamie Hamilton, via e-mail Yeah, after Millwall at home and there was a lot of abuse, but I came out and faced them. I came closs, I must admit. I sat down with the chairman, Kevin McCabe, and we talked about investing in the club. I told him that if we could invest, I wanted him to support me and I’d stay on. If we couldn’t invest then I’d have left because I couldn’t have done any more at that point, keeping us up near the play-offs. Luckily Kevin said they were going to support me, that they wanted me to stay, and they gave me the money to bring Webber and Paul Ifill in and we were able to take that next step up. S How come you were on your tractor while , EMPIC S your team clinched promotion? Shouldn’t you have been watching Leeds-Reading? Luke Sinclair, via e-mail Oh, I couldn’t have stood watching that ACTION IMAGE – I couldn’t even stand watching the build- Which is better: reaching the Premiership reconsider the day after the Play-Off Final, Above (clockwise another house, and then I was just told that grade at Huddersfield. He was a super lad Still mad at that Graham Poll for that FA with Sheffield United or reaching the old but I’d already made up my mind. It was from left) At I wasn’t wanted. The chairman said to me: and his development made me proud. Of Cup semi-final in 2003? He did a superb Division One with Notts County in 1990-91? a personal thing that I don’t want to go Plymouth, his home “Well I didn’t want you to come, and I don’t those I’ve bought, ability-wise, I’d say the marking job on Michael Tonge that day... If a ref’s done well, I’ll Gary Milton, via e-mail into, but I was a bit headstrong at the time from home; a rare want you to go”, but the board wanted Andy best is one of the current crop: Danny Nick Pateras, via e-mail I’ve got to say taking United up! County was and we laugh about it now whenever I go spot of ref berating; Ritchie in charge and it was cheaper to get Webber. I’ve not seen quicker feet than his. Graham’s the best referee in our country but tell him, but I don’t want a fantastic because there were so many big back. Had I already agreed to join a quick in and out rid of me. Leaving Bury was simply down to I wouldn’t like to say who the worst was, that day I thought he was wrong on a number teams up against us that year – West Ham, Plymouth? No. I had a few clubs interested at Boundary Park; the fact that Sheffield United offered me there’s nothing to be gained from that. Some of occasions. I thought he could have reputation for being nice Sheffield Wednesday, Oldham – but we in me, but I’d been to Plymouth during my commanding the this job, and I couldn’t turn that down. players come in and just don’t perform as stopped play when he fouled Tongey, when grafted and we got there and that was time at Notts County and I liked the area. total respect of the well as you’d hope for whatever reason, be he pulled him down; I thought he could’ve a tremendous achievement. But there’s Notts County squad Neil Warnock is a music agent for bands it injuries or just bad luck. stopped the build-up to what was Arsenal’s up to it on the television in the afternoon. something about managing the club that you As a northern lad, having managed only including Motörhead, Status Quo and winner. And I didn’t like him smiling at half- We’d gone straight down from Cardiff, watched as a boy and taking them up to the in the north, how much of a culture shock Deep Purple. Is this how you unwind As a qualified referee, are you more or time coming off, which I thought rubbed where we’d played the night before, to top.