Neil Warnock is excited. Perhaps at 67 years old, having thought he had retired a year or so ago, and after taking charge of his 15th club, he should be a little more jaded. But just from the sound of his voice, you can tell the new Cardiff City manager is giddy. “I suppose if I lost that feeling I’d be in trouble,” Warnock says, before taking charge of his first game, against Bristol City on Friday evening. “Even when I was going to speak to Cardiff, when I was travelling down, I was excited. I don’t think my mate could shut me up.”
That excitement does sometimes, shall we say, spill over. Warnock’s Wikipedia page has a section entitled ‘disputes’ that runs to 2,179 words, covering assorted disagreements with 17 players and other managers, plus a few clubs, referees and the actor Sean Bean. And it’s not comprehensive either, as it doesn’t cover a robust exchange of views with the Bristol City manager, Lee Johnson, last season, when Warnock was at Rotherham.
Before the two sides faced each other in April, Johnson said he wanted to “make sure we win the match, whether we do it through aggression, good football or intimidation”, something that displeased Warnock, to say the least. After the 1-1 draw, he called Johnson’s words “a disgrace” and that he “didn’t have to do a teamtalk”, before adding Johnson senior, the former City manager Gary, to the list of managers perhaps not coming round for a cup of tea. “Like father, like son,” he noted.
“You’re always going to have spats,” says Warnock now. “When I go to Bristol City I do get stick. I thought it was a little bit over the top prior to the game, but I think you’re going to get that sort of thing when you’re a manager. I haven’t spoken to him since, though. We’re not on each other’s Christmas card lists. He was linked with Aston Villa last week, wasn’t he? So he’s doing something right.”
Warnock lists City as his outside bet for promotion this year, praising their summer transfer business that saw Jonathan Kodjia sold to Villa for a fee that could rise to £15m, and Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham arrive on loan in his stead. Abraham has eight goals in 10 league starts, while Kodjia just has the one, so for the moment City are up on that deal, and that’s a big reason for them being in the top six. “We couldn’t have a tougher bloody game than Bristol City at home,” says Warnock. “They’re flying at the moment.”
Cardiff on the other hand are not so hot, second-bottom of the table with just eight points, having scored the same number of goals as Abraham has on his own. Warnock’s desire to get an eighth promotion, which would be a record for one manager and the main reason he didn’t stay with Rotherham in the summer, is a distant hope at the moment. “I don’t think you’re going to be putting money on me this year,” he says. “I did speak to three or four clubs over the summer, but two went with foreign managers, one an English one and another hadn’t a clue what they were doing.”
One of those clubs was Nottingham Forest. “I was so disappointed not to get the Forest job,” Warnock says. “I had three or four players ready to come into that team, and if I’d have got them in I could’ve had a right go. But the Greek investors wanted a director of football and a foreign manager.” As that Greek investment is still ‘pending’ and the director of football, Pedro Pereira, has left the club, Warnock is probably feeling a little smug. “When I go to a club like Cardiff, I try to prove everyone else wrong that didn’t take me.”
He’s certainly been busy. Since arriving a little over a week ago, Warnock has signed four free agents on short-term deals, including Kieran Richardson, Junior Hoilett and Sol Bamba, and that spark flickers in his voice again as he talks about working with the latter, a 31-year-old centre-back, to make him, well, a more ‘Neil Warnock’ player. “I first liked him at Leicester. Even at his age, he’s got to put certain things into his game, but he’s one of them I’ve always thought I could educate.”
The other is Marouane Chamakh, signed on a contract until January to “put him in the shop window” and at least try to find a few more goals. Warnock is fully aware that is a punt, though, saying of the newly-bald Moroccan last week: “I wanted to know which Marouane was going to turn up. There’s a couple of Marouanes and he has a bit of a reputation in certain areas. One or two people at the club mentioned to me about that and three or four things that he’s renowned for – and I added a couple to that, hence us taking him until January.”
Warnock describes Cardiff as a “blood and guts” club, of the type he enjoys. He felt at home so quickly that he made the chairman, Mehmet Dalman, very nervous by not seeing the rush to sign a contract, after the pair had shaken hands on a deal. “I said: ‘Listen Mehmet, I’ve shook your hand. I’m from Yorkshire. Don’t panic.’ I’ve shook the chairman’s hand a few times in the last couple of years and it’s cost me a couple of million, not getting it in writing.”
Cardiff’s players have already described how he has lightened the mood at the club and, according to Warnock, the fans have made him feel at home, too. “They’ve been absolutely fantastic. I’ve never had a response like this from the fans. I think there was a poll that said 95% wanted me, which is great for a manager to know you’re wanted.
“They’re almost like Yorkshire people transferred to Wales,” he continues, and you suspect that, from Neil Warnock, there’s no higher compliment.
