Top 60 Neil Warnock Quotes

It’s the last question mark against me in my career. Why couldn’t I keep a team in the Premier League.

Football is a relatively small industry and there are times, while you want to be honest, that it is best to pull a few punches. You never know, you might need to work with that person again.

I would like to apologise to anyone who has put a bet on me becoming the next Scotland manager.

At Plymouth I wrote ‘Neil Warnock’s Wembley Way’, a one-year diary, to show people what being a manager was like. I got lucky as the year ended with us winning promotion through the play-offs at Wembley.

It’s difficult to motivate yourself to do the workouts when you get older but I train hard.

I don’t think it is wrong to have a bit of banter with refs. My Dad would always manage games by talking to players and so did I when I reffed.

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.

The players is what I enjoy, the training ground, making players better and believing in themselves because you can make a difference.

As a manager I always trusted my players on Christmas Day. I did not see any point in dragging them into the training ground – a three-hour round-trip for some of them on icy roads – when they could relax with their families instead.

Who’s been with me longest? Kevin Blackwell. I signed him as a goalkeeper at Scarborough in ’86 and he’s basically been with me my whole career. He’s been my goalkeeper, reserve goalie, now my assistant manager.

A few eyebrows have been raised at Adel Taarabt joining Milan. Having worked with Adel for two years, I am not as surprised as most people seem to be. He is a player of immense ability and, if he is handled right, and motivated himself, he can win games at any level.

I can’t say I ever got to the stage of swapping phone numbers with refs, but I don’t have a problem with managers and referees communicating.

It’s easier to sit at your desk and have a bun, but I’ve been really disciplined because I feel like I have to give myself a chance. You can’t let yourself down on that. You have to be mentally sharp in this Premier League.

Sometimes when I’m watching managers on television and I see all that anxiety I realise that I don’t miss the job as much as I thought.

I do like reading autobiographies, if I’m honest.

The chairman, Mehmet Dalman, he was brilliant for me. He helped me left, right and centre, he lives aboard now but he was my shoulder.

You do understand when you get into management that you will get the sack at some stage, but that never puts people off trying again.

The sack is a sad fact of life for football managers. I have been axed three times. The chairman at Notts County was on record as saying it’s the worst thing they ever did. Within a couple of years they were one game from losing league status.

Ask anyone in the game: if you want a player from France or a French player, 99 per cent of the time, you will have to deal with Willie McKay or someone like him. If you want to get the job done, then you need the Willie McKays of this world.

However successful someone is in their field of business, and however well-meaning and hard-working, it is difficult to come into football and immediately work out how the industry works, who to trust, what to do. That is the sort of role I think I can fill.

My son William and my daughter Amy are both really into their hockey now and I can enjoy watching that.

On the plus side, leaving Leeds meant I have been able to spend a lot of time with the family, enjoying a very rare summer off and my first Christmas without work worries since I was a teenager. I was also able to accept an offer to work with BT Sport.

My son William is only nine but he’s had four public schools so far, one in Cornwall, one when I was at Sheffield, one in Beckenham when I was at Palace.

It is a fine line between communicating and being too chummy. My players, when I’ve been promoted, have been upset by top-flight refs being mates with opposition players.

I like soppy films, sentimental stuff with children.

Trust is a big word for a manager. You expect certain standards and attitudes and they know if they lower those standards, I’ll jump on them.

It’s good to see Graham Alexander back in the game. He was such a tremendous professional as a player so I know he’ll give management his best shot.

As far as I can tell most people in football do not take colour into account when judging people. I certainly don’t.

I tried to download a jazz album this week and ended up getting some tracks four times, some once, some three times; in total I ended up with 50 tracks. I don’t know how I did it.

I used to think you needed a passport to go south of Watford. But when I came to London the people were fantastic, so good, right down to earth, my kind of people.

I wanted to retire at 55. Now at 61 with two young kids, I want to spend a bit of time with them.

But the art of management has not changed. The art of it is still 80 to 90 per cent man-management. It is just a matter of getting the best out of what you have got.

There is a version of me people see. I don’t think I play up to it, I think it’s more other people put it out there. People see the football side of me, but I’m a different character away from it.

After more than 30 years in the dugout I have come to realise there is a need at many clubs for someone who can act as a link between managers and owners.

When people say things about me, I’d love to come back and give my version, but I’d rather let others spout off until the time is right.

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.

For a lot of young managers, especially those who have not played at the top end of the game, there is also a financial need to work. Some of them could find employment in another field, but you can’t beat making a living out of something you really enjoy doing.

I love the way the Cardiff fans get behind their team, which is why I do that clenched fist action at the end of games. They get really up for the match, I can hear them and I just help offer my own support in return.

I’ve been fortunate most of the seven promotions I’ve won have been with sides I built from zero, so it is doubly rewarding. There is nothing to match being in the dressing room celebrating promotion after a long season with a group of lads you have put together.

I had a player once whose wife had twins and one of them was in and out of hospital for a year. You just have to give people as much time as they need.

If you are a manager with a new owner who has more ideas than knowledge, all you can do is get your head down and do your best, which is what Malky Mackay did at Cardiff.

People talk about flip charts, tactic boards and other rubbish like that. But the truth is that as a manager you just need to get the best out of the players at your disposal.

I don’t think the authorities realise how much fans in general invest in their clubs.

If there is one thing worse for a manager than having an interfering owner it is uncertainty over the ownership.

But referees have to remember there is a reason managers are being nice to them – we’re hoping that it just might make the difference when there is a borderline decision.

The way that I am, most of my time as a manager has been putting fires out and I don’t enjoy dealing with chairmen and owners but I know it’s part of my job.

I enjoy working with players who want to work and I get more satisfaction with that than ready made teams or players.

Personally I have not encountered racism at matches, or in clubs I have worked in, for many years.

I am finding I have to watch what I am doing otherwise I may as well be in full-time football again and, while I’m available if something interesting comes up to take me to the end of the season, I don’t want a long-term commitment at this stage in my life.

Most of the clubs I have had, they have been in a precarious situation when I have taken over and I have had to change it, even going back to Scarborough and all that.

If you look at my past in the Premier League, without going into too many details, I don’t think I had much of a chance at any of them, for different reasons.

I’m not sure I will watch a lot of professional football once I’ve retired.

I like experience in my side, but you need a balance and young players give you energy, pace and, often, a freshness which means they have no fear.

When you’re younger, you have three or four bad results and you worry about everything. You worry about injuries, because they always seem to be your best players.

I love poetry and I’ve kept everything I’ve written.

No disrespect to Cardiff but they probably needed me more than I needed them, when I was appointed.

I’ve played for managers who said one thing and did another and players find you out like that. You’ve got to trust them and they’ve got to trust you.

As I found at QPR, a club in the process of a takeover is paralysed.