UK Edition
Neil Warnock has revealed a different, warmer side to deal with tragedy
It was from a phone call on Thursday that Neil Warnock, the Cardiff City manager, learnt that the body lifted from the aircraft wreckage discovered in the Channel was, indeed, that of Emiliano Sala. The news was no less grim for the fact it was expected. Because with the call came confirmation that all hope of a miracle was extinguished.
“It was strange,” said Warnock. “But it brings peace and comfort to the family in that respect. That’s what my wife, Sharon, said. It brings them some comfort.”
Sala’s tragedy has clearly taken its toll in Cardiff. The Argentine never stepped out in a blue shirt, but nonetheless his is a loss which has stung.
“He was a Neil Warnock type of player, a scruffy type of player,” reckoned the manager. “He was a very nice lad, that would be my memory. As well as his clothes, they were a little bit different.”
As he returned to his duties with a press conference at the club’s training ground on Friday, Warnock was able to reflect on the collective loss. The strength of feeling was evident in the display of emotion he himself showed after Cardiff’s home game against Bournemouth last weekend. Tears are not something anyone who has watched the flinty Yorkshireman’s 35-year management career would have expected. Even Warnock seemed taken aback.
“I was surprised I shed a tear,” he admitted. “You don’t realise in tragedies how things catch up with you. You can’t tell when something like that is going to hit you, it just comes on. I was all right until I went on the field and across to the other side of the ground. Nobody seemed to have gone home, it was amazing. Then when I saw my wife and kids, Sharon, William and Amy, I’m sure, like any parent would have done, I was thinking about Emiliano.”
Over the past fortnight, since Sala first disappeared en route from Nantes to Cardiff, we have seen a different Warnock from the figure of public expectation. Up until now, for those watching from a distance, his character has been widely reckoned to be akin to the style in which he gets his teams to play: brusque, pugnacious, in your face. But those who know him suggest there is a lot more going on than such assumption suggests.
“For me, knowing Neil the way I do, I’d say he has really changed, adapted to the times,” said Shaun Derry, the Oxford United assistant manager who played under Warnock at Sheffield United, Crystal Palace and Queens Park Rangers.
“At Sheffield United, when he sold me to Portsmouth, I found him very clinical, it was a case of make a decision, move on. But fast forward 10 years to QPR and it was a very different Neil Warnock. At QPR he was very much closer to the boys, close in respecting them as people. He was always there for you, if you needed time away from the club, it was never an issue.”
On the pitch, while his tactics may not be the most aesthetically pleasing, Derry reckons he has honed the unbeatable knack of getting his players to buy into his approach. What they respond to, he suggested, is the clarity of Warnock’s instruction.
“In terms of ability to simplify a game, I’ve never met anyone like him. I never once went on the pitch not knowing what the job was,” he said. “When I’ve done management courses, the one thing they ask for is clarity. I think I’ve had a very good teacher.
“When we signed Danny Gabbidon at QPR, a lovely footballer, but not a typical kick-it-in-row-Z number five, I remember him saying after his first couple of sessions: ‘Cor he doesn’t half simplify the game’. That’s what his players love.”
Though Jamie Mackie, who also played under Warnock at QPR added a caveat. “Listen, he can be ruthless,” Mackie, now at Oxford United, said. “If you didn’t show the work ethic, if you didn’t buy into it, you wouldn’t be around long. But if you showed him a desire, there was no one better at man management. People see him as hard, old school, but you don’t get eight promotions without taking your team with you. He could do that. He seemed to know what made me tick, even if it was different to the guy next to me.”
According to Derry, Warnock has grown adept at finding the sort of players likely to tune in to his wavelength. As his observation that Sala was a Neil Warnock type of player suggests, it stems from recruitment.
“Neil has a fantastic way of signing people, not players,” said Derry. “Since I’ve been in management, I’ve looked closely at that. It’s got to be the way forward, signing character.”
At Cardiff, that character is being tested as never before. As if the personal response to tragedy is not already sufficiently challenging, today’s game at Southampton is the first of a series of must-win encounters if the club are to stay in the Premier League. But one thing is for certain, despite suggestions the loss of Sala might induce his retirement, Warnock, at the age of 70, intends to remain in charge of the relegation battle.
“I put that to bed,” he said of the rumours of his quitting. “Anyone who has seen us play over the last couple of weeks knows the players are up for the challenge and I know I am. It is a challenge we have to face head on. My players know I get annoyed at times, and I can lift my voice, but they also know I will praise them. All I ask for is 100 per cent.”
Derry, for one, is glad the emotional toll of the past fortnight has not resulted in departure.
“Football is everything for him. I’m not too sure he’ll ever walk away. I hope he never does. The game needs Neil Warnock.”