Post by Macmoish on Dec 16, 2010 23:46:09 GMT
Flashback 10 Years ---- Things looking good
Mirror Warnock enjoying new lease of life in London
By Oliver Holt
Neil Warnock, bluff Yorkshireman, renowned ranter and expert at turning a sowâs ear into a silk purse, is sitting in a swanky Italian restaurant in Knightsbridge.
His wife, Sharon, is shopping with diminished funds across the road at Harrods with their daughter, Amy.
Sharon told Warnock that every time he got fined for screaming at a linesman or raging at a referee, he had to match the fine and give it to her to spend.
She was expecting a bonanza. But the Queens Park Rangers manager has not fallen foul of the authorities since.
Warnock looks around contentedly. There are Andy Warhol prints of Marilyn Monroe on one of the walls.
On another, thereâs a picture of Al Pacino looking particularly menacing in a poster for The Godfather.
When the wine arrives, the waiter pours and waits for Warnock to taste it. âI donât need to taste it,â Warnock says. âI know itâll be all right in this place.â
When his fish comes, he asks for it to be left on the bone. âDonât eat it so fast then, do you,â he says.
And then the happiest damn northerner in London town begins to talk about how the capital has given him a new lease of life.
He is about to become a granddad for the first time but he feels like a big kid again. Heâs 62 going on 32.
Thereâs enough energy pouring out of him to get him taxed for emissions. If Boris Johnson could see the fuel heâs burning, heâd charge him for entering the Congestion Zone.
No wonder Warnockâs happy. In the autumn of his career, his reputation has never been higher.
He says itâs all down to London. He goes to West End shows and rides his mountain bike round Richmond Park.
Heâs so full of the joys of life that when he came across a stag in a remote area of the park recently, he tried to engage it in conversation.
âI suddenly saw this magnificent creature and I couldnât believe it when he didnât run off,â Warnock says.
âSo I started talking to him about our last game. I said âbloody hell, weâve scored some good goals at QPR this seasonâ.
âI shouted to him âweâve had a bloody great time, what about you?â. His headâs gone up and he was looking at me and you could see him thinking âwhat the f*** are you talking aboutâ.
âI got too carried away in the end and went too close and he backed away and disappeared into the bracken. He must have thought I was a right nutter.â
Living among the bright lights has reinvigorated him. Managing in the south has brought him new respect.
Three years ago, he was consumed with bitterness over the injustices that surrounded his Sheffield United sideâs relegation from the Premier League.
But then Simon Jordan offered him the managerâs job at Crystal Palace and Warnock won plaudits for the brilliant job he did under severe financial restrictions.
When he joined QPR nine months ago, he was their fifth manager of the season and the club were only three points above the relegation zone. â
But Warnock has brought order where there was anarchy and QPR went 19 games unbeaten from the start of this campaign, only losing for the first time against Watford last Friday.
They travel to Elland Road tomorrow for the clash with Leeds United four points clear of Cardiff at the top of the table and with a game in hand.
They are favourites for promotion, odds-on to give Warnock a chance to heal the wound that has festered since Sheffield went down and fulfil his ambition of taking a club up to the Premier League and keeping them there.
âI wish I had come to London sooner,â Warnock says. âIt has almost been like a drug for me.
âI honestly feel at times that I am on a high. I can go anywhere in London now. The cabbies are unbelievable. I love the cabbies.
âEvery cab I get in, they all support a different team. They will all tell me about their problems and my problems and this referee and that referee.
âI love the life, too. I didnât want to show my face for a couple of days after we lost to Watford but we went to The Jersey Boys on Sunday. That is music, that.
He is quite the modern London media luvvie now, too. He has a column in The Independent and his own show on TalkSport.
He has built a fine side at Loftus Road and is happy to concede that experience taught him he had to find room for the sublime talent that is Adel Taarabt.
So London is even turning the hardest taskmaster in football into a raving liberal. Well almost.
Warnock has a rule that no one is allowed to pass to the Moroccan if he is in QPRâs half but apart from that, he gives him free rein.
âI would never have wanted a Taarabt in the past,â he says. âI would have been pulling my bloody hair out.
âBut I see now, as I go higher, you have to have ability to win you games. And you can work hard all day, but you need the spark, something that is different. Taarabt would win you games in any league in the world.â
Perhaps his greatest achievement has been bringing harmony to the relationship between the manager and the Loftus Road boardroom.
He does not fear interference from part-owner Flavio Briatore. Far from it. He says he relishes talking to him.
âFor a start, when you have gone 19 games without defeat, there is not a lot anyone can say really is there,â Warnock says.
âI work for Amit Bhatia, who I trust and the others are fans really. Flavio is a big fan really. It is just that he is portrayed in the wrong way.
âHe said that thing about having always dreamed of having Marcello Lippi as manager if we got to the Premier League.
âThe press went mad about that and so Flavio rings me up and apologises and says âI didnât say it like thatâ.
âI know he wouldnât have meant it like that. I suppose when you are younger, you would react to that but I was fine.
âI said I just couldnât see it. I said I couldnât see Lippi wanting to manage the reserve team at Loftus Road. Thatâs how you fob it off.
âActually, Amit, Flavio, Bernie Ecclestone and the chairman, Gianni Paladini, have been ever so supportive.
âFlavio will tell me what he thinks. He will watch the game and wonder why we didnât play wide or tell me that he thinks a referee was bought.
âI donât regard that as interference. It is partly excitement for me now with your Briatores and your Ecclestones.
âI know once you whet peopleâs appetite like them, they will support you more. So if we could get up, they would help me to make my job easier to stay up which is what I want to do before I pack in.â
Pack in? Not for a while yet, surely. Not while heâs caught in the neon glare, not while the city beckons, not while Sir Alex, Arsene and Harry await next season, not while life is so rich and there are stags to converse with in Richmond Park.
www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/QPR-manager-Neil-Warnock-is-enjoying-a-new-lease-of-life-in-London-article652027.html
Mirror Warnock enjoying new lease of life in London
By Oliver Holt
Neil Warnock, bluff Yorkshireman, renowned ranter and expert at turning a sowâs ear into a silk purse, is sitting in a swanky Italian restaurant in Knightsbridge.
His wife, Sharon, is shopping with diminished funds across the road at Harrods with their daughter, Amy.
Sharon told Warnock that every time he got fined for screaming at a linesman or raging at a referee, he had to match the fine and give it to her to spend.
She was expecting a bonanza. But the Queens Park Rangers manager has not fallen foul of the authorities since.
Warnock looks around contentedly. There are Andy Warhol prints of Marilyn Monroe on one of the walls.
On another, thereâs a picture of Al Pacino looking particularly menacing in a poster for The Godfather.
When the wine arrives, the waiter pours and waits for Warnock to taste it. âI donât need to taste it,â Warnock says. âI know itâll be all right in this place.â
When his fish comes, he asks for it to be left on the bone. âDonât eat it so fast then, do you,â he says.
And then the happiest damn northerner in London town begins to talk about how the capital has given him a new lease of life.
He is about to become a granddad for the first time but he feels like a big kid again. Heâs 62 going on 32.
Thereâs enough energy pouring out of him to get him taxed for emissions. If Boris Johnson could see the fuel heâs burning, heâd charge him for entering the Congestion Zone.
No wonder Warnockâs happy. In the autumn of his career, his reputation has never been higher.
He says itâs all down to London. He goes to West End shows and rides his mountain bike round Richmond Park.
Heâs so full of the joys of life that when he came across a stag in a remote area of the park recently, he tried to engage it in conversation.
âI suddenly saw this magnificent creature and I couldnât believe it when he didnât run off,â Warnock says.
âSo I started talking to him about our last game. I said âbloody hell, weâve scored some good goals at QPR this seasonâ.
âI shouted to him âweâve had a bloody great time, what about you?â. His headâs gone up and he was looking at me and you could see him thinking âwhat the f*** are you talking aboutâ.
âI got too carried away in the end and went too close and he backed away and disappeared into the bracken. He must have thought I was a right nutter.â
Living among the bright lights has reinvigorated him. Managing in the south has brought him new respect.
Three years ago, he was consumed with bitterness over the injustices that surrounded his Sheffield United sideâs relegation from the Premier League.
But then Simon Jordan offered him the managerâs job at Crystal Palace and Warnock won plaudits for the brilliant job he did under severe financial restrictions.
When he joined QPR nine months ago, he was their fifth manager of the season and the club were only three points above the relegation zone. â
But Warnock has brought order where there was anarchy and QPR went 19 games unbeaten from the start of this campaign, only losing for the first time against Watford last Friday.
They travel to Elland Road tomorrow for the clash with Leeds United four points clear of Cardiff at the top of the table and with a game in hand.
They are favourites for promotion, odds-on to give Warnock a chance to heal the wound that has festered since Sheffield went down and fulfil his ambition of taking a club up to the Premier League and keeping them there.
âI wish I had come to London sooner,â Warnock says. âIt has almost been like a drug for me.
âI honestly feel at times that I am on a high. I can go anywhere in London now. The cabbies are unbelievable. I love the cabbies.
âEvery cab I get in, they all support a different team. They will all tell me about their problems and my problems and this referee and that referee.
âI love the life, too. I didnât want to show my face for a couple of days after we lost to Watford but we went to The Jersey Boys on Sunday. That is music, that.
He is quite the modern London media luvvie now, too. He has a column in The Independent and his own show on TalkSport.
He has built a fine side at Loftus Road and is happy to concede that experience taught him he had to find room for the sublime talent that is Adel Taarabt.
So London is even turning the hardest taskmaster in football into a raving liberal. Well almost.
Warnock has a rule that no one is allowed to pass to the Moroccan if he is in QPRâs half but apart from that, he gives him free rein.
âI would never have wanted a Taarabt in the past,â he says. âI would have been pulling my bloody hair out.
âBut I see now, as I go higher, you have to have ability to win you games. And you can work hard all day, but you need the spark, something that is different. Taarabt would win you games in any league in the world.â
Perhaps his greatest achievement has been bringing harmony to the relationship between the manager and the Loftus Road boardroom.
He does not fear interference from part-owner Flavio Briatore. Far from it. He says he relishes talking to him.
âFor a start, when you have gone 19 games without defeat, there is not a lot anyone can say really is there,â Warnock says.
âI work for Amit Bhatia, who I trust and the others are fans really. Flavio is a big fan really. It is just that he is portrayed in the wrong way.
âHe said that thing about having always dreamed of having Marcello Lippi as manager if we got to the Premier League.
âThe press went mad about that and so Flavio rings me up and apologises and says âI didnât say it like thatâ.
âI know he wouldnât have meant it like that. I suppose when you are younger, you would react to that but I was fine.
âI said I just couldnât see it. I said I couldnât see Lippi wanting to manage the reserve team at Loftus Road. Thatâs how you fob it off.
âActually, Amit, Flavio, Bernie Ecclestone and the chairman, Gianni Paladini, have been ever so supportive.
âFlavio will tell me what he thinks. He will watch the game and wonder why we didnât play wide or tell me that he thinks a referee was bought.
âI donât regard that as interference. It is partly excitement for me now with your Briatores and your Ecclestones.
âI know once you whet peopleâs appetite like them, they will support you more. So if we could get up, they would help me to make my job easier to stay up which is what I want to do before I pack in.â
Pack in? Not for a while yet, surely. Not while heâs caught in the neon glare, not while the city beckons, not while Sir Alex, Arsene and Harry await next season, not while life is so rich and there are stags to converse with in Richmond Park.
www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/QPR-manager-Neil-Warnock-is-enjoying-a-new-lease-of-life-in-London-article652027.html