Neil Warnock will take charge of his 1,500th game as a manager on Saturday revelling in the back-handed compliments which have fuelled his career.
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The 71-year-old Yorkshireman will join an exclusive club when he sends Middlesbrough into Sky Bet Championship battle with Barnsley at the Riverside Stadium, becoming only the seventh man to reach that landmark with British clubs.
The list, which includes Graham Turner, Alec Stock, Willie Maley, Dario Gradi, and Fred Everiss, is headed by Sir Alex Ferguson and while he may have plied his trade largely in a different arena to the all-conquering former Manchester United boss, he is thrilled to be among such company.
Warnock, who is back at work after contracting coronavirus, said: “Alex has done it from a different perspective. I’ve managed to enjoy what I do at a lesser level.
“All I wanted to do when I set out was wherever I went, I wanted the club’s fans to enjoy having me and I wanted them after a match to go home talking about the game and the excitement and the team that they support, and I’ve managed to do that, really.
“I’ve always said, ‘Be careful what you wish for’ – some of these clubs, when I’ve left, they haven’t always done really well.
“But to be appreciated by your own fans is a great, great accolade. Even the people who give me stick – like when I went to Cardiff, the number of people who said, ‘Well if I’m honest, I’ve never liked you, we didn’t want you here, but I’m glad you’re here’.
“That sort of compliment, I really do enjoy that and appreciate that.”
To commemorate his achievement Warnock received a silver-plated Elizabethan dish.
Warnock said: “I know how important it is to surround yourself with people you trust, my friends Paul Evans, Mick Jones, Kevin Blackwell and Ronnie Jepson should all get a special mention.”
He added: “You can’t succeed without the people in the background, the coaching and medical team, club staff and chairman who have faith in you.
“The players are why I keep coming back to football. You can’t win them all, but I love the laughs I have on the training ground, they keep me young.
“A big thank you also to the fans, blimey we miss you. I’d like to think that along my journey to 1,500 matches I’ve given them some cracking memories.
“Finally, I’d like to thank my family, my incredible wife Sharon and my children, James, Natalie, Amy and Will. Their amazing support and honest opinions have kept me sane.
“It’s not over yet, I’ve got some new memories to make with the team here in Middlesbrough. I’m so grateful to have my life in football and for the support of the LMA along the way.”
It all started for Warnock, who had cut his teeth at non-league level with Gainsborough Trinity, at Scarborough, who he guided into the Football League as Conference champions in 1987.
Asked if he remembered his first game as a league manager, he replied: “Yes, Wolves at Scarborough.
“For some reason, they put it on a Bank Holiday Saturday at Scarborough – can you believe it – in August. I remember all the Wolves fans the night before sleeping everywhere. They were in every shop doorway on the beaches, you name it.
“I remember the fan falling through the roof. He stood on the roof drunk and feel through the roof, nearly killed himself. Fortunately, he was all right.
“Steve Bull scored a couple in a 2-2 draw. It was a great game. You look at where Scarborough are now, set up against as Scarborough Athletic, and you look at where Wolves are in the top six or top eight – it shows how football is, how close it is, what a small line it is between success and failure.”
In all, Warnock has managed 14 different league clubs – Scarborough, Notts County, Torquay, Huddersfield, Plymouth, Oldham, Bury, Sheffield United, Crystal Palace, QPR, Leeds, Rotherham, Cardiff and Boro – and achieved eight promotions, a tally to which he still hopes to add before finally heading into retirement.
His only title in the league was with QPR when he led them to the Premier League in 2011 - but he did take Scarborough into the Football League as Conference champions back in 1987.
He also won four play-off finals - twice with Notts County (1990, 1991) and then once apiece with Huddersfield (1995) and Plymouth (1996).
An eventful career has brought highs and lows, but few regrets, even turning down the opportunity to manage Chelsea in 1991.
However, he admits he should have accepted then Sunderland chairman Bob Murray’s offer of employment.
Warnock said: “That’s probably the biggest regret I’ve had in my career, not going there at the right time. I think that would have been the right time.
“But there again, I played football with Malcolm Crosby at Aldershot and he was a lovely lad and I didn’t want to jump on his toes.
“I remember saying to Bob, ‘Wait until you get knocked out of the FA Cup and I’ll come’, and they ended up at bloody Wembley! It must have been fate, that.”
Neil Warnock's career stats
OVERALL RECORD
Warnock has a 38.9 per cent win rate for his career, having won 583 of his 1,499 matches to date.
He has spent more than half of his career in the second tier, 780 games – his tally of 314 wins at that level exceeds his total games for any other division, while he has drawn 222 and lost 244.
His win rate in the second tier, 40.3 per cent, and third tier are almost identical, with 105 wins, 84 draws and 71 losses in the latter giving him a 40.4 per cent win rate.
He has won 56, drawn 38 and lost 37 of 131 fourth-tier games for a 42.7 per cent win rate, with his career average dragged down by just 37 wins from 154 Premier League games (24 per cent), with 33 draws and 84 losses. His remaining games have come in non-league or cup competitions.
Warnock’s reputation is built on eight promotions in his career, including four times taking teams into the top flight – Notts County in 1991, Sheffield United in 2006, QPR in 2011 and Cardiff in 2018 – as well as elevating Scarborough to the Football League in 1987.
CLUB BY CLUB
By far the largest share of Warnock’s games came with his boyhood club Sheffield United, 388 between 1999 and 2007. He had more than 200 with County and 100-plus with Crystal Palace – in two spells – Cardiff and Huddersfield.
The same clubs largely account for his most successful periods in management, with 163 wins with the Blades and 92 with County, as well as a half-century with both Cardiff and Palace.
The Magpies can narrowly claim to be responsible for Warnock’s highest win rate – 42.2 per cent, to 42.0 with Sheffield United. Plymouth snatch third place ahead of Huddersfield and Cardiff, the only other clubs above 40 per cent with QPR just outside at 39.8.
He spent eight years with the Blades but there are several clubs with whom he has stayed for less than a season – Torquay, Rotherham and second spells at Palace and QPR, while he only took over his current club Boro in June.
FAVOURITE OPPONENTS
Warnock enjoys a 100 per cent record against seven different opponents, though in only two games against Newport and one each against Aldershot, Boston, Cheltenham, Kingstonian, Macclesfield and Slough.
Applying a more realistic minimum threshold of five games, his best record comes against his former club Torquay with five wins from six games, or 83.3 per cent. York (seven out of 10, 70 per cent) and Boro themselves (11 out of 16, 68.8 per cent) follow.
His most frequent opponents are Watford with 38 meetings, one more than Wolves. He has faced Cardiff 35 times and Preston 34, with Reading and Burnley the other teams above 30 on 32 each.
He has most wins against Preston and Wolves, 14 each, with Palace, Burnley, Cardiff and Watford one behind and double figures also against Rotherham, Plymouth, Crewe, Boro, Ipswich, Grimsby and Bristol City.
The Hornets have left him tasting defeat more times than any other team, 18, with September 11’s 1-0 success nudging them one ahead of Reading. Norwich have defeated Warnock’s sides on 14 occasions and Birmingham 13, with Manchester City, Bristol City, Preston, Fulham, Millwall, Cardiff and Wolves also reaching double figures.
