Neil Warnock at nearly 66 years old has revitalised his footballing career by signing again as manager at Crystal Palace. Warnock is a real warhorse, having been involved in playing and coaching teams at the higher levels for most of his life.
He first played for Chesterfield in 1967 and then moved on to Rotherham, Aldershot, Hartlepool, Scunthorpe, Barnsley, York and Crewe, playing over 320 times but only scoring 36 goals from a wing position. He then began his management career in 1980 at Gainborough Trinity, moving on to Burton Albion, Scarborough, Notts County, Torquay, Huddersfield, Plymouth, Oldham, Bury, Sheffield United (his boyhood favourite team), Crystal Palace (2007-10), Leeds, Queens Park Rangers and then back at Palace. He achieved promotion with seven of them, including taking Notts County, Sheffield United and Queens Park Rangers to the top tier of the English League. Warnock is highly superstitious and has revealed many bizarre rituals including stopping at all traffic lights following a win regardless of whether they're red or green, watching the film "When Saturday Comes" the day before a big match, using the same razorblade, only urinating when he has held on for as long as possible and remaining in the dressing room after the players have left to play.
Born in Sheffield on 1st December 1948, he is a lifelong supporter of the Blades, with whom he had his longest managerial spell at eight years, taking them to promotion to the Premier League in 2006 plus the League Cup and and FA Cup semi finals in 2003.
After being involved in Sunday League coaching, his first full managerial job was with Northern premier League side Gainsborough Trinity in 1981. Following this he managed Burton Albion and Scarborough. At Scarborough he won the Football Conference title in 1987, making them the first team to win automatic promotion to the Football League following the abolition of the re-election system.
Warnock had earlier spent time as a coach at Peterborough United. before in late 1988, Warnock became manager of Notts County in the Third Division. County achieved successive promotions to reach the First Division for 1991-2. Warnock was dismissed in January 1993 after County's relegation had cost them a place in the new Premier League.
In March 1993, Warnock took over as "consultant" at Torquay Utd, saving the club from relegation from the Football League. Warnock then took on the job at Huddersfield Town, his appointment coming in July 1993.
Warnock was quick to inject new blood into the Terriers' side but Town struggled for most of the 1993–94 season, their last at their old ground Leeds Road. He took the Terriers to the 1994 F.L. Trophy Final, losing on pens to Swansea City. The club's league form improved and mass optimism was further bolstered by the move to the new McAlpine Stadium for the 1994–95 season, when Town won the Yorkshire Electricity Cup in late 1994. Warnock's side were genuine contenders for automatic promotion until falling away in the final few games to finish 5th which was the final play-off spot that season owing to league re-structuring. The Terriers triumphed on penalties over second-placed Brentford after two thrilling ties and beat Bristol Rovers at Wembley. Warnock quit Huddersfield just days after their promotion, but made a swift and surprising return to management at Plymouth Argyle, who had just been relegated to Division Three.
In his first season as manager of Plymouth Argyle, Warnock took the club to Division Three play-off glory after finishing fourth in the league. The play-off semi-final was a memorable affair – Argyle played Colchester United and were 1–0 down from the first leg, but won 3–1 at Home Park in the second leg. During this game, Warnock was sent off from the dug-out. He responded to this by jumping into the crowd to watch the remainder of the match with the Argyle supporters. Argyle managed a 1–0 win over Darlington and gained promotion to Division Two. In February 1997, Warnock was surprisingly sacked as Argyle manager despite his popularity with the supporters. Following this successful spell, Warnock rounded out the 1990s with two relegations, first at Oldham Athletic in the 1996–97 season and then in 1998–99 at Bury.
Warnock was appointed as manager of his boyhood club Sheffield Utd on 2 December 1999. In 2002-3, Warnock led Sheffield United to the semi-finals of the League Cup and the FA Cup, losing both, as well as the First Division Play Off to Wolves. This was the first time in his management career that he had lost a play-off contest, as he had achieved four promotions via the playoffs in the 1990s.
At the end of the 2005-6 season the club was promoted to the Premier League as runners-up in The Championship.
The Blades performed well in their expected relegation battle, and for a long time looked to be heading for survival, but the club was relegated on the final day of the season.
Warnock wrote in his autobiography that minutes after the final game of the season, actor and Blades fan Sean Bean burst into his office, blaming Warnock for the team's relegation in a "foul-mouthed tirade" while Warnock's wife and daughter were present. Bean denied this, calling Warnock "bitter" and "hypocritical", and arguing that he would never use such language in front of another man's wife and children. Warnock resigned from the club following relegation to take some time out of football.
Warnock returned to football management with Crystal Palace on 11 October 2007. Having his personal friend Simon Jordan as owner and chairman was certainly a help in him getting the job. Palace made a massive turn-around, moving from relegation battlers to promotion contenders in the space of six months, with Warnock's use of youngsters a major factor in the improved performances and results. Palace made the play-offs in the end, but were beaten at the semi-final stage by Bristol City. Warnock stayed on for the 2008-9 season, but on taking the job a year earlier he had made it clear that the Crystal Palace job would be his last managerial role in football, with the club's finances beginning to take a turn for the worse.
The 2009-10 season saw Palace perform well despite being heavily restricted by the club's poor financial position, which resulted in the club being placed in administration late in January. A ten-point deduction was imposed by the Football League for this. Crystal Palace's administrator commented that Warnock was "let go" after telling the administrator he did not have the stomach for the fight to save the club.
March 1st 2010 saw Warnock join QPR as manager on a 3 and a half year deal, agreeing compensation with Crystal Palace. They beat WBA on their first game together! He helped QPR comfortably avoid relegation in 2009–10, including a 2–0 win against former club Crystal Palace. Warnock was awarded Manager of the Month for August 2010. QPR topped the table for the majority of the 2010-11 season and on 30 April 2011 were promoted as Championship champions.
Despite leading the club to the Premier League for the first time in 15 years, he was sacked on 8 January 2012 after the 1–2 home defeat to Norwich City on 2 January 2012. Warnock said, "Obviously I'm very disappointed but, having achieved so much, I leave the club with a great sense of pride. I have enjoyed my time here more than anywhere else and the QPR fans have been brilliant with me – they deserve success. My biggest regret is that the takeover didn't happen earlier, because that would have given me the opportunity to bring in the targets I'd pinpointed all last summer and probably given us a better chance to succeed in the Premier League. The board at QPR are hugely ambitious and I wish them every success for the future. I've been involved in the game a long time and I will be spending the immediate future with my family and friends before deciding my next career move."
On 18 February 2012, Warnock joined Leeds Utd as manager on a one-and-a-half-year deal until the end of the 2012–13 season. Leeds would go on to finish 14th in the Championship and during the summer of 2012 Warnock revamped the entire Leeds team with several new signings. Leeds would then go on to beat Wolves 1–0 at Elland Road on the opening day of the Championship. After a string of defeats and Leeds sitting five points off the relegation zone, Warnock parted company with the club on 1 April 2013.
On 27 August 2014, it was announced that Warnock would be appointed for a second spell in charge at Crystal Palace, following the departure of Tony Pulis. However, after a poor run of form, and Crystal Palace ending up in the bottom three, Warnock was sacked by the club on 27 December 2014.
In 2015, Warnock returned to Queens Park Rangers as first team advisor. On 4 November, he was placed in temporary charge of QPR following the departure of Chris Ramsey from the club.
On 11 February 2016, Neil Warnock was confirmed as the new Rotherham United manager for the remainder of the 2015–16 season, replacing Neil Redfearn. Warnock drew his first game in charge with a 0–0 draw against Birmingham City. He then lost his next two games, but then Rotherham went on an unbeaten run of 11 matches. Warnock was awarded the Championship Manager of the Month for March. The final win of the run was at MK Dons, where a 4–0 victory all but sealed Rotherham's survival in the Championship at the expense of their opponents. The season closed with Warnock stating he wanted one last season managing in the Championship and Rotherham hoping to secure his services for 2016–17.
However on 5 October 2016, Warnock was appointed first team manager of Cardiff City. They finished in 12th place in the Championship in Warnock's first season in charge. On 6 May 2018, Warnock guided Cardiff to promotion to the Premier League after a 0–0 draw against Reading. With this promotion Warnock became the first manager to win eight promotions in the professional leagues. However, he was unable to keep the team up and the team were relegated back to the Championship at the end of the season. Warnock left Cardiff on 11 November 2019 after just over three years as manager; his final match was a home loss to Bristol City.[ He described his time at Cardiff as some of the best days in his long football career.
On 23 June 2020, Warnock was appointed manager of Championship club Middlesbrough, with the club only outside the Championship relegation zone on goal difference after 38 games. He replaced Jonathan Woodgate who was sacked from his first job in management after less than a year in charge. In his first game in charge, on 27 June, Middlesbrough beat Stoke City 2–0 to climb to 19th in the league. Having been 21st in the table when Warnock took over, they finished 17th in the league. Although initially on a short-term contract, Warnock confirmed that he would continue as manager for the 2020–21 season. On 30 October 2021, he equalled the record for the most games managed in English professional football at 1,601 with a 2-0 loss to Birmingham City. Three days later he broke the record in the next match, another loss!!! 3-1 away to Luton Town.
To cap all this he was made Hartlepool Utd's Player of the Year in 1971-2, The Football Conference MoTYear in 1986-7 and BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2011 and the League Managers' Association Achievement Award in 2017-18. Along with his wife Sharon and four children he now lives in Stoke Climsland in Cornwall.
Statistics do not include Middlesbrough's home draw 1-1 with AFC Bournemouth on 19 September 2020 as Warnock was self-isolating after testing positive for Covid-19!
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