Neil Warnock announces retirement from football aged 73 after 42 years in management and 16 clubs
Legendary football manager Neil Warnock has announced his retirement from football after 42 years in management, telling Sky Sports now is „the right time“ to move on.
Warnock confirmed his retirement from football during Soccer Saturday having last managed Championship side Middlesbrough, who he left in November 2021.
In total Warnock managed more than 1,600 games across his managerial career, winning a record eight Football League promotions and leading Sheffield United, Queens Park Rangers and Cardiff to the Premier League. He also holds the record for the most games managed in English professional football.
„I just thought it was the right time, really, coming towards the end of the season, there’s not really a job you’re going to get before then,“ he told Sky Sports. „I’ve had a good run really. I’m enjoying things I’ve not done for years, I’m having a lot of time with the family, my dogs and I’ve taken up cycling too.
„I’m not saying the enthusiasm’s gone, I’ve not lost that, but when I see some of my friends who are struggling health wise, there comes a time where you have to let your family enjoy a little bit more of your time, in particular my wife Sharon.
„When you’re a manager you’re very selfish, you take your job home with you whether you’re on a high or a low and it’s very difficult for your wife and kids.
„It’s hard to replicate the final whistle when you’ve won a game, there’s nothing quite like that in normal life, and you have to realise you’re not going to get that buzz again in that situation. But I’m doing a couple of evenings in the theatre, and I imagine I’ll still be nervous before them!“
Warnock had been in discussions with a number of clubs following his departure from Middlesbrough, but was unsure about dropping divisions after managing for the past two decades in the top two leagues of English football.
He began his managerial career with Gainsborough Trinity and Burton Albion before leading Scarborough into the Football League in 1986/87. From there he won Notts County back-to-back promotions and into the First Division for 1991/92.
He achieved his third Football League promotion through the play-offs with Huddersfield in 1994/95, before adding a fourth with Plymouth a year later crowned by their first trip to Wembley Stadium. He had his first taste of Premier League management when he led boyhood club Sheffield United to the top flight in 2005/06, and returned there with QPR in 2010/11.
Perhaps his most impressive top-flight promotion came with unfancied Cardiff City in 2017/18 in what would prove to be his penultimate role before moving to the Riverside until the end of last year.
A career in words…
Best memory: „There were so many. I was lucky having eight promotions and you can’t really pick one out. I’d always supported Sheffield United, getting them promoted was really special, but I enjoyed so many times – Notts County, Huddersfield, Plymouth, were all really good.
„I thought my biggest achievement was not even a promotion – it was keeping Rotherham in the Championship, when we were six points adrift with 16 games to go and eight out of the top nine clubs to play. We went on a fabulous run.
„What a great group of boys they were, they were limited in certain attributes but we got them believing in themselves and we went to places like Sheffield Wednesday and won, which was always special for me.“
Biggest regret: „Only really Sheffield United losing to Wigan in our last game and getting relegated, and all the Carlos Tevez things. The bitterness is still there for me with Rafa Benitez playing kids against Fulham for Liverpool, I don’t think half of those played again, and then Sir Alex Ferguson playing what was essentially a B team against West Ham.
„That was the sourest moment for me – we didn’t deserve to go down. If it was the other way around, I think we would’ve been docked points.“
Most memorable player: „I’d have to say Adel Taraabt because of how he was. When I turned up at QPR he was bombed out, I remember our first practice match the sun was out and he had black gloves on! I was still finding out who everyone was and someone told me, ‘you don’t want to know him, gaffer, he’ll get you the sack’.
„But I liked him, there was something about him, and I built a team around him really. To see us get promotion was very special, he had an amazing season and I don’t think he’s had one like it since.
„He was the most talented, but there were also players like Victor Moses and Wilfried Zaha at Crystal Palace, the ability those three had was unbelievable. I’ve had some good midfielders and centre-halves, and struggled up front down the years!“
I wish I had worked with…: „There’s a lot of players you look back at and think, ‘blinking heck, I could’ve signed him’. At Sheffield United a scout recommended a second division player in France, and said he’d cost us £100,000.
„‘£100,000 for a second division striker in France?’ I said, ‘we can’t do that.’ And his name was Didier Drogba – so you do make mistakes. There’s been a lot of players I’ve tried to sign and couldn’t quite do financially at the time.“
Most memorable game: „The final games where we got promoted were very special. Sheffield United at Cardiff on Good Friday, where we won a great game and Leeds had to win the following day and didn’t.
„Real drama was probably when Nottingham Forest came to Bramall Lane in the play-offs and we were 2-0 down, and we stormed back and won it. It’s one of the most memorable halves of football I’ve ever been involved in. There was the Notts County cup final, taking 35,000 Plymouth fans to Wembley for the first time too – people still talk to me about that.“
One piece of advice to a young Neil Warnock: „If you’re going to be a manager long-term, you’ve got to decide what you want to do and be strong, believe in yourself. My one bit of advice would be to have a good chairman, it doesn’t half help.
„Simon Jordan was mine at Crystal Palace, I had a few bad times and he was brilliant with me. Mehmet Dalman at Cardiff too was brilliant.“
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