DAILY MIRROR: " NEIL WARNOCK "

Why Cardiff's Neil Warnock deserves more respect for his no-nonsense approach

Daily Mirror

Friday 16th March 2018


THE race for promotion from the Championship is one of the tightest for years.

Wolves have led from the front for much of the season, Aston Villa were one of the bookies’ favourites and Fulham have hit form at just the right time.

But entrenched in the second automatic place are Cardiff City whose unlikely push for the Premier League is being led by Neil Warnock, the master when it comes to winning promotion.

Incredibly, Warnock, 69, is on course for a record breaking eighth promotion in a colourful career which has taken in 16 different clubs.

But arguably this is one of his best achievements to date because Cardiff has been a difficult club to manage and has one of the smaller budgets in the Championship.

While some of the Championship big guns have complained about Wolves and the influence of super agent Jorge Mendes, just look at Cardiff’s squad.

There are no stars, just journeymen and hungry players with a point to prove and, at this rate, they are on course for a return to the Premier League.

Their win at Brentford in midweek was their seventh on the trot and has seen them go seven points clear of third placed Villa with just nine games to play.

It would take one hell of a collapse from here to see Cardiff not make the promised land and, for Warnock, that would mean another crack at the Premier League.

There can be few better managers around than Warnock who deserves more respect than he is often given from his no-nonsense approach.

Warnock took over at Cardiff when they were struggling, they were no-one’s choice for promotion this season and yet they go from strength to strength.

The magic of Warnock and what he has done again this time is to build a spirit within the group, an unbreakable dressing room and players who are determined to win.

Cardiff’s controversial owner Vincent Tan definitely got lucky when he went for Warnock who, by his own admission, wanted one more crack at management to satisfy his own ambitions to get back into the Premier League and mix it with the big boys.

Where Cardiff deserve credit is giving Warnock a new contract earlier this season on the back of a wobble - and their faith has been repaid.

Warnock always divides opinions within football - often because of his outspoken attacks on referees and chairmen - but he has forged an unlikely partnership with unfashionable Cardiff and can take them all the way to the top again.

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Basically saying,oh shit we 've ignored Cardiff city all season,lets give warnock and his team some credit,before its to late,because they are serious contenders for going up

Good to be in the background.

It's a very good article

'unfashionable Cardiff', We are many things but I would never have had us down as unfashionable Cardiff !!!

Basically saying,oh shit we 've ignored Cardiff city all season,lets give warnock and his team some credit,before its to late,because they are serious contenders for going up

I thought exactly the same, only gave him the credit he deserves when they had to, these types of reports are well overdue, still it has kept the pressure off !!!

'unfashionable Cardiff', We are many things but I would never have had us down as unfashionable Cardiff !!!

It's because we don't wear ripped jeans with holes in the knees.

Kenneth Zohore, Junior Hoilett, Joe Ralls, Sean Morrison, Bruno Manga, Marko Grujic, Callum Paterson are journeymen? Do they even have any idea who plays for us?

do we really have one of the smallest budgets in the league?

do we really have one of the smallest budgets in the league?

No
We are in the top half in money spent I would think!?

Did a child write that

Being City fans we would have a completely different perspective because we have a vested interest in CCFC. The article is aimed at the rest of the UK who know nothing about us.

Compared with Wolves and Villa there are no superstars. We probably have a much bigger budget than is inferred because of the parachute payments but still we are not the League biggest spenders.

At the beginning of the season I remember there was a lot positivity on this board about our chances of at least getting a play-off place, although most thought the autos were a step too far.

However, the national media hardly gave us a mention apart from one pundit on Channel 5's football league show.

So I take the article as a back handed compliment and they have rightly identified Neil Warnock as the driving force. They even got the 'lucky' tag about the circumstances of his appointment right so it is not as bad as some might think (IMO)