Neil Warnock

8:57am Wednesday 22nd August 2007

2007 may see the end of Neil Warnock as a manager. TONY KELLY reports.

NEW Year's Eve is always momentous - but it could pack an even bigger punch for football maverick, Neil Warnock.

The man, who once led York City for one game, his debut no less, and more significantly also steered North Yorkshire neighbours Scarborough into the Football League as the first team to automatically gain promotion from the then Conference, may well end his football management days as the first bars of Auld Lang Syne next begin to usher forth.

Warnock is currently out of work - either as a player or a manager - for the first time in close on four decades since he resigned this summer from Sheffield United soon after their dispiriting descent from the Premiership.

Warnock revealed with veritable Kevin Keegan zeal how he would love, would dearly love' to land just one more crack at football management believing he has it in him to propel one more club to massive achievement.

But he has agreed a pack-it-all-in pact with his wife Sharon and witnessed by his two children William and Amy.

As he revealed on his current whirlwind tour of signing copies of his autobiography Made In Sheffield, My Story, Warnock has agreed that if no worthwhile job offer should be forthcoming by the midnight hour of New Year's Eve, then 2008 will herald the start of a new life of retirement in the family Cornwall home.

Such idling thoughts remain far removed from Warnock's mind though even if he is revelling in the extra time he now has to spend in the bosom of his family.

In almost confessional tones, Warnock said: "There's no denying it. I would love to get back into management.

"But if a job comes up it would have to be the right job that would offer me the right challenge with the right sort of fan base and potential."

Often describing himself as a Red Adair type of manager - one to put out fires before reigniting better-directed flames of passion - the blunt-speaking Warnock wants a club that will maximise those talents.

Yorkshire born and bred and as proud of that heritage as anyone hailing from the eastern side of the Pennines, Warnock expressed his sadness on the parlous plight of his beloved county's football.

There's no longer a Premiership presence since the Blades' acrimonious demise; Sheffield Wednesday are languishing near the foot of the Championship; Leeds United are another rung further down; York City no more boast Football League status; while the Scarborough Warnock holds dear does not exist, with a new incarnation consigned to the Northern Counties East League and playing 20 miles down the road at Bridlington.

He said: "It is shocking, the state of Yorkshire football because there are some great clubs in Yorkshire.

"People have taken things for granted over a lot of years and have not got anything right or made the right appointments or got the best support of the fans.

"I think that sometimes the emphasis on making money has been too much and perhaps it's now starting to come back the other way."

Whether Warnock will be back at the hub of such a spin cycle back to less venal values remains to be seen over the next four months.

If he is not and he does retire, there will be many who will rejoice, a fact Warnock would recognise.

He has made many enemies in domestic football since he was first taken on as a wide-eyed winger from the steel city at nearby Chesterfield in the late 1960s.

But he feels that his reputation has been unfairly tainted and points to the response he has had from fans of lots of clubs during his book-signing tour as evidence of that.

At the session at Scarborough, where he made his first major managerial impact, he was signing books with his "Be Lucky" message for more than two hours. Morgan Aird, who has been involved in many celebrity signings at Waterstones bookstores, said that only the launch of the last Harry Potter book had done better business than Warnock's arrival in the resort's branch.

Said the man, often cast in almost a pantomime villain role: "I have enjoyed doing the book as it has been massively therapeutic for me, especially with the way things went in the last few weeks of the season at Sheff U.

"And I have loved the book-signing as much for the way many supporters have not only said that Sheffield United were hard done by last season, but fans have also said they have respected what I have done. They've shown what I believe is true that the people of Yorkshire have a lot of warmth.

"I have never forgotten my roots. As a player I wasn't anything special yet I had eight or nine clubs and made almost 300 appearances.

"As a player and a manager I have always tried to put something back into the clubs I have been associated with.

"I have always tried to give value for money and given time to people."

Meet the A'-team along the A64

NORTH Yorkshire figures large in the career of Neil Warnock.

While his York City association was brief - just one full game and three substitute appearances in six months of 1978 - further along the A64, Warnock will never be forgotten for his days as manager of Scarborough.

To the man from Sheffield, his achievements with the resort club were only bettered when he took his beloved Blades to the Premiership in May, 2006.

Recalled Warnock: "Even when I took Notts County to the top flight (then the old First Division) what we achieved at Scarborough was always better.

"When I arrived we had just one player signed on, Neil Thompson. I brought through something like 47 players to the ground and showed them around.

"To me Scarborough was like Manchester United and I convinced players of what the future was going to be."

When he gathered the squad he wanted - Warnock once calling them "misfits and rejects" - he moulded them into a formidable force.

And, despite being on meagre wages compared to some of their rivals, Warnock's warriors overhauled then Conference leaders Barnet - in some circles already promoted by Easter - to become the first team in the history of the game to win automatic promotion to the Football League.

Enthused Warnock: "It was amazing what we did. We created a piece of history that no one can ever take away from us."

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