Product Description

Renowned for his outspoken, colourful character, Neil Warnock here exclusively tells the story of his life in football.

Warnock began his career as a player in 1967, and over the next eleven years played with a number of clubs including Scunthorpe United and Barnsley as a winger. In 1980 he took on his first managerial role with Northern Premier League side Gainsborough Trinity, and has since managed a number of clubs, including Notts County, Oldham Athletic and Bury, before finding his true home with Sheffield United.

Perhaps the Blades’ most famous fan, Warnock’s loyalty to Sheffield United is legendary. Having been appointed in 1999, he became the sixth longest-serving manager in league football. In 2003, Warnock saw United to the semi-finals of the FA Cup and the League Cup as well as the final of the First Division play-off. He cemented his place in the Blades’ history books by leading them back to the Premiership in April 2006, after twelve years in the First Division. He finally parted company with Sheffield United in May 2007.

Neil Warnock tells his story with his trademark humour and passion, offering a fascinating insight into the journey of a football manager from the Northern Premier League to the Premier League.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #139754 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 356 pages

Review
‘A fund of well-told anecdotes.’ (Telegraph )

‘One striking theme of his books is that this is a man who has rolled up his sleeves at every level of the game and relished it.’ (The Times )

About the Author
Born in 1948, Neil Warnock has enjoyed a long career in football. His 11-year career as a player saw him make 326 appearances for clubs including Scunthorpe United, Barnsley, York City, and Crewe. He began his managerial career at Burton Albion in 1981 and has since managed Gainsborough Trinity, Scarborough, Notts County, Huddersfield Town, Plymouth Argyle, Oldham Athletic and Bury. He managed Sheffield United from 1999 to 2007.

Customer Reviews

Entertaining and opinonated but also lacking in self awareness.A true reflection of its author then.
Neil Warnock clearly has a vibrant sense of humour and there is no doubt that this is an entertaining read. However this is off-set by his delusional opinions and lack of humility. The man is one of those people who cannot ever accept his culpability for anything. So however endearing his droll take on events is you are immediately alienated by his refusal to even consider that he -Neil Warnock - might ever have got something slightly wrong and contributed to whatever disasters befell the teams under his control.
Take Sheffield United's relegation last season. It was other managers failure for fielding weakened teams, referees at fault for being ...well. rubbish referees , the players fault for being poor and tactically naive , conveniently forgetting that it was he that coached them and prepared them for the games . And of course there is The Carlos Tevez affair where he does deserve some sympathy . But having realised where the wind was blowing why did he just not accept the fact and motivate his team to perform instead of consistently whinging , then , they just might have scored enough goals to stay up. The only other caveat it's fair enough to accept is the impact the injury to Rob Hulse had , but you should never rely on one player because if he gets injured........
I am genuinely torn about Warnock , he is amusing, honest and passionate but he is also a fantasist , over opinionated , biased to a deleterious degree, pig headed , and lacking any form of self awareness, making him unable to change in any way. He is also immature at times . I don,t think its right for anybody in his position to find one player head-butting another "hilarious" even if the victim was Marcus Bent . The book as a consequence is a good read in an undemanding way. Its fun but lacks true insight and depth and is as likely to annoy as much as anything else and in that respect it's a perfect reflection of its, author.

Interesting but not endearing
Neil Warnock is one of football's most colourful characters. In this book you get a pretty good idea of his dry wit, and there's no mistaking the fact the man isn't short of a sense of humour. However what does become apparent more than ever is the lack of reason or accountability for his own actions. His honesty within the book is not in doubt, but there are moments where he proves himself to be a hypocrite, always blaming the opposition managers for any fall outs he has had with them, even after often admitting that he set out to wind them up initially.
Certainly an interesting read, but if you're one of the many that find Mr Warnock hard to stomach then this is unlikely to endear him to you.

A highly entertaining story
Whilst I can understand the criticism levelled by previous reviewers about Warnock's inability to criticise himself, I found my generally positive view of him confirmed and increased by the book. I think being a football manager requires a huge amount of self-confidence, and he certainly has that in spades, which inevitably means that analysing where he went wrong does not come naturally. Nonetheless, when you read this and look at how much he achieved with little or no money at clubs like Scarborough, Notts County, Plymouth and even (relative to other clubs of similar stature) Sheff. Utd., you can understand why he feels he should have had the chance to work at bigger clubs.

As a Blades fan, I'm grateful for his achievements, and whilst there may have been failings on his part in the relegation season, I honestly believe the club was discriminated against in the Tevez affair. It's the last section dealing with Warnock's time at Bramall Lane that I naturally found most interesting, and there are plenty of insights into behind the scenes incidents and personalities, with his clashes with other managers particularly entertaining.

As you would expect, Warnock is not afraid to criticise anyone, from refs to players to managers or the FA, but this bombast is balanced by his sense of humour and love and enthusiasm for (most of) the clubs he managed and for the game in general. He is clearly a masterful motivator of players and (when not deliberately winding up opposing managers) a genuinely nice bloke.

Love him or loath him, football would be a duller sport without Neil Warnock, and his book is every bit as entertaining as you would imagine.