Neil Warnock speaks for first time on becoming interim manager for Torquay United, with his first game against Farnborough on Tuesday.
The 77 year old has been placed in temporary charge of the Gulls after boss Paul Wotton was sacked following Saturday’s 5-0 defeat by Chelmsford City.
Torquay sit 4th in the National League South, slipped from top spot, and are now 10 points from leaders Dorking with 12 games to go.
Interviewer: “First question really, you’re sat here today, you’ve obviously enjoyed the fact you’re perhaps going to have a bit of a rear look at the game as it were. Do you need this hassle, and what did Sharon say when you said to her, I’m taking charge of the team?”
Neil: “Not a lot really, I mean I didn’t envisage anything like this, I think it’s just something, I mean I brought Paul to the club, well I helped bring Paul to the club and I think he’s done a fantastic job over the last couple of years. So, you know it’s sad how it’s ended when a few weeks ago he got manager of the month, are you with me? That’s football, I understand that.
“As long as the fans realise what he’s done, because he built the club from nothing when he first came to play I think. So it’s a fabulous, and I just, with him leaving I wanted to just keep ticking on until they’ve had a chance, once they’ve made their mind up, I had nothing to do with him departing, once they’ve made their mind up, I said I’d help them a little bit more by making it so they don’t have to rush, because what you can’t do I think at this level with management is rush into appointing somebody and then regret it.
“And it’s a surprise for me to be here today, I mean I thought I would have been at Tottenham or at Forest or somewhere like that, I could do a better job couldn’t I? But no they never asked me, so I’ve had a few offers from Division 1 and I love the Championship as well, I love the Championship.
“So although I know it’s an age where people don’t normally get managerial jobs, like I’ve enjoyed this morning as if I’ve been here all year, it’s lovely to be back with the players, they keep you young.”
Interviewer: “I can imagine, you mentioned clubs like Forest, like Tottenham, when Neil Warnock gets a call in late February, early March, it’s generally sides who are struggling against relegation, it’s not for a side who three weeks ago were top of the league and are only fourth, how different is that?”
Neil: “Well it’s strange, as I said to the players this morning, I feel some of them have let Paul down a little bit in that respect, and I shouldn’t have been addressing them this morning, but it’s football really, it’s a horrible game at times when you’re a manager, it’s a lonely job, but as I said to Paul, he’s got to hold his head up, I think he’s done a fantastic job over the two years, and we haven’t got to forget that, I just want to make the players that he’s signed perform like he knows they can, that’s my sort of job, and if I can’t do it then so be it.”
Interviewer: “You talked a lot and praised Paul a lot, how tough was it for you when you heard the news, because obviously you talked about how instrumental you were in bringing Paul to the club, and you two worked very closely together?”
Neil: “Well we kept in touch, I didn’t know about any of the meetings that were held etc, so I think the board, I had to leave early on Saturday, I left just after 2-0, because I’d got commitments, but disappointing on Saturday, and the last few weeks have probably been the same.
“And football is like that, you listen at times to the fans, it’s like you read social media at times, I remember leaving Cardiff when I thought, I read social media for about three months and I thought, I deserve better than this having taken them to the Premier League, and I left, but then I realised it’s only a minority of people, twiddling thumbs, nothing else to do in the bedrooms, with no friends, most of them, so it’s a matter, it’s hard for my idea, you hear all the bad things and you don’t get to see or hear the good things really.”
Interviewer: “How long are you going to do this for? Because you’ve got Farnborough tomorrow night.”
Neil: “I have no idea, I have no idea, I mean in my own mind, I’m doing tomorrow night, that’s all, I don’t know whether I need this at my age, are you with me?
“I have enjoyed this morning I must admit, I’ve enjoyed speaking to the players and being on the training ground, because I have watched them quite a few times, so it’s nice to be able to probably just do one or two other things having watched them, and I hope that they can come through with that.
“So it’s, you know, I have nothing after tomorrow night in my mind at the moment, I could be at Tottenham on Friday couldn’t I? Could well be. You just don’t know in football do you Dave?”
Interviewer: “Final one from me, three weeks ago Torquay were top of the league and people were talking about a title, could Torquay still win this league?”
Neil: “Absolutely, yeah, I don’t see any reason why, they’ve still got talking to players haven’t they? Got some good players, I think it’s shown with the injuries, because the injuries have been bad, to lose both centre halves, now we’ve lost a striker, I thought Calum at the time of his injury was probably the best wide player in the league. So to lose four players like that, you just can’t cope at this level, but it’s given everybody else an opportunity, so as I’ve said to the lads this morning, you’re all in the team and you’ve all got to lift yourself a little bit.
“With me being in charge I expect certain things from the team and I let them know what I expect, because tomorrow night it’s under my regime as well and I don’t want things to happen tomorrow night that’s happened in the last couple of weeks.”
“At the moment I didn’t want to disturb anything like that.”
Interviewer: “What like bringing somebody in right now?”
Neil: “No, so it’s a matter of just seeing how we are, because they’ve been shell-shocked really the last few games, it’s not been them and I’m hoping I can get them out of the mood that they’re in, but only time will tell on that really.”
Interviewer: “A couple of us in this room remember you coming in 33 years ago.”
Neil: “I don’t think things were as bad as they are, they were worse a bit then weren’t they?”
Interviewer: “Because you enjoyed yourself back in North Korea.”
Neil: “Well I wouldn’t be here now Dave if I didn’t enjoy myself, I remember Kevin Blackwell, he rang me this morning, he’s in Poland at Lechia Gdansk, and he rang me to say, what are you doing Gaffer? He said I’ve just seen him, and I remember him ringing me, don’t forget we were at the top flight with Notts County, I mean that’s hard to really imagine, I took them up to the top flight and then got the sack, I turned Chelsea down and then six months later I got the sack.
“And so you get, not immune to it, but it’s one, I remember him saying please come down to Torquay, and everybody that I knew said Neil you’ve got to be daft for that, if you get relegated with Torquay where are you going to get another job from? You know you’ve been in the top flight with Notts County, and I had a few other offers, it just felt good Dave, Sharon and I, we just, I don’t, I’m not very often go with my head, I think I’ve turned jobs down really that you shouldn’t have turned down, and I’ve done jobs that you probably shouldn’t have done. But I’ve always gone with my heart rather than my head, and I don’t regret that, because I’ve had good times, and I’ve managed to be one of the most successful managers really haven’t I, with all the games and the promotions, but it’s not rocket science, I was looking at those young faces this morning, and the eyes, and nothing changes really. You know, I mean I don’t know how they’re going to perform tomorrow, but you know.”
Interviewer: “There’s not a huge amount, there’s no magic wands is there?”
Neil: “No there isn’t, I mean you can, like I say I’ve changed one or two things, but that’s nothing against Paul, what Paul’s done, I just, you know, there’s one or two things that I believe in which I would bring into anything or whatever, but you know it makes you realise how much you miss it Dave, you know being on the training ground this morning, you know you can’t replicate that camaraderie with the players. It doesn’t matter what you do, you can do talkSPORT, Sky TV and all that, it doesn’t replicate.”
Interviewer: “I remember one of the points you made when you first came down, when you came down 33 years ago, must stop saying that, was how much of a boost you got from players at bottom level, not on big wages, but you know all trying to fight their way up.”
Neil: “Well Trollope, Moore, you know Darren Moore, 50 quid, 70 quid a week some of them.”
Interviewer: “That’s right, and you’re dealing with players at similar level now, and they’re not fancy Dan’s are they or anything like that?”
Neil: No, I mean you know you can look around today and Paul’s brought some great people in to the club, some good characters and I think when you look, not just in Torquay but when you look at other teams as well in every league, Premiership downwards really, there aren’t many leaders around now. You know your centre half used to boss everything, now everybody thinks they can play, you know you’ve got goalkeepers that think they’re centre halves now and you’re playing, and yet you know nothing’s changed Dave, nothing’s changed in football.
“I enjoyed my time when I went to Pep, I told you about when I went to Pep, and you know that’s the greatest manager I’ve ever seen, and yet he’s still picking my brains. And I think our football in this country is second to none really, and like I say I enjoyed this morning, I hope I enjoyed tomorrow night as much as this morning, but I can’t tell you that.”
Interviewer: “You mentioned obviously about the fact there’s a Manager of the Month for Paul and last season, missed promotion by a whisker, it’s only been a few bad results at a very critical time in the season, I mean is the club taking a bit of a risk making a change like this do you think?”
Neil: “Yeah I think so yeah, no good denying that, as I said I brought Paul to the club so I was glad I didn’t have anything to do with that, I didn’t have any impact of what they’re saying, but I did say I’d help them no matter what when I came into the club. And I’ve got some good friendships with Michael and Mark and one or two others, so I understand what they’re saying, I’m not saying that I agree with it, but then there again you shouldn’t forget where we are and what we’re doing really, and at this moment in time I don’t think there’s anybody better than probably myself to help them through this difficult time really.”
Interviewer: “You mentioned already that you’ve enjoyed being back at training, just give me a little bit more of a sense of what’s it like, because essentially you’d retired from management but here you are…”
Neil: “When did I retire from management?”
Interviewer: “Well you know what I mean, from actually day to day being on a training ground with the players.”
Neil: “It’s just how I am that’s all, the way I am, I’m that type of manager. Even Pep said to me when we had a chat and I had a chat with his players and made them laugh with a few things that I said, and he said to me after, I understand why you have so much success Neil, he said because we don’t have humour in the game nowadays, it’s all data, stats, people up there picking a team, somebody down there on a computer telling me who to sign, you know we forget, and I don’t forget that, I love the humour and that’s what I enjoyed.
“Today I enjoyed making some of them laugh, but I also wanted to make sure, I’m sure they understood the seriousness of the situation at the same time, and I won’t tolerate certain things either. It’s just good, that’s how I am, I do enjoy that humour and I even pick on somebody. But that’s how I am really, I enjoy that, I know the lads probably have a go at me behind my back as well, but I don’t mind that, as long as when that whistle goes they give me absolutely everything, that’s all I ask.
Interviewer: “In the very short term, you mentioned about Matt Jay supporting you, you’re not going to be making drastic changes straight away, will it be a case of a game off two and then see how it goes and then work it out from there?”
Neil: “I don’t think you can make drastic changes, is it ten or twelve games to go, well you can’t really make drastic changes, so I won’t be making drastic changes, it’s just getting over tomorrow and seeing how they respond to what I’ve said to them today and then just playing it by ear really. It might be tomorrow night, the board might tell me that the ideal person to take over has come to their notice and that won’t bother me at all, are you with me?
“So you just don’t know, I don’t know what’s around the corner, all I knew is I said I’d help them out, I don’t necessarily agree with what they’ve done, but they know that anyhow, so it’s just a matter of me helping them out.”
Interviewer: “What was the confidence of the players like when you went in this morning, did you have to try and bring up the confidence or did you get them to do that?”
Neil: “I always do that really, but it’s bound to be fragile when you’ve lost to the bottom of the league twice in a week and then you get battered at home, but I’ve reminded them where they were three weeks ago, reminded them what Paul won three or four weeks ago and how quickly football changes, how quickly they’ve got to change back to where we were.
“And if they listen to me and do what I want them to do, they will do, they’ll change back, because everybody has bad periods and you have to overcome that and even at the top level when I watch the top level games, you can see the players are lacking in confidence at the minute and then all of a sudden they bounce back.”
Interviewer: “Because there’s players in the squad that have done really well this season and then they’ve had off days and you just want some kind of consistency don’t you from them really?”
Neil: “But every manager really tries to get the team to be consistent, I don’t think anybody tries to be the opposite really, it’s just how you get that consistency really. Every manager is different, every manager has something what they do or say and I’m just, I think probably like nobody else really, I don’t think I’ve got anybody to copy, I say what I say and do what I do and I enjoy it.
“If I didn’t enjoy it, no disrespect to you guys, I wouldn’t be sat here with you all day long, if I’m honest. I did say four o’clock today and then I thought no, they said four o’clock, I said no I’ll do it a bit earlier so I can help you out Dave to get on with the journey all day.
“But no, we should look forward to it really and there were a lot of people wanting change on Saturday and I think I would imagine that everybody will hope that the change will work, like I say I’m a bit apprehensive of that but I hope that I can bring something to the team to get them back on the winning ways really.”
Interviewer: “You came back the second time, I know you were impressed when you first got involved with the club, when you were fighting against relegation and you were impressed with the crowd and how they were trying to lift them, you were best part of 3,300 on Saturday after a really bad run, I imagine you’re hoping that the fans get behind.”
Neil: “I don’t think all the fans were chanting for Paul but unfortunately the loud ones are the ones you hear and so I have no doubt they get behind me, I mean the club’s not paying me a penny so they can’t have a go at me, if I get the sack I get the sack don’t I? But I’m going to do my best while I can and that’s why the fans, the pop side of it, they’ll really get behind us tomorrow, I’ve no doubt whatsoever.
“I wouldn’t be sat here if I didn’t think they would because that’s part of the draw into the pull day, how the fans were when I first came and how they’ve been. They can win you games, the fans especially, at home and away from home, we take a lot of fans away from home don’t we? So I hope they all get behind us tomorrow.
“I won’t be walking out on the pitch waving to everybody tomorrow, just got to sit down and get on with the job. So I hope they don’t boo me for not walking around and the Neil Warnock night, it’s not one of them John, it’s all about Torquay tomorrow night and let’s hope the lads can put on a performance.”