‘It’s a lonely job’: Neil Warnock on management, Guardiola and his ire for Ferguson
Veteran manager tells Donald McRae about his 45-year-career, upcoming tour and missing out on Virgil van Dijk
‘I was at Crystal Palace and I wanted a centre-half,” Neil Warnock says as, after 45 years as a manager, he describes how football has changed since his rise from non-league to the Premier League. “I sent Ronnie Jepson, my assistant, to Scotland to watch a centre-half. And he came back and said he would cost us around £4m, but he was very good. So I told the people at Crystal Palace.”
Warnock resists identifying Steve Parish, Palace’s chairman, by name for he is deep in a story that illustrates how data analytics is not always infallible. “He asked for 24 hours and went to the data people. The next day he said: ‘We don’t want to go ahead.’ I asked him why and he said they don’t think he’s quick enough. I said: ‘He might not look quick enough, but he’s in second gear in Scotland. If he had to sprint, he’d sprint.’”
‘Players think it is a quick fix’: Livingston’s Brian Rice on breaking free of gambling addiction
Livingston’s head of football operations on the fallout from his 10-game ban for betting on matches
Conversation with Brian Rice flows easily. Brian Clough pounced to sign the red-haired midfielder after he failed to agree a contract with Hibernian in the summer of 1985. “Eff me, it’s Steve Davis,” roared Clough as Rice entered the manager’s office for the first time.
It took until September ‘85 for a tribunal to determine Nottingham Forest would have to pay Hibs close to £200,000 for Rice. He had been unable to play until that dispute was resolved. Clough bawled at Rice again as he walked on to the training pitch the following day. “‘You’ll need to go back to Scotland. I’d need to sell the stand to sign you son,’” Rice recalls.