Neil Warnock Biography

Neil Warnock, born 1 December 1948 in Sheffield in Yorkshire and the Humber, England, is an English football manager. He currently manages Championship side Middlesbrough. Neil Warnock was a former professional footballer and played as a winger from 1967 at Crewe Alexandra until he retired as a player in 1979 at Chesterfield. Additionally, he worked for various British radio and television channels.

Warnock is famous for his caustic style of commenting on players, supporters and referees, which has frequently led to problems with both club management and the Football Association. He has successfully managed to get his clubs promoted eight times. During his career.

Warnock played for several minor league teams during his playing career from 1967 to 1979. His playing career included spells at Chesterfield, Rotherham United, Hartlepool United, Scunthorpe United,

,

, York City and Crewe Alexandra.

Warnock's career as head coach began at

in 1981, a position he held for five years. After leaving Burton Albion, Warnock became head coach of Scarborough and claimed the Conference Championship in 1987. Then in 1989, Warnock took over as head coach of Notts County and successfully lifted them from the 3rd Division to the First Division in two years.

However, Notts County was immediately relegated and Warnock departed the club in 1993. From 1993 to 1999 Warnock worked for Torquay United, Huddersfield Town, Plymouth Argyle, Oldham Athletic and Bury.

He was appointed head coach of Sheffield United in 1999, where he remained until 2007. He took the club to the semi-finals of the FA Cup and League Cup in 2003 and three years later from the Championship to the Premier League. But Sheffield United did not manage to stay in the league for more than one season and Warnock stepped down.

All You Need to Know About Neil Warnock Biography

From 2007 to 2010, he managed Crystal Palace before transferring to Queens Park Rangers, whom he led to the Premier League at the end of the 2010-2011 season. Eventually, Warnock was dismissed by the club's board in January 2012 after QPR played nine matches without a win.

Following his coaching spell at QPR, Warnock went on to work for the likes of Leeds United, Crystal Palace (second spell), Queens Park Rangers (Interim head coach) and Rotherham United, before signing a contract with

.

Cardiff steadily improved their performances under the experienced Warnock. Warnock guided Cardiff from victory to victory in the 2017-2018 season in the Premier League to challenge for promotion to the Premier League. The Welsh side came second in the Championship and secured a straight promotion back to the Premier League following a four-year break.

In the 2018-2019 season, Cardiff was unable to retain their league position and was relegated back to the Championship, just two points behind Brighton.

Cardiff could not fight for promotion to the Premier League in the 2019-2020 season. Stuck in the middle of the Championship, Cardiff's board and Warnock agreed to terminate the contract in November 2019. This was followed by a return to coaching in June 2020 with relegation struggling Middlesbrough in the Championship.

Neil Warnock Information

Now that we know the English football coach much better, in this section of

Neil Warnock biography

we will share more general information about him such as

Neil Warnock nationality

to let you know him even better.

Neil Warnock Bio

• Full Name: Neil Warnock

• Nickname: Colin

• Profession: Professional Football Coach

Neil Warnock Physical Stats

• Weight: 71 Kg

• Height: 1.75 m

• Eye Color: Blue

• Hair Color: Light Brown

Neil Warnock Football Information

• Position: Winger

• Jersey Number: 7

• Professional Debut: 1967

Neil Warnock Date of Birth and Personal Info

• Date of Birth: 1 December 1948

• Birth Place: Sheffield, England

• Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius

• Nationality: English

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Neil Warnock biography

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Neil Warnock childhood

.

Neil Warnock Early Life

He started his professional football playing career with the Chesterfield club back in 1967, when he was just 19 years old. Having played a total of 24 league matches for the clubs and scored 2 goals over the course of two seasons, he joined

United in 1969.

Just like his time with the Chesterfield club,

stayed with his new team Rotherham United for only two seasons, playing in a total of 52 league matches and scoring 5 goals, before moving to the Hartlepool United, where he established himself as one of the best players of the club and even won the Hartlepool United Player of the Year in the 1971-72 season.

During the rest of his playing career, Warnock made appearances for many other clubs, including the Scunthorpe United, Aldershot FC, Barnsley FC,

and Crewe Alexandra in the lower leagues.

After making 21 league appearances in the 1978-79 season in Crewe Alexandra, Neil Warnock decided to end his professional playing career. The midfielder, who usually played on the outside, played a total of 326 games but was never able to convince ambitious clubs in the top flight to sign him.

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Neil Warnock biography

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Neil Warnock Profile

He first coached a club in the amateur Northern Premier League, Burton Albion, in 1981. While still working in his skilled profession as a podiatrist, he was appointed Scarborough FC's sporting director in 1986 and guided the club to the Fourth Division and professional status in 1987, after winning the Football Conference championship. He stayed at Scarborough until November 1988, after which he stepped down to take up the vacant coaching post at Notts County in the Third Division.

Notts County

Just a few days later Warnock was appointed Notts County's new coach. In his first full coaching season, 1989/90, he transformed the former Third Division relegation candidates into a team that was promoted to the Second Division through the play-offs.

He even managed a direct run into the top-flight First Division the following year by once again going through the play-off matches. Nevertheless, this trip to the elite English league was to last only one year and

County was immediately relegated again, which meant that they missed the opportunity to become a founding member of the Premier League.

Following more mixed months, in which relegation seemed more likely than a direct return to the Premier League, Warnock stepped down as head coach, but ultimately the club managed to stay in the league without him.

Torquay United

After leaving Notts County, Warnock was offered a consultant position at fourth division side Torquay United, who were struggling for relegation at the time. Within days of Warnock taking up his post, the manager Paul Compton stepped down and accused the club's management of trying to dump him. Warnock then took over as manager for the rest of the season but stepped down once the club had avoided relegation.

Now stay tuned to this section of Neil Warnock biography as we want to share some info about his career with

.

Huddersfield Town

The next managerial stop for Warnock was Huddersfield Town. In their first season at the new Alfred McAlpine Stadium (now the Galpharm Stadium) in 1994/95, the club made it to the play-off final, where they defeated Bristol Rovers and gained promotion to League Two. This was Warnock's fourth time in his ninth year as a manager to guide a club to a higher division, with three of those victories coming via the play-offs. He surprised the board, however, by resigning just days later.

Plymouth Argyle

It was again only a few days before Warnock was back in the coaching business, when he took up the post at Plymouth Argyle, newly relegated to the fourth division. He guided the club back to the third division, once again via the play-offs, although this was then followed by a difficult period.

Plymouth Argyle had a good start to the season and for a time led the table, before their sporting performance turned into a crisis. Warnock claimed that chairman Dan Cauley was not providing enough money for new player transfers in what was now a difficult situation and that the level of performance was at risk of moving towards amateur levels if nothing was done.

McCauley denied this accusation and expressed his confidence that the current players were actually good enough to be promoted and that there was consequently no need to invest further financial resources. Answering Sky Sports' question whether the club was in crisis (as Warnock had previously suggested), McCauley said: "He was, yes, but I don't get it. Perhaps he is in a crisis, but the club is not in a crisis at all." Warnock was dismissed towards the end of the 1996/97 season.

Oldham Athletic

Upon his dismissal at Plymouth, Warnock got an offer of the coaching job at the second division club Oldham Athletic. He succeeded in improving their fortunes after accepting the job but was unable to avoid relegation.

This was followed by a good start to the season, which, unfortunately, resulted in numerous setbacks. The club was no longer able to pursue its promotion plans and ultimately only finished in mid-table. As a result, Warnock resigned from Oldham and switched to Bury in the second division.

Bury FC

It was with

that Warnock was relegated on the last matchday of the 1998/99 season, with the club having spent the entire season in the bottom half of the table. However, if a rule had not been changed shortly before, which favoured the team with the more goals scored rather than the better goal difference, Bury may have stayed in the league ahead of Port Vale, who had the same points.

But because the club had scored the fewest goals of all the second division clubs, Bury was forced to go down to the third division. In the following season, when the club performed poorly, the Bury fans called for Warnock to be fired. Nevertheless, Warnock himself anticipated this when he stepped down from his post after being offered the coaching position at Sheffield United.

Now stay tuned to this section of Neil Warnock biography as we want to share some info about his Sheffield United career.

Sheffield United

Warnock and his new club found themselves in relegation danger after a poor start to the 1999/2000 season. But Warnock was ultimately able to guide the second division club to a mid-table finish and prevent relegation.

Sheffield United started the next 2000-01 season with a 2-0 home victory against Portsmouth FC. However, in their second league match against Preston North End, Warnock’s team suffered their first defeat of the season (3-0).

Between 12 September and 17 October 2000, Neil Warnock’s side was undefeated in the English First Division. That season, Sheffield United managed to finish in 10th place of the table, with 68 points in 46 matches, which was a good improvement from the last season, when they finished 16th in the table.

That season, Sheffield United was out of the English League Cup following a 2-1 defeat against Sheffield Wednesday. They also exited the FA Cup with a 1-0 away defeat against Southampton FC, which was at the time managed by Glenn Hoddle.

The 2001-02 season started with a 1-1 draw against Nottingham Forest. This was followed by another four draws against the likes of Gillingham FC and Wolverhampton Wanderers, among others. Sheffield United’s first win of the season in the league came on 18 September 2001, when they defeated Stockport County with a score of 1-2.

It was a rather mixed season for Neil Warnock and Sheffield United, where a lack of constant good performances from the team led to a 13th place finish in the league with 60 points in 46 matches.

In that season’s Cup competitions, Sheffield United lost 7-5 on penalties to Grimsby Town in the Second Round of League Cup and their journey in the FA Cup ended in the Fourth Round, with a 2-0 away defeat against Norwich City.

This was followed by a constant improvement in the next season towards the play-off places, in which Sheffield was placed in 3rd position in the First Division table in 2003.

That was when Warnock failed to gain promotion via the play-offs for the first time - following four successful attempts - in his personal coaching career after a defeat in the final to Wolverhampton Wanderers. That same year, Warnock and his side lost in both the FA Cup and League Cup only at the semi-final stage.

Sheffield United was consistently amongst the top two teams in the 2005/06 season under Warnock's management and was therefore among the favourites for direct promotion to the Premier League. It was at this time that Warnock was offered the coaching job at Portsmouth FC in December 2005, but he declined.

He instead achieved promotion to the highest English division with Sheffield as runners-up in the league. However, Warnock missed the start of the 2006/07 Premier League season from the bench as he was suspended for the first two Championship games and four other competitive games as a result of the incident at

and a subsequent dispute with fellow coach Nigel Worthington.

After Sheffield United was relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2006/07 season in a 2-1 defeat to Wigan Athletic on 13 May 2007, he departed the club.

Crystal Palace

Warnock was appointed head coach of

in October 2007. In his first match in charge of the club, which was played on 20 October on the 11th matchday of the Championship, he got a 1-1 away draw against Blackpool FC.

This was followed by two consecutive defeats against Stoke City and Watford. Having taken the club in 19th place in the club, after these three matches Crystal Palace was in the 23rd place, just one position above the bottom of the table.

However, Neil Warnock was able to transform the team and for the next 15 league matches, there wasn’t a team in the Championship that could defeat his Crystal Palace. Thanks to this 15 matches unbeaten run, which saw the club win 9 games and draw the other 6, Crystal Palace climbed to the 5th position in the table.

With further good performances in the league, Crystal Palace finished 5th in the table and qualified for the playoffs, just 8 points short of direct promotion to the English Premier League. However, in the playoffs semifinal match, they lost 4-2 on aggregate to Bristol City and thus failed on securing the promotion.

In the 2008-09 season, Neil Warnock’s side had a disappointing season as they finished 15th in the league table with just 57 points in 46 matches. That season they were also out of the cup competitions early with defeats to Watford FC and Leeds United in the FA Cup and League Cup, respectively.

Warnock’s last season at Crystal Palace was not successful and with mixed results, his team was most of the time in the bottom half. Having been eliminated from both cup competitions, and with his team being in the 21st position after a 1-1 draw against Doncaster Rovers, Warnock decided to end his reign at the club.

Queens Park Rangers

Between 1 March 2010 and 8 January 2012, he coached Queens Park Rangers. He and his team were promoted to the highest English division in the 2010/2011 season. Having made an initially successful start to the Premier League season, Queens Park Rangers found themselves close to the relegation zone in the winter of 2011/12.

Following a 1-1 draw with third division side Milton Keynes Dons in the FA Cup, the club decided to part ways with Warnock, who described his time at the club as the best of his life.

Leeds United

Warnock took over as manager of second division side Leeds United on 18 February 2012, and with his new team finished the 2011/12 Football League Championship in 14th place in the table. With their stated goal for the season, which was promotion to the Premier League, seemingly a distant dream after a series of winless games, the club relieved Warnock of his duties on 1 April 2013.

Return to Crystal Palace

On 27 August 2014, Warnock's return to coaching Crystal Palace commenced; and he signed a two-year contract. By December 2014, he had been fired for a lack of success.

Cardiff City

Warnock signed a two-year contract with Championship club Cardiff City on 5 October 2016. At the age of 69, he successfully led the Blue Birds to a clean sweep of the relegation zone. Consequently, his contract was extended until 2019.

Cardiff was playing at the top of the table the following year and gained promotion to the Premier League, having finished second in the table behind Wolverhampton Wanderers and ahead of Fulham. In 2019, after only one year in the Premier League, the club was immediately relegated, with Warnock resigning from his coaching post in November 2019.

Middlesbrough FC

On 23 June 2020, Neil Warnock was appointed to take over relegation-threatened Middlesbrough FC. Just four days later, he sat on the Middlesbrough bench for the first time, which was a 0-2 away win against Stoke City.

In the next 7 league matches until the end of the season, Neil Warnock managed to win 3 and was defeated on four occasions. Having taken the club in 18th position, the club managed to finish 17th with his help and thus avoided relegation.

Warnock started the next Championship season with a 1-0 defeat against Watford FC. The team’s first win of the season came on the 4th matchday against Barnsley FC. In the 2020-21 Championship season, Warnock managed to achieve a 10th place finish with the team, which was much better than last season.

As of 21 October 2021, Neil Warnock and Middlesbrough are currently lying in the 10th position of the Championship table.

Now stay tuned to this section of Neil Warnock biography as we want to share some info about his coaching style.

Style of Play

While his main playing system in many of the teams he has coached so far was 4-2-3-1, but he is not the type of football coach who sticks to one system, on the contrary, he is very flexible tactically and we have seen his teams with many different formations like 4-4-2, 4-3-3 and 3-5-2, among others.

Reception

Although as a player Neil Warnock did not achieve anything, but during all these years that he had worked as a coach, he had been able to establish as one of the best English head coaches of his generation. With 8 promotions during his career, he is the record holder of the most promotions in the history of English football.

Neil Warnock outside Football

He has always been one of the supporters of Brexit. In 2019, in a press conference, he talked about Brexit, stating that he can’t wait to get out of the European Union. During that press conference, he also criticised the way the government was handling the Brexit process.

Neil Warnock tested positive for Covid-19 in late summer of 2020, at the time he was coach of Middlesbrough FC. Following his recovery, on several occasions, he asked the people to fully understand that how serious Covid-19 is. He has also been one of the supporters of the Covid-19 vaccination and urged his player to get fully vaccinated.

Neil Warnock Personal Life

In this section of Neil Warnock biography, we will take a deeper look into his personal life and share some information about things like

Neil Warnock life story

and

Neil Warnock religion

, stay tuned.

Family, Children and Relationships

Neil Warnock has long been married to his wife and love of life Sharon. The couple has four children together, two daughters named Amy and Natalie and two sons named James and William.

Philanthropy

Neil Warnock has always been active in different charity projects during his career as a football coach. Most recently, in September 2021, Neil Warnock donated a defibrillator to a small football club in Wales.

Legal Issues

Jason Puncheon, a former Crystal Palace in 2014, accused his coach Neil Warnock of making the players pay him to play in his teams. In 2014, the Football Association commission looked into all the pieces of evidence about these accusations, and according to Neil himself, those were unfounded accusations.

As a result, after deleting those tweets, Puncheon apologized to Neil Warnock and the English FA fined him an equivalent of £15,000.

Neil Warnock Career Statistics

In this section of Neil Warnock biography, we will take a look at his career stats on the international and club level.

Club

Between 1967 and 1979, in a rather short playing career, he made a total of 327 league appearances for many English clubs and scored 36 goals. He has played most of his career games at Scunthorpe United between 1973 and 1975.

Managerial

As one of the veteran football coaches in England, Neil Warnock has managed many teams during his career as a coach in a total of 1552 matches as of October 2021. He has a win ratio of 40.14 percent with 623 wins, 422 draws and 507 defeats during his career.

Neil Warnock Honors

As a player, Neil Warnock never was able to win any trophy during his career. But after starting his coaching career, he had managed to win Football Conference with Scarborough in 1987, and the Football League Championship with Queens Park Rangers in 2011.

Moreover, he has won the second division and third division playoffs on no less than four occasions with Notts County, Huddersfield Town and Plymouth Argyle. Warnock has also finished runner-up in the Football League Championship on two occasions with Sheffield United and Cardiff City, winning the promotion to the English Premier League on both occasions.

Of his notable personal awards, we can include

Player of the Year, Football Conference Manager of the Year, BBC London Sports Personality of the Year and LMA Special Achievement Award.

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