An excellent read by a true football character
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I thought that the vast majority - over 90% - of this book was really excellent. The story of Neil Warnocks early life and of his career as a average lower league player is extremely entertaining and his told with a large helping of good humour. Perhaps it is just me, but I find stories about life on the lower rungs of the football ladder to be much more enjoyable than those told by the big names of the Premier League.
When Warnock moves into management the book steps up a further gear as he describes his struggles trying to kick start a succession of under achieving clubs, which I found to be totally engrossing. It should be pointed out that, more often than not, he brought a degree of success to each club and left them in a much healthier state than he found them.
What let the book down to me though, were the later chapters in which he allows the darker side of his nature come to the fore. In these pages he first tells about his deep dislike of various members of the football fraternity. The reader is left in no doubt as to Neil Warnocks opinions of Stan Ternant, Wally Downs and Gary Megson amongst others. He clearly doesn't believe in the expression 'forgive and forget'.
He also devotes a chapter to his favourite people - referees. I don't think he likes them very much and he obviously thinks they don't like him much neither. He is probably right.
The final section is about his last season as Sheffield Utd manager, when to be fair to Mr Warnock, circumstances DID conspire against them to finally condemn them to relegation. The bitterness he feels about the events of that season are clear expressed in this book.
The chances are that before reading this book you wouldn't like Neil Warnock very much and I am not sure that after reading it you will like him any more. You can't argue though that he his a character, so we should be glad that he his around to add a little colour to our increasingly sterile national game.
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Changed my perception of the man!!!!!!!!!!
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I was given this book as a present and was somewhat surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Warnock shows his drive and enthusiasm for the game of football, through, both the good and the bad times. He holds no grudges from his split with Sheff Utd and very few throughout the book, however, he does let loose with some of his opinions on some people!!!! A good read, try it and be surprised like me.
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Above and Beyond the call....
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Warnock is a controversial man and I concur with the views of others who wisely point out that if you don't like him before, you won't like him after you've read this book. I'll say one thing for him, though...he was always willing to turn his hand to anything to earn a living for his family and anyone who goes round old people's homes treating the corns of little old ladies and sad little gents is a cut above. Can't see Ronaldo on his knees with a gnarled old foot in one hand and his verruca scalpel in the other earning £5 a throw.
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Poor Neil Warnock
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Boring, Boring, Boring. Basically in the book he describes how great he is and how he has been overlooked for big jobs etc (which judging by the job offers he said he has had, is rubbish). Goes on and on about refs and how they have treated his teams badly! Poor Neil Warnock.....life must be hard.
This book is as about as impressive as the man himself - Not very! Unless you support Sheff Utd, don't bother. Read Micky Quinn's book - Who ate all the pies, best football autobiography I have read.
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A highly entertaining story
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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.
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