So, it started against Bristol City and it ended against Bristol City.
I well remember Neil Warnock’s first game as Cardiff City manager, Bristol City at home in a Friday night televised game in front of what was a bumper crowd by the standards of that time of 22,776.
There was a different feeling in the ground that night – a club that had been stagnating after a relegation, a distinctly unpopular rebranding and boring, largely unsuccessful, football which had seen it drop to twenty third out of twenty four in the Championship seemed to have come alive all of a sudden.
Speaking for myself, I hadn’t enjoyed a game like I did that one for at least a couple of years – yes, beating the team I regard as our fiercest rivals helped, but it was a lot more than that and you only had to look at one man really for the reason why.
Neil Warnock galvanised a failing club in just ninety minutes that night. The honour of scoring the first goal of the Warnock era went to Peter Whittingham with one of those penalties that you just knew he would score, but, everything you knew about the new manager suggested that Whitts would not be his cup of tea. Although he hung around for the rest of the season and played a part in the climb up the table which followed, there was an inevitability about the departure during the following summer of the man who most personified a way of playing that would disappear from the team under the new boss.
It was the other scorer that night who characterised the new Cardiff. Sol Bamba’s goal, volleyed in from about a yard out following a corner, was typical of so many scored by the team under Warnock’s reign and immediately endeared the centreback to supporters , but it was the new man’s defending, leadership, anticipation and attitude which made him a magnificent signing – as was the other free agent signing making his debut that night, Junior Hoilett.
A goal by Lee Tomlin, who the City fans booed throughout for his willingness to go to ground, gave an in form Bristol the chance to get something from the game, but we were never going to give that one away and the atmosphere in the ground as the minutes ticked down was one of celebration, rather than the usual trepidation you get when City are 2-1 up with little time left.
I’d never been a Warnock fan mainly because of the style of play that he was associated with throughout most of his managerial career, but had noted that his QPR side which won the Championship title in 10/11 had been easier on the eye than most Warnock teams.
Indeed, as the new manager coaxed stellar performances out of Kenneth Zohore for a while, I found myself looking forward to home games again and, to my surprise I began enjoying watching a Cardiff City side managed by Neil Warnock play!
No matter what his reign came to signify for different fans, there can be no doubt that Neil Warnock’s crowning glory at Cardiff, the promotion to the Premier League in 17/18, was a superb achievement. Once again, some of the football played in the first month of that season especially was top drawer stuff as two more inspired free transfers signings, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and Neil Etheridge were hugely impressive at either end of the pitch.
For me, the night we murdered a much hyped Leeds side in front of the Sky cameras and a crowd of 27,160 in September 2017 was the high water mark of Neil Warnock’s time here. We were excellent that night and the third goal tapped in by Zohore after a mesmerising stint of first time passing was all the proof you needed that football under Warnock didn’t have to be long balls, power and set pieces.
It would be wrong to say that it was downhill all the way after that night, but Zohore, who was so important to how we played then, suffered an injury and was never the same player for us again. The results were still coming, but where good teams were being blown away for a while, now they were ground down, mostly by attritional and functional football.
Promotion was still a hugely enjoyable experience though and much credit should always be given to manager, coaching staff and players for the way they held off a challenge from a side who were their polar opposites – the media darlings of Fulham.
With hindsight, May 2018 was the time when Neil Warnock should have left – I don’t think his reputation as a manager has ever been higher than it was then and he would have been hailed and remembered as a genius by Cardiff fans.
I was one of those who thought that our manager had earned the right to a full season at finally cracking the Premier League – although, in fairness, he probably never ever managed a club that was not considered to be among the favourites for relegation from the top flight.
Another relegation says that he failed again at First Division/Premier League level and a perception, that had begun in the January 2018 transfer window, that he was a superb spotter of free transfer bargains, but nowhere near as effective when the players concerned cost millions of pounds grew.
Of course, there was the £15 million signing which, perhaps, could have proved that theory wrong, but Emiliano Sala was never to kick a ball for the club as he fell victim to a tragedy that has cast a long shadow over the club throughout 2019 – even the most critical analyst has to concede that the awful loss of someone who was at the prime of both his life and his football career had a profound effect on what happened to City in 2018/19.
Yet, among all of the losses which always had City down as pundits’ favourites for the drop, there were games when established Premier League sides were beaten in a comprehensive manner which the club’s previous Premier League team were never able to match.
They didn’t show it enough, but I can’t help thinking that maybe a bit more self belief, as opposed to the feeling that was often portrayed that a club like Cardiff should feel honoured to be playing at such a level, could have seen us picking up that extra win or two which would have made all of the difference – more positivity from the manager at already relegated Fulham in April would surely have helped in that direction as well.
This time it seemed to me that the time was right for Neil Warnock to step aside at the end of a season with his hero standing among so much of the fanbase still intact. Instead, what we got seemed wrong right from the start as the manager announced that 19/20 would be his last season in management as he hinted that he might decide to leave early around Christmas time if the expected promotion challenge was not forthcoming.
Worse for me though was a set of transfer deals which screamed out that we would be seeing a version of what became known as Warnockball at its most basic and this in a division which had seemed to embrace a more technical, pacey, flexible and modern game during our season away from it.
For all of the talk of us competing against larger clubs with larger budgets, City were one of the biggest spenders in the Championship during the summer transfer window and, although Curtis Nelson has dropped one or two hints that he might be another very good free transfer signing in the last couple of matches, I think it’s fair to say that none of the big money signings can be classed as total successes so far.
The blueprint for the way the season has gone was set at Wigan on the opening day – “ponderous” was the word which summed up our performance that day for me and, to be honest, it’s a description which could be applied to most of the others since then as well.
Neil Warnock has seemed powerless to alter the downbeat nature of the campaign in its first three months as well and, for me, his final three matches in charge illustrated a big difference between the end and the beginning of the Warnock era.
Just think back to October 2016 and that Bristol City game – the team were lifted straight away to a new level of belief and commitment and the support soon latched on to that. Contrast that to the Swansea, Birmingham and Bristol City matches though and what comes across to me is how poorly we started each game – it was as if the motivator had lost the knack and you have to wonder if this may have been at least partially down to what happened on that flight from Nantes to Cardiff on a Monday night back in January.
Anyway, I sense that I’m getting more critical of our manager and I don’t want to do that. I certainly have been more prepared to knock our former manager on here this season, but tonight that should be for a future piece, I want this to be more of a recognition of the good things, and there were many, that Neil Warnock did for Cardiff City.
He’s definitely up there as one of the best managers I’ve seen at the club and I thank him for that while wishing him a happy retirement – although I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of him popping up again sometime in the future to turn around the fortunes of another failing club!
I think that’s an absolutely brilliant piece, Bob. And it happens to sum up my feelings exactly.
Yes, a very fair summation of Neil’s three years.
Thanks, Paul.
he always had an opinion……it was always someone elses fault ,,,we didnt get what we deserved ….a bovril person …like him or not ……i did …..he wasnt the easiest man …but what a manager ……superb ……is there another manager out there with his record …..hope its not the last we see of him ……..a Bristol City fan
Paul – As ever, superb writing and a splendid summary of the last three years. I am sure we all would like to thank Neil for the ride, and wish him well for the future.
Paul – a terrific assessment, calm and measured (as always). Thanks.
Although I’m one who sees his departure as way overdue, I do accept that a day like this is always tinged with sadness – even more so, given the perpetual grief related to Sala, and how it must have affected Warnock.
I’m sure he’ll have a peaceful and enriching (ahem – in the best way!) retirement.
Thanks for your replies, especially Alan as an, always welcome,supporter of another team. Things appear to be moving quickly, but if it is in the direction of Neil Harris, as the “in the know” crowd seem to be indicating, then I’m afraid it’s in a pretty uninspiring direction as far as I’m concerned. Yes, I know we should give any new appointee a fair chance, but Harris’ Millwall were the closest side to us in terms of passing style in the Championship and it does seem a “more of the same” type of appointment.
In yesterday’s contribution, before Neil Warnock’s departure had been announced, I mentioned a Sgt Bilko programme from years ago entitled “The Old Fox”. There was a delay in what I wrote appearing, but in a sense it was a kind of suggestion that Neil Warnock’s managerial stint would soon be over — but I must admit that his “resignation” came as a shock. I thought we needed a new management team but even so, I’m sad to see him go. Now, looking ahead, I hope Neil Harris gets the job, if only because he has a minor link to CCFC and, as a goal scoring centreforward with us during his loan move, I have every expectation that he will be able to make Cardiff a more watchable and attack-minded outfit.
FAO: Royalwithcheese:
“Cardiff should have insured him from the get-go.”
That’s the nub of the City case, I think. Apparently someone posted on line sometime ago that he wasn’t insured and couldn’t have been until the transfer had been ratified by the PL, which it hadn’t yet been due to incomplete paperwork. It was Catch22 situation, it seems.
Incomplete paperwork. Steve, I’m guessing it could rest on which side is deemed responsible for that. A mucky business. Will we ever know the truth?
That’s my take on things Steve and it would help explain the way the club has pursued a defence which amounts to “we don’t owe Nantes anything because we cocked up when filling the forms in”.
You admit it’s only your take, too, Bob. Perhaps Nantes did the cocking up?
Possibly, but it seems to me that in any transfer, the onus is more on the buying club in terms of procedures to be gone through than the seller.
‘Caveat emptor’ normally is a warning to the buyer to beware of hidden defects known only to the seller. No suggestion has ever been made that Sala was defective. At the time of the accident, no money had changed hands, so was he at that point, technically, a City player or still a Nantes one? Probably depends on the detail of the contract signed, and when, and if it had come into effect. So we’re back to ‘Which side cocked up the forms?’ Morally, I think the clubs should split the difference.
I’m with Royale – split the difference…but, if there’s any danger of an unseemly tussle, bite down hard, pay up, and claim the moral high ground.
FAO: Royalewithcheese:
” … so was he at that point, technically, a City player or still a Nantes one?”
Until the transfer was ratified by the PL then, it would seem two things concerning the Sala transfer are salient:
(i) he couldn’t play for City in any competition and
(ii) he was not covered by insurance.
This might be semantics but when is a player’s transfer operative? Is it when he signs for a club or when the player’s insurance is operative?
Again, I read at the time, a number of transfers submit incomplete paperwork and that paperwork is subsequently returned for completion with the populace none the wiser. Of course no one would ever know how many transfers fall into that category this side of the football authorities.
Was that incomplete paperwork due to Cardiff City, Nantes or another?
I guess the above is part of City’s defence. Secondly the whole issue of the ill-fated flight, and the AAIC report that will shortly be published will also be relevant. What I find strange is that the football authorities have clearly found against City by demanding City pay up the first instalment without the AAIC’s report. Furthermore, the penalty of banning the Bluebirds for 3 transfer windows’ incoming transfers for failure to pay this instalment again seems strange for if City are at fault then what benefit would Nantes have from that?
I suppose that punishment of the guilty is often cold comfort to the injured. In this case, though, Nantes will benefit if we cave in under the pressure. It seems (as you explain better than I can, Steve) that the Sala case has exposed deep flaws in the system. If they are corrected now, that may be the only real good that comes out of this mess. Whatever the courts decide, I think there’ll be justifiable grievance on one side or the other.
I can’t see it myself. This article refers to a Times report from February saying Cardiff made an error registering Sala’s contract. I note as well that is says that City asked for evidence from Nantes that they had deregistered the player before the crash, so the possibility exists that there was an error there, but that’s not the same thing as saying that they didn’t. If the original article in the Times was incorrect and City had done nothing wrong after announcing Emiliano Sala as their player, then I find it very odd that someone like Vincent Tan had not called for the story to be retracted backed up by the threat of legal action.
https://www.thenational.ae/sport/football/emiliano-sala-registration-error-could-prove-costly-for-cardiff-city-striker-s-family-1.828446
Jeez – angels dancing on the head of a pin.
I may be missing the point (not unlikely, I admit), but, shouldn’t we just be true to wish, intent, belief ? We wished to have him, we intended to have him, we believed we had him (after all, we’d have played him at the earliest possible opportunity).
I infer from Paul’s linked article, that we’re using our own bureaucratic/registration errors to shy away from our responsibilities.
I’m sure that Tan likes to see himself as a ‘benefactor’ – take that word apart, and you have ‘a doer-of-good’. Let him be seen to do good. Try to have Nantes share the burden, and, if they won’t, the we should stump up, while ensuring the PFA are true to THEIR responsibilities to the grievously damaged family.
Let the man RIP, please.
Just off out to watch Wales Under 19s play, but I must say I think Lindsay nailed, as they say these days, there.
Well, I must admit I wouldn’t stump up, Lindsay – not the the whole hog. We’re talking as if Nantes is some poor widow. I’m bitter and twisted enough to always ask, “What would the bastards do for us if the positions were reversed?” And the answer in business (and usually elsewhere) involves a hefty dose of self-interest. If I was sparing any coppers, they would go directly to Sala’s family. After the lawyers had fed off the carcass.
Royale, you are a tougher nut than I, as befits any Tarantino persona, and probably right to be so.
Believe me, I’m not soft on Nantes, but I don’t think any continuing involvement in this farrago does us any favours – certainly not in the moral/philosophical areas I care about.
Isn’t Cardiff’s stance dictated by their insurance company?