Should Sheffield United be worried? A Leeds United fan’s thoughts

Article by Lucas Whitehead

A dark cloud could be descending upon Bramall lane; second rate football could soon become forty seventh rate football, the self proclaimed messiah and god’s given gift to football may be returning. Neil Warnock.

Why?

Many people will not be aware that the modest Neil Warnock was actually born and bred in Sheffield! And his allegiance lies with the Blades and not the Owls! Every time the managerial position at Bramall Lane becomes available, Warnock’s name gets thrown into the equation and although he is at a relatively high 18-1, the apocalypse could be nigh for the Blades! Warnock was born on the first of December 1948 and in typical 50’s to 60’s fashion his Father didn’t encourage a profession in football and instead wanted little Neil to work on a crane building site like Daddy did. After an illustrious and flamboyant career on the wing at many chic and fashionable teams, like Chesterfield, the Uniteds of Rotherham, Hartlepool and Scunthorpe, Aldershot, fashion capital of Britain - Barnsley and ice cream van (Whitby Morrison) capital of the world Crewe; Colin turned his hand to management and to date he has managed 13 clubs, my beloved mighty whites being his 13th club (ironically.) Between 1999 and 2007, the modest one managed his beloved Blades and steered them into the Premier League for a season to forget in which they were relegated in dubious terms after West Ham made two “illegal” signings in Javier Mascherano and Carlos Tevez and Warnock was sacked. Many speculate that Warnock feels he has unfinished business at the Lane and in his first Autobiography he does admit his shock at his sacking in 2007.

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Style of Play

Warnock’s style of play is tiki-taka football in which intricate and numerous passes are strung together and play is attractive and disciplined. I could not type that with a straight face!!! Those who criticised Tony Pulis and were malicious about his tactics at Stoke would literally die of shock if they saw the utter dross myself and several thousands of other Leeds fans saw last year. Warnock says in his Autobiography that he is a great admirer of Brian Clough and that he was on first name terms with the great man. Cloughie had two main beliefs in football. One of the beliefs was epitomised by his quote “, If god had wanted us to play football in the clouds then he would’ve built a pitch up there!” Basically, Clough was saying that football should be played along the ground and not via route one, Warnock clearly is not a believer in this ethos and possession was awful last year with lees, peltier or Pearce constantly lumping aimless balls forwards to Becchio, Varney and later on Morison who would inevitably miss the ball with a lethargic leap. Clough was a keen disciplinarian who would lambast players for dissent and heartily encourage politeness to referees. Warnock hates referees in my opinion as I have never heard him say anything positive about a referee who has refereed one of his games. I could write a dictionary of Warnock’s phrases that he used against numerous fourth officials when I was sat in the west stand but it would be banned commercially for both its colloquialism and offensive terms! In graysonian (coined that) times, a fight in a match would be commonplace and Warnock all but eliminated this but he utilised two, shall we say irritating players frequently at Leeds in El Hadji Diouf and Michael Brown. At QPR he signed Joey Barton to play in a similar role to Brown of enforcer, at Sheffield United he had Brown. He likes dirty players!

Controversy

Never a man to be outspoken, Neil Warnock has avoided criticising referees, chairmen and other managers and has avoided controversy throughout his career. Again, I cannot write that without laughing and as the reader knows I am telling a lie. Everybody has probably already heard most stories about Neil and most areas of controversy surrounding him, but one might’ve escaped public view. Michael Brown is United’s oldest player at 36 and his contract would’ve expired last year had he not played a certain amount of games, rumoured to be twenty. A rumour that did do the rounds last year was that Warnock did Brown a favour and played him this amount of times, gaining his extension for another year. Warnock and Brown are good friends to say the least and I think and so do others that Warnock did this out of friendliness and without thinking tactically or thinking about causing a ripple or impression at the top of the table.

Sheffield United, as Sean Bean once said in some flick, Brace yourselves.

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