“I’M EVEN MISSING THE ABUSE I USED TO GET!”

FFT that retirement talk will have to wait

haron Warnock knew the drill well. When you’re married to one of English football’s most experienced bosses, it’s like a sixth sense.

So, on a balmy June morning when husband Neil came in from the garden of their Cornwall home, facial features betraying his excitement, she foresaw what was coming. Neil Warnock was set to embark on his 18th managerial job.

“It was 8.30am and I was on the phone to my daughter,” he tells FourFourTwo, recalling the moment Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson contacted him. “When I saw his name come up on the screen, I asked if I could ring her back. So I had chat with Steve, who said, ‘I really need your help, Neil’. ‘When?’ I asked. ‘Right now,’ he replied.

“My immediate reaction was, ‘Well, that’s another retirement scuppered’ – but I knew that I had to go in and ask Sharon. Before I’d even finished, she said, ‘Go on then, take the job’. You see, my wife understands me and knew I’d always wanted to work for Steve.

“If she had said no, I wouldn’t have gone. She’s been unwell. She’s undergone a double mastectomy and chemotherapy – although thankfully, she’s fine now. But I couldn’t go without her blessing.”

So, the couple’s best-laid plans to kick back and relax were put on hold – again.

“We’ve got a place in Italy, a lovely spot on Lake Maggiore, and were intending to spend a few months there,” says the 72-year-old. “But this bloody pandemic means we haven’t been able to get out of the bloody house, let alone fly over there. I guess you could say the COVID-19 crisis played a big part in me going