Congratulations Neil Warnock!!!

[bushkangaroo]

Was on the way back from the UK to Australia having been to a couple of games and I well remember the shock I felt when I heard he'd been sacked and we hired Hughes....

[Ginger Ninja]

Will never wish Cardiff well, hope they come straight back down with the lowest points total in history. But Warnock deserves congratulations, nice one Colin.

[West Acton]

Wish he was not such a game player as thst could have been us.

[1973 ranger]

Maybe more to do with our current set up Westy than Warnock being a game player? Set up his team in an organised way with a great team spirit which ultimately helped them over the line.

[Tarbie]

I love Neil Warnock, but I think some of the outpouring of regret from the fans is a bit OTT, and I think we do forget the circumstances a bit. It's worth remembering the following:

1.) The vast majority of fans were behind the decision to let Warnock go when Fernandes came in.
2.) Whilst Warnock has a great record at Championship level, his Premiership record is pretty terrible.
3.) Warnock ruled himself out of the running when we hired JFH. He also didn't fit the remit of what we needed, in that he's not the type of manager that typically works under a DoF.

Whilst I'm sure our last 3 seasons would have been more successful had we hired Warnock, I'm not sure it was ever realistically going to happen. I'm also sure the last 6 years would have been better had we have never sacked him in the first place, but again that wasn't realistic. Tony Fernandes had his shiny new plaything, money to burn, and he wanted a proper Premiership manager.

[Ginger Ninja]

I love Neil Warnock, but I think some of the outpouring of regret from the fans is a bit OTT, and I think we do forget the circumstances a bit. It's worth remembering the following:

1.) The vast majority of fans were behind the decision to let Warnock go when Fernandes came in.
2.) Whilst Warnock has a great record at Championship level, his Premiership record is pretty terrible.
3.) Warnock ruled himself out of the running when we hired JFH. He also didn't fit the remit of what we needed, in that he's not the type of manager that typically works under a DoF.

Whilst I'm sure our last 3 seasons would have been more successful had we hired Warnock, I'm not sure it was ever realistically going to happen. I'm also sure the last 6 years would have been better had we have never sacked sacked him in the first place, but again that wasn't realistic. Tony Fernandes had his shiny new plaything, money to burn, and he wanted a proper Premiership manager.

100% agree. Especially with point number 1. I remember seeing so many Warnock out posts on here at the time, the majority on here were happy with him being sacked.

[James1979]

At the time I was someone who wanted Warnock gone but bloody hell did I get that wrong. However, we had a second chance to get him and went for JFH. Tony said as much in his book. He wanted Neil but “the “longer term view prevailed””. Sounds like we didn’t want him rather than him saying “no” to us. So, now we’re stuck with the longer term view.......and as Clint Hill seems to suggest, this is all about lowering our expectations. Now we as fans have to see staying up as a successful season. I get all the long term stuff of getting youngsters in and balancing books but that doesn’t go hand in hand with falling expectations with the 1st team.

[The General]

Well done Neil

The Most Sucessful Championship Manager Ever 8 promotions

but not good enough for us lol

[Tarbie]

At the time I was someone who wanted Warnock gone but bloody hell did I get that wrong. However, we had a second chance to get him and went for JFH. Tony said as much in his book. He wanted Neil but “the “longer term view prevailed””. Sounds like we didn’t want him rather than him saying “no” to us. So, now we’re stuck with the longer term view.......and as Clint Hill seems to suggest, this is all about lowering our expectations. Now we as fans have to see staying up as a successful season. I get all the long term stuff of getting youngsters in and balancing books but that doesn’t go hand in hand with falling expectations with the 1st team.

I think it's really a case of recognising the difference between and old school manager (like Warnock) and a Head Coach under a DoF system when it comes to the reasoning behind selecting JFH over Warnock. Obviously with hindsight it seems a ridiculous decision to let Warnock slip through our fingers and to appoint Hasselbaink. But we need to appreciate that the club has moved into a model where Les runs the club and the Manager/Head Coach simply runs the first team.

The thing that actually narks me off is the appointment of Holloway. Totally the wrong guy for our set-up. Will never dance to Les' tune, and will want complete carte blanche over all footballing matters. But that was clearly a case of Tony taking control of a decision that should have been left to the DoF.

Hopefully we get it right with the next appointment!

[Rangers77]

Biggest, baddest, most wrong call I've ever made as a Rs fan was saying he should go after MKD away. I couldn't have been more wrong. I fell bad even when saying it. We really didn't know how lucky we were. I was desperate to get him back after Ramsey. And resented Jimmy for that. Even before he proved such a dud.

[hal9thou]

Warnock ruled himself out of the running when we hired JFH.

There was a lot of spin around that. And what sane person would have hung aroound to witness either Les or JFH at work?
Constructive dismissal.

in that he's not the type of manager that typically works under a DoF.

Any sane person would have taken NW and put the whole DoF nonsense out to grass.

Face the facts, getting rid of him the second time was a total ballsup by a club with a recent history of very poor decision making.

[hal9thou]

Biggest, baddest, most wrong call I've ever made as a Rs fan was saying he should go after MKD away. I couldn't have been more wrong. I fell bad even when saying it. We really didn't know how lucky we were. I was desperate to get him back after Ramsey. And resented Jimmy for that. Even before he proved such a dud.

Great post.

Shame Hits can't see the man for an asset he was at this level. NW may well be gone by Christmas, but he did his fvckin job good and proper and whatever happens, he's a legend to them.

[Tarbie]

Any sane person would have taken NW and put the whole DoF nonsense out to grass.

Face the facts, getting rid of him the second time was a total ballsup by a club with a recent history of very poor decision making.

Don't agree with that mate.

We made the decision after Mark Hughes and Harry Redknapp to employ a Director of football and a competent CFO to prevent the mistakes of those 3 years from ever happening again. Had we not have made those steps, the club would probably no longer be in existence. And that isn't an exaggeration.

Furthermore, the fact we are seeing all these talented young players coming through now is 100% due to the DoF system, and the personnel that Les has brought in since joining the club.

I understand why people don't like the system. I can see the benefit in allowing managers full reign of the club from a footballing perspective. The problem is, in this day and age, managers can come and go within 6 months. And often when they come they bring their whole backroom team with them, and they sign a load of their own players. Then when they go often a large percentage of those staff and players need shifting. It's no exaggeration to say that giving those 2 managers free reign of the club cost us hundreds of millions.

We now have a system in place that will never allow another manager to ever to that again. To abandon that in order to entice 1 manager would be extremely shortsighted!

[1973 ranger]

Tarbie. Hughes ruined our club with the absolute shite that he brought in both on and off the pitch. For all Redknapp's faults and there are many the damage was done between 2012-2013 and it may take us a hell of a long time to recover. If ever you needed proof of Hughes and what he is just look at Stoke who under Pulis were not great to watch but never really in danger of relegation where as when Hughes got rid of Pulis's players like Whelan and Walters to name two and replaced them with absolute rubbish the writing was on the wall. He did the same with us with Warnock's team and the idea of him being a premier league manager is pure fantasy.

[Tarbie]

Tarbie. Hughes ruined our club with the absolute shite that he brought in both on and off the pitch. For all Redknapp's faults and there are many the damage was done between 2012-2013 and it may take us a hell of a long time to recover. If ever you needed proof of Hughes and what he is just look at Stoke who under Pulis were not great to watch but never really in danger of relegation where as when Hughes got rid of Pulis's players like Whelan and Walters to name two and replaced them with absolute rubbish the writing was on the wall. He did the same with us with Warnock's team and the idea of him being a premier league manager is pure fantasy.

I'll never argue with you that Hughes was guilty of hiring some of the worse mercenaries in football. It's also clear looking at Stoke's squad this year that he hasn't improved much on that front. But you can't lay all the blame on Hughes though. It's not like he went out there and signed all these players himself without the boards approval. Every penny he spent was rubber stamped by Tony Fernandes and Phil Beard.

The club was a joke at the time, it was the worst kept secret in football that we were handing out fairytale contracts to any players with a half decent CV, with very few limitations (such as release clauses if we went down). Joey Barton even talks about it in his book apparently. Says he a.) only came here for the money and, b.) was actually given more money than he asked for. Couldn't make it up could you? Not only were we paying more than we could afford, we were paying more than we needed to.

My point above is that now we've actually got a system in place that stops this from ever happening again. Personally I'm pleased of that, and I wouldn't want to trade that for any manager in the world.