Neil Warnock

Legendary football manager Neil Warnock came to Ashton Gate this week to recount a career like no other in front of an audience in a show called “Are You with Me?”

With over six decades in the game, Neil has managed more matches than anyone in history, led sixteen clubs, achieved eight promotions from Non-League to Premier League, and amassed enough stories to fill several lifetimes.

Now, in this no-holds-barred conversation delivered in his unique and imitable style, Neil talked about his early career as a player in the lower leagues, and what inspired and drove him on to succeed and reach the highest level in management. With footage from some of the highlights and lowlights of his career, Neil took us back to some of the most explosive and controversial incidents.

A freewheeling show moves from memories of drinking pink champagne with Brian Clough to a bitter fallout with Sir Alex Ferguson. It includes recollections of eight promotions, five relegations, and a lot of pride. “I survived 1,627 games,” Warnock says. “When I started at Gainsborough Trinity in 1980, I just wanted to survive a season. Let alone 45 years as a manager.”

Warnock’s managerial career ended in March last year. He resigned after Aberdeen beat Kilmarnock 3-1 to reach the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup and, while he won’t discuss the reasons for his abrupt departure from Pittodrie after eight games, Warnock didn’t like off-field interference in his work. He is now a part-time consultant at Torquay United and hopes to help the club return to the Football League.

Warnock was old school. “When I were manager at Palace,” he says, “Man City brought down two buses full of staff. I thought: ‘Bloody hell, I’ve never seen ’owt like it.’ I got our kit man to chuck a bucket of cold water on the floor in their dressing room to make it scruffy as possible.”