| Neil Warnock: record breaker and prolific digital content provider | Like this? Forward it to your friends and they can sign up here | | Giving the people what they want, earlier. Photograph: Michael Zemanek/Rex/Shutterstock | Gregg Bakowski | đ”RECORD BREAKER!đ” The Fiver wouldnât be where it is today without proper football men such as Neil Warnock. The Middlesbrough manager is often derided as a meat-and-two-veg manager with outdated views, who has outstayed his footballing welcome. And while it is usually us doing the deriding weâd also argue that he has as much in common with right-on Silicon Valley types as he does with prehistoric long-ball merchants. You see, heâs been a prolific digital content provider down the years thanks to his preference for effing telling it like it is. Not bad considering the internet wasnât even invented when he took charge of his first game. Heâs helped fill Big Website with plenty of material in just half of his managerial career, which in its entirety stretches back over four decades. Heâs also come out of retirement more often than some managers have overseen games. So we owed the 72-year-old a tip of the hat when he donned his padded coat and trotted out at Luton Town to take charge of a 1,602nd match in professional football on Tuesday. Itâs a record that is unlikely to be beaten, such is the churn of managers these days. Not bad for a trained chiropodist whose speciality was treating ingrowing toenails. Middlesbrough lost, of course, and Warnock pleasingly played the hits. âWe didnât seem to get any rub of the green tonight,â he growled. âThe linesman over the far side ⊠I donât think heâs ever given us anything when Iâve seen him. Iâll not miss him when I retire.â | Read more | Some Boro fans would like that moment to come sooner rather than later. There were calls for his sacking in September after a defeat at Reading but three wins on the spin later and all was right with the world again. The 3-1 loss at Luton was Boroâs second on the bounce and, with a trip to West Brom up next, some wags might get gobby again. Not that it will bother Warnock, who was born with a coat like Teflonâą. âIâve been called âMarmite Manâ and all sorts â and thatâs even your own fans. Some like you, some dislike you,â he shrugged before the Luton game. âWhen youâre my age, you do get labelled ⊠youâre âdinosaursâ and all that, âlong-ball merchantsâ. I look at some of the teams in our league and Iâve never been as long as them in a million years but because theyâre young, they donât get criticised.â Had Boro won on Tuesday theyâd have scraped into the play-off spots, territory Warnock is as adept at negotiating as he is at ripping out big toenails. No one in England has won as many promotions as Warnockâs eight. So weâd advise those on Teesside to stick with their old leader for a while longer yet. He might enjoy a long throw-in a tad too much, but he has a knack of getting results when the days get dark and the Championship gets serious. And even if they do give him verbal pelters, heâll only take pleasure from it. âWhen I pass away, I donât want clapping or a minuteâs silence, I want a minuteâs booing,â he once said. Almost makes us want to applaud the cranky old war horse. Almost. LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE! Join Scott Murray from 8pm GMT for hot Big Cup MBM coverage of Liverpool 1-1 AtlĂ©tico Madrid, when Gregg will be on hand for Manchester City 3-0 Club Brugge. QUOTE OF THE DAY âVillarreal is my home and I am 100% committed. Honestly, I am grateful for the interest of a great club, but even more grateful to be hereâ â Unai Emery rips up Newcastleâs Plan A. | | Jordanbelfortmicrophone.jpg. Photograph: Ivan Terron/REX/Shutterstock | FIVER LETTERS âThe man in the Yellow Submarine knows a sinking ship when he sees one. Good ebeningâ â Mark McFadden. âMy friend Eric noted the same shortlist of managerial candidates that gets recycled every time thereâs a job opening. To shake things up, may I nominate Eric as a potential manager for Newcastle/Everton/Crisis United? He has a solid record with his U-8s and plays an attractive brand of kick-and-run football with the kids. Plus, he regularly gets post-match ice creams for the players. Could be a change from Big Sam or the Portuguese, Spaniard, or Italian manager du jourâ â Mike Wilner. âIt seems Premier League new boys Brentford are the model of consistency. Currently sitting 12th with 12 points, 12 goals for and 12 against. Iâm sure many of the long-serving teams below them will be envious of their points and goal difference. Long may it continueâ â Raymond Dyer. âThe Fiverâs accurate prediction of Atalanta 2-2 Manchester United (yesterdayâs Live on Big Website!) reminded me that I must change the battery in my watch. Has anyone else ever found The Fiver useful for anything?â â Martyn Shapter. Send your letters to [email protected]. And you can always tweet The Fiver via @guardian_sport. Todayâs winner of our prizeless letter oâ the day is ⊠Mark McFadden. RECOMMENDED LISTENING Get your listening gear around the latest Football Weekly podcast. NEWS, BITS AND BOBS A man who livestreamed himself on Facebook racially abusing Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka has been jailed for 10 weeks. Jonathon Best, 52, posted the rant after the Euro 2020 final. Tottenham suit Fabio Paratici reckons the club has everything in place to achieve success now that Antonio Conte is in situ. âWe have everything to achieve â infrastructure, big club, players, history, big fans,â he honked. | | Back in the fold, earlier. Photograph: Tottenham Hotspur FC/Getty Images | That alarm you can hear is one going off around Manchester now that United defender RaphaĂ«l Varane is set to miss Saturdayâs derby due to hamstring-twang sustained in the 2-2 Big Cup draw at Atalanta. Chelsea coach Arno Michels is getting all the love after suggesting a tactical tweak in the 1-0 Big Cup win at Malmö. âAll credit to my assistant,â roared Tommy T. âHe had the idea. We liked it. Malmö were defending in a low block.â And Cambridge United youngster Ben Worman feels he may have peaked only two games into his professional career after scoring this two-touch beauty in their League One win at Morecambe. âI donât know if Iâll hit a better strike,â he sighed. STILL WANT MORE? âThey are the hyperactive toddlers of English football, equally capable of moments of startling insight and unfettered joy as they are of throwing valuable household ornaments into the toiletâ â Jonathan Liew riffs on yet another confusing Manchester United performance. Todayâs Spurs comment comes from David Hytner, musing on how Antonio Conte eventually became a convenient fit for Daniel Levy. This weekâs Knowledge answers questions about managers of the month getting the chop swiftly afterwards, perfect home records and Brits abroad scoring in European competitions. Aston Villaâs Anita Asante gets her chat on with Suzanne Wrack about being an activist and player. | | Anita Asante: âI just believe I found my voice.â Photograph: AVFC | This quiz asks questions â fiendishly difficult ones at that â about footballers on screen, courtesy of our chums at the Blizzard. And if itâs your thing ⊠you can follow Big Website on Big Social FaceSpace. And INSTACHAT, TOO! DIOLCH YN FAWR, NICK |
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