Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Desi on July 09, 2013, 11:11:11 AM
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I've just finished reading Neil Warnock's book and with todays news re CB this section is an excellent example of how things are these days and what goes on!
It was back to the league after that and we went into the Christmas period just off the play-offs. Then we lost to Nottingham Forest and Hull City in quick succession. It wasn’t just the defeats that worried me though, suddenly our best striker and top goalscorer had stopped working. Luciano Becchio had been enjoying a terrific season, but unless you’re Barcelona that causes problems because the player, and his advisers, start thinking about a move. I soon had enough calls from people claiming to be in his camp to know his head was elsewhere. It was clear by early December he wanted to go – before the Chelsea game when he scored and kissed the badge. At that stage he wanted to go to Turkey or China. The Turks were offering to nearly treble his wages so inevitably I get a player coming to see me telling me he’s 29 and this is his big chance to make himself secure for life. I know he’s as good as telling me if I don’t let him go I might not get the best out of him in the rest of the season. But I can’t tell the local press there is a gun to my head. The players all know he wants away, the manager knows, but you can’t blacken his character in public if you are going to sell him as you’ll reduce his value – and there’s always the chance the window will shut and you’ll be left with him and will need him to want to play for you.
So the fans – who love him – moan when you leave him out, and the press ask why, but you can’t say anything. It’s difficult. The issue came to a head when we lost at Barnsley in January and to my eyes Becchio never broke sweat. They were bottom of the table and Yorkshire rivals whose fans love to put one over ‘big’ Leeds. Our fans, for the first time, turned on the team, and me. I made the point of staying out on the pitch until last, and clapping the fans. I got dog’s abuse. I knew after that I had to do something about Becchio so I spoke to his agent on the Monday and told him how disappointed I was at Becchio’s attitude. In reply the agent let slip Becchio had rung him an hour before the game. I was gobsmacked, but I didn’t let on, just asked him a question that ensured he confirmed it. I then asked Becchio if his mind was on the game, he said it was, but when I pointed out he’d been on the phone to his agent an hour before kick-off he had suddenly nothing to say. He couldn’t deny it. So he had to go, but I needed to get a replacement. One player I’ve always admired, especially since a performance for Millwall against my QPR, is Steve Morison. I tried to sign him when QPR went up but Norwich beat us to him. He did well for them in their first season in the Premier League but was now on the bench most weeks. I got in touch with Chris Hughton at Norwich but he insisted he wouldn’t let Morison go until he got a replacement. He was finding that difficult. It was all over the papers that they had had bids rejected for strikers like Celtic’s Gary Hooper. Then they lost in the FA Cup to non-League Luton to top off a bad run in the league and I knew they’d be getting desperate to sign someone. I could have offered Becchio to Chris, but that would have weakened my negotiating position as it would have made it obvious I needed to shift Becchio. So I asked someone else with links to the club to throw his name in the hat. It worked. Becchio had not been on their radar but a 19-goal striker was going to keep the fans happy, and he was a lot cheaper than Hooper. We also got a cash adjustment in our favour, £ 200,000, so the new owners were happy, and after the problems with Becchio so was I.
Warnock, Neil (2013-06-06). The Gaffer: The Trials and Tribulations of a Football Manager (p. 343). Headline. Kindle Edition.
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Good read that. Shows how frustrating management must be. He's a charmless individual but he came across well in that eye opening documentary about QPR from a couple of years ago.
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Interesting read. Also funny to see just how it ended up for Becchio and Morison going in either direction. Neither did a hell of a lot.
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(I must admit that I had no idea getting a Loan Player in during the Transfer Window often involved paying a fee to the club and agent! (as well as all the other extras!).
Here's an extract re Routledge:
I spoke to Derek Lambias, Newcastle’s chief executive. He wanted us to pay Routledge’s wages which were a lot of money. We offered to pay three-quarters of it and top up most of the rest up on a pay-as-you-play basis. Then Newcastle said they weren’t sure they wanted to let Routledge go and manager Alan Pardew wanted to speak to him, but Routledge’s agent told me the lad was in London and wouldn’t be going back up. I wasn’t surprised; he’d only started four games in four months.
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Later
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I spoke to Newcastle again. This time Lambias said they would let Routledge come without a loan fee as long as we agreed to buy him in the summer if we went up. That helped, as it was clear after the Kyle Naughton fiasco the board didn’t want to spend anything on transfers or loan fees until they knew we had money from promotion. They agreed and we managed to get Wayne five minutes before the deadline for him to play against Coventry. The delay was because Routledge wanted a clause inserted stating if we got promotion, and other clubs came in for him as well, he could go to another Premier League club if we couldn’t agree terms. Of course I agreed – it also meant if we went up but Routledge didn’t do well we could just offer him less money knowing he wouldn’t want to stay then. I thought it was a great clause.
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Another example:
We also got Ishmael in, though there was a complication there too. I was going to sign him to the end of the season then I got a call from Dan Ashworth, who now works as the FA’s director of elite development at Burton, but was at West Brom then and did the transfers, saying I couldn’t sign him on that basis because John Carew had gone to Stoke and if they had injuries they might need Miller to go back. We agreed a 93-day loan with a clause enabling West Brom to call him back after 28.
It makes one wonder just how managers stay sane at times!
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Must say I'm a great fan of football autobiographies and have dozens ( probably need to dump them as taking too much space now) - warnocks is definately one of the best ones I've read.
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This book seems like it would be a good read which is real shame because Warnock is a grade A dickhead and I refuse to buy it on that basis.
I might illegally download it though
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Very interesting stuff indeed.
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Very interesting stuff indeed.
Absolutely, sounds like a book to read on holiday!
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Warnock is undoubtedly a arse-wipe of the highest order, but this does show what you have to deal with in the modern game, which I don't envy him or any other manager for.
And if it's that bad when dealing with players of the level of Routledge and Becchio, imagine what's it's like as you go higher up the food chain!
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Warnock's book is brilliant and I doubt enyone, ahvign read it, would not actually have an admiration for the guy.
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such fun and games. I remember Doug saying that he had agreed with another chairman (can't remember know) that they would both offer the exact same fee for Alan Thompson. Then when the other guy refused to budge he offered more and got him in. Cheeky devil that Doug!
I may have a look at downloading this as well. Only trouble I just where do I look....
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Warnock's book is brilliant and I doubt enyone, ahvign read it, would not actually have an admiration for the guy.
Absolutely agree, one of the best football books I've read and i have read an awful lot.
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"The players all know he wants away, the manager knows, but you can’t blacken his character in public if you are going to sell him as you’ll reduce his value – and there’s always the chance the window will shut and you’ll be left with him and will need him to want to play for you."
Found that bit interesting.
And sort of relevant to the situation we have with Bent.
Not suggesting that Lambert has blackened his character, as such. But I don't see how our approach with him and Given will reap any sort of benefit.
It's all well and good saying they aren't part of the managers long term plans, so isolating them is no big deal. But unless you're AS Monaco or the Blue Mancs, you can't just stockpile players and completely ignore the ones you don't fancy.
Unless they're complete shits, they all have a part to play - up until the point that you sell them.
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Warnock's book is brilliant and I doubt enyone, ahvign read it, would not actually have an admiration for the guy.
Absolutely agree, one of the best football books I've read and i have read an awful lot.
Me too.
Have never been a fan of Warnock but it really does give some amazing insights into just how the game has changed.
This link from Amazon gives the chance to read an excerpt for free.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00ABLJ1X0/ref=oh_d__o01_details_o01__i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1#_
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I've never had any issue with Warnock and that shows what he has to deal with.
It also shows why more clubs are going down the route of having a DoF and Coach instead of an old school manager.
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Warnock's book is brilliant and I doubt enyone, ahvign read it, would not actually have an admiration for the guy.
He's also been very good and very honest as a guest presenter on Talkshite over the last few months
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I don't mind Warnock. He's a bit of a rent-a-gob at times but he seems honest enough.
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The Becchio situation he talks of is the Jan transfer window just gone, right?
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The Becchio situation he talks of is the Jan transfer window just gone, right?
It's got to be recent because he talks of Hughton at Norwich.
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I don't mind Warnock. He's a bit of a rent-a-gob at times but he seems honest enough.
Telling his players to get deliberately sent off in the hope of having a match abandoned?
Honest?
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I don't mind Warnock. He's a bit of a rent-a-gob at times but he seems honest enough.
Telling his players to get deliberately sent off in the hope of having a match abandoned?
Honest?
Ha ha. As the day is long.
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I dont mind him - his players always seemed to give everything in every game. I remember Sheff U beating us in the Cup in 2005 and they simply wanted it more than we did. His Palace team nearly did for us in the Cup in 2010 as well. Always had a sneaky admiration for him.
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such fun and games. I remember Doug saying that he had agreed with another chairman (can't remember know) that they would both offer the exact same fee for Alan Thompson. Then when the other guy refused to budge he offered more and got him in. Cheeky devil that Doug!
I may have a look at downloading this as well. Only trouble I just where do I look....
I think it was Ridsdale at Leeds. Doug and Ridsdale agreed on the same offer for Thomson and said they would not enter a bidding war and would simply let the player decide which offer he would accept.
Doug then went back with an extra 50k over the weekend and we got Tommo.
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I don't mind Warnock. He's a bit of a rent-a-gob at times but he seems honest enough.
Telling his players to get deliberately sent off in the hope of having a match abandoned?
Honest?
Causing a riot too.
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Add to that telling one of his own players to break the leg of an opposition player and his incessant moaning about match officials every bastard game. I'd say football won't miss him.
His stock seems to have fallen enough that even middling Championship clubs won't take a punt on him now, so he's redefining himself as some sort of honest, straight talking ex-manager. He's an arse.
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such fun and games. I remember Doug saying that he had agreed with another chairman (can't remember know) that they would both offer the exact same fee for Alan Thompson. Then when the other guy refused to budge he offered more and got him in. Cheeky devil that Doug!
I may have a look at downloading this as well. Only trouble I just where do I look....
I think it was Ridsdale at Leeds. Doug and Ridsdale agreed on the same offer for Thomson and said they would not enter a bidding war and would simply let the player decide which offer he would accept.
Doug then went back with an extra 50k over the weekend and we got Tommo.
I'd completely forgotten about Thompson. Thought he'd be a decent signing at the time and expected half a dozen thunderbolts a season.
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Good read that. Shows how frustrating management must be. He's a charmless individual but he came across well in that eye opening documentary about QPR from a couple of years ago.
I've liked him since he spoke well of us after we beat his Sheff U 3-0.
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such fun and games. I remember Doug saying that he had agreed with another chairman (can't remember know) that they would both offer the exact same fee for Alan Thompson. Then when the other guy refused to budge he offered more and got him in. Cheeky devil that Doug!
I may have a look at downloading this as well. Only trouble I just where do I look....
I think it was Ridsdale at Leeds. Doug and Ridsdale agreed on the same offer for Thomson and said they would not enter a bidding war and would simply let the player decide which offer he would accept.
Doug then went back with an extra 50k over the weekend and we got Tommo.
I don't think that it was Leeds. That doesn't ring a bell.
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Leeds does ring a bell. If he never played for them then the thought of him in a Leeds shirt must have come from this.
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Wasn't he a coach at Leeds?
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He's an arse but he has his moments and I have a sneaking regard. He's a northern working mens club version of Mourinho.