Neil Warnock back in management aged 75 with Aberdeen until end of season
Aberdeen have appointed Neil ­Warnock as interim manager until the end of the season. The 75-year-old has come in as a short-term ­replacement for Barry Robson with the club eighth in the Premiership.
Warnock, who has long stated he wanted to manage in Scotland and has a house in the country, has vowed to “have a little bit of fun” in his time at the club.
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“I’m really ­looking forward to the challenge here at ­Aberdeen,” Warnock said. “I’ve made no secret of the fact I’ve always wanted to manage in ­Scotland so when I spoke to [the chairman] Dave [Cormack] and [the chief exe­cutive] Alan [Burrows] and they asked me to help out it just felt like the right opportunity.”
Warnock came out of ­retirement 12 months ago to return to ­Huddersfield and steer them from second bottom to safety in the Championship. The former Leeds, Sheffield United and Cardiff manager departed in September and did not rule out restarting his career. He will take charge of Aberdeen for the first time at Rangers on Tuesday.
Warnock, who has been joined by his assistant Ronnie Jepson, said: “By all accounts there is a good group of lads here and it’s my job now to get the best out of them. Aberdeen is a big club with clear ambition and I’m hoping that during my time here the supporters will get behind the team and I can put a smile on their faces.
“I’ve got a place at Dunoon and my club’s Greenock Morton. I’ve got bricks there with the family name on, so I have always enjoyed going to watch a game there.
Barry Robson was sacked as Aberdeen manager with the team eighth in the Premiership. Photograph: Steve Welsh/PA
“It gives them a little bit of time to find the right mana­ger that’s going to take the club ­forward and also, as I said to them, let’s have a little bit of fun between now and the end of the season as well.”
Warnock revealed he had turned down more lucrative offers. “It’s not for the money. I’ve had some good offers in the last six to eight weeks. I’d like to have a go in this league and I’d like to have a go at a club like this. I got a good feeling about here. In the last couple of weeks I could have got two or three times my salary that I’m on here, in England, but it’s not the ­salary now. You don’t come back at my age unless it ticks the boxes.
“There’s a lot to play for league-wise and I’d like to win a cup. I’ve not won a cup. I got to semi-finals a ­couple of times and got done by ­referees, but we’ll not go into that. The only pressure is I want to win. I can’t see me getting sacked in four months. So I have got to try and enjoy it and try and make the fans enjoy it.”
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Aberdeen are the 17th club ­Warnock has taken charge of and he claims not much has changed since he got his break with Gainsborough ­Trinity in the Northern Premier League in 1981. “I get called a dinosaur and all sorts of names, some I can’t repeat, but in my career as a football mana­ger, nothing has changed in the fact that to be successful, 90-95% is man‑management,” said Warnock, who has achieved eight promotions with seven different clubs.
Warnock’s first game is at Ibrox­. “I was going to start next week, but the lure of taking over for a game like that is too good really,” said the Yorkshireman, who will also work alongside the first-team coach, Peter Leven. “If we get battered, it’s Peter’s fault. If we do well, then I’m very influential on the result.”
It is the fourth season in a row in which the Aberdeen manager has left at about this time of year – Robson following Derek McInnes, Stephen Glass and Jim Goodwin – and the club plan to take their time over their next long-term appointment. They are conducting a review of the football operation that began at the end of last year.