Neil Warnock says Leeds United should not panic over new manager search

Warnock is ready to step aside

Leeds boss Neil Warnock has urged the club's owners not to panic in their search for a new manager and wants to help them find the “main man”.

Warnock is ready to step aside after Saturday's home defeat to Huddersfield left Leeds seven points adrift of the npower Championship play-offs with eight games left to play.

But the 64-year-old has told Dubai-based equity investment firm GFH Capital, who completed their £52million takeover at Elland Road in December, that he can play a leading role in finding his successor.

"I want them to get the best manager they can get to replace me and some of them might not be available until the summer," said Warnock.

"They're in a situation now where the club is geared for the Premier League.

"The new owners have come in, it was the longest takeover I've ever known, I expected that to be finalised last August, so it has been a difficult eight or nine months for me.

"But they've come in and they're going to do things steady.

"It's not like they've got to chop and change everything now. I think two or three additions now with a very good squad, the whole club with the fans and everything, it's just geared now.

"I know they've (fans) heard it all before, but I think there's some optimism at the club.

"It's a great club and I can help them as well whether I'm here or not."

Asked if he would step aside now if the right candidate be came available, Warnock added: "Goodness me yes.

"I'm not naive. If we've not got a chance of getting in the play-offs they can do two things, they can ask me to stay on if they can't get the main man, because they might not be able to get him.

"I don't want them to panic and get anybody. I've seen some of the people putting their hat in the ring and quite honestly I think the club should be patient.

"I've got a couple of ideas of who they should be going for if that's the case, but let's see what happens.

"I think we're quite capable of going to Ipswich and Derby and getting six points, so you never write it off."

Warnock, whose contract expires in June, has made no secret of his intentions to walk away from the club this summer if he failed to clinch a record-breaking eighth promotion and lead them back into the Barclays Premier League.

He wants to return to the south-west to be closer to his family home.

"At 64 I don't want to be that far away from my family.

"I wanted to give it a go to get in the Premier League because it's a fabulous club and I still think with a little bit more fortune and a bit more investment at the right time we could have been there.

"To lose Snodgrass was a major blow. He was the only player I didn't want to lose.

"We've never quite replaced that quality. It's frustrating for me.

"If I was five or 10 years younger it wouldn't be frustrating, I'd be looking forward to everything about the future.

"It's just the situation I'm in, that's why.

"I want the club to go forward and we've still got to give it our best shot.

"If I'm still here in a fortnight's time, we've got to give it our best shot.

"The following will be fantastic at Ipswich, I'm sure that we will sell out and then Derby here on the Monday, two great games really.

"So I wouldn't write the group off."

Leeds travel to Ipswich after the international break on March 30 and then take on Derby at Elland Road on Easter Monday (April 1).

Former Southampton manager Nigel Adkins is the bookmakers favourite to replace Warnock, while Brighton boss Gus Poyet, who spent 12 months as assistant to Dennis Wise at Elland Road in 2006, and ex-Swindon manager Paolo Di Canio have also been linked with the job.

PA

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
Caption competition
Caption competition
News in pictures
World news in pictures
Sport blogs

Brits on fire in the wet at Le Mans!

Wow - what a weekend for British Motorcycle racing!

by Luke Wilkins

iBet: Bale and Rooney transfer specials

The dust is barely settling on the Premier League season and the bookies are looking to persuade us ...

by Gareth Purnell

A changing of the guards in English football: From Sir Alex Ferguson to Jose Mourinho

The guard has changed at Old Trafford for the first time in 26 years. Meanwhile, down the road, the ...

by The Sports Lawyer

       
Career Services

Day In a Page

National archives: Edward VIII’s phone calls - and how MI5 bugged them

Edward VIII’s phone calls - and how MI5 bugged them

Newly unearthed papers reveal a shocking extra dimension to the constitutional crisis over monarch’s abdication
Sent down at the Old Bailey: A tour of the world's most famous court

Sent down at the Old Bailey

A tour of the world's most famous court
Hollywood's random acts of red-carpet kindness

Hollywood's random acts of red-carpet kindness

The Hangover actor Zach Galifianakis’s date for his movie premieres isn’t arm candy  – it’s his 87-year-old friend who he saved from homelessness
British football scores an own goal

British football scores an own goal

Many managers barely survive a year in post. Martin Baker talks to experts who make a case for clubs using forensic business skills to find the best staff
James Lawton: Sergio Garcia cracks as major fault line opens up again

James Lawton

Sergio Garcia cracks as major fault line opens up again
Dylan Hartley: Northampton have spent the season proving all our critics wrong

Dylan Hartley talks tough

Northampton have spent the season proving all our critics wrong
Watch out Watford: Here comes the secretive Bilderberg Group

Watch out Watford: Here comes the secretive Bilderberg Group

A meeting of global power brokers in a Hertfordshire hotel is exciting conspiracy theorists, but what are they really about?
'The ultimate all-in-one home entertainment system': Microsoft finally unveils its Xbox ONE console

'The ultimate all-in-one home entertainment system'

Microsoft finally unveils its Xbox ONE console
Plenty of Fish dating site founder pulls 'Intimate Encounters' option to ward off sleazy men

Plenty of sleaze

Dating website pulls intimate 'hook-up' section to curb harassment
Inferno author Dan Brown 'honoured' to be invited to join the Freemasons

The Freemasons’ Code

Dan Brown reveals the message that told him door to the lodge is open
Not secure any more: G4S boss heads for exit at last

Not secure any more: G4S boss heads for exit at last

Nick Buckles survived the Olympics débâcle and a £5bn bid fiasco but a profit warning finally triggered his downfall
How to say ‘I’m a sellout’: Tumblr’s David Karp’s message of reassurance to his staff sounded very familiar

How to say ‘I’m a sellout’

Tumblr’s David Karp’s message of reassurance to his staff sounded very familiar
Why clubs are keen to take a stand

Why clubs are keen to take a stand

There's a real desire around the grounds for safe standing. But will the authorities listen?
In the end the fans decided Tony Pulis had made a pig's ear of the job at Stoke City

In the end the fans decided Tony Pulis had made a pig's ear of the job at Stoke City

Disillusion with a siege mentality and negative playing style made change inevitable
James Lawton: The James Hunt I knew is the subject of a new F1 movie

James Lawton: The James Hunt I knew is the subject of a new F1 movie

British driver was fascinating man whose epic duel with Niki Lauda in 1976 was typical of an era of glamour and glory – but also the ever-present threat of death