
BOOK REVIEWS
Autobiography
The Gaffer
Neil Warnock
We Rate:
BOOK SYNOPSIS
How does a leading professional football manager cope with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, with living, breathing and sleeping football, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. From transfer dealing to negotiations with agents, from training sessions to half-time team-talks, from scouting trips to team bonding sprees, from administrators to chairman, from injuries to referees - Neil Warnock's, The Gaffer spills the beans. You won't have read a football book like this before!

OUR REVIEW
When this book was written back in 2014, it was arguably perceived to be because of Neil Warnock's likely retirement from management with it being well known that his family wanted him to take a step back. Fast forward to today and since leaving Leeds United which features towards the back end of the book, he's managed at another five clubs, proving the popularity of one of England's most capped Manager's. The book is written in a style that is departed from the obligatory autobiography and I wouldn't even categorise the book that way but more a book on how to manage. Predominantly the book details his time around both QPR and Leeds United where he talks about the way things were but throwing in anecdotes from other clubs he has managed in the past.
There is little doubt that Warnock has his admirers in the boardrooms across England and you can understand why. A passionate individual that even the most ardent fan of many clubs crucially admire from afar, the book shows how relatable Warnock is. A true definition that you hate playing against a Warnock team but you wouldn't mind him managing your up and coming club. Whilst clubs these days are all about the young and up and coming managers, mixed in with the foreign greats that now grace the English game, there is still a place for the quintessential English manager who has himself had to adapt to a changing game, having managed for over 40 years and seeing the changes within the game. The focus as mentioned comes mainly through his time at QPR and changing the fortunes of this once great London club that had fallen from the top division. The fascinating relationship and lip biting way he had to deal with Adel Taarabt is a really big focus in the book and it can be looked at in two ways. Mystifying or knowingly. I'll leave it up to you to decide.
The book looks at all the aspects of management. Dealing with players, working with owners who don't understand the game and everything in between that takes up the time of a Manager, its all in the book and a really interesting read that does make you stand up and realise just how hard the job of managing a professional side is. What you see is what you get with Warnock and the book really works because of the way it is written. I challenge any of you not to read it in the style of Neil Warnock's voice, its just one of those things that come naturally. A brilliant read, a very underrated book!
Don't take our word for it, its another very insightful book on the world of football management, told by one of the best ever in the UK, grab the book and give it a read and let us know your thoughts!


