Warnock quick to fulfil role as man of destiny

When it comes to football, Sheffield is a city with a split personality. In 1993, Trevor Francis's Wednesday reached the two domestic Cup finals and finished sixth in the Premiership, while Dave Bassett's United were struggling in the lower reaches of the League. A decade on, and it is the Blades' turn to be cutting a path towards promotion from the First Division, leaving the Owls to drift towards extinction. "When one side is up," Neil Warnock remarks, "the other is invariably down."

Warnock can afford a wry smile because Sheffield United have always been his club. "I've been a fan since I was four years old," says the man who was born less than 10 minutes away from Bramall Lane, "so I'm obviously very proud of what we're doing here. Our supporters might be delighted with what's happening at Hillsborough, but I honestly take no pleasure in their problems. As long as they finish no higher or lower than fourth from bottom, then I'll be happy."

The Blades entertain Wednesday at Bramall Lane on Friday night, but it was last week's entertaining Wednesday night which is consuming United fans and that pulsating Worthington Cup semi-final first-leg victory over Liverpool.

Warnock's love affair with United stretches back 50 years, six years less than his elder brother John, who now runs the Blades' Academy. "When I first came to the stadium," he recalls, "it was still the days of short trousers. I particularly remember the queues stretching back for hundreds of yards. Seriously, they used to go round and round the stadium and then out into the road. Getting that ticket in your hands was something really special. I would look at it for ages, before going to get autographs from the players. I remember that so clearly: the smell of the liniment coming out of the changing-rooms.

"My father used to be a crane driver in the steel works. He would usually work from six until two, then he would rush home to pick me up and we would arrive at the game just after three. Dad would then pass me down to the bottom of the Kop and leave me there standing at the railings until full-time. I loved it."

Nowadays, Warnock does most of his standing just outside the dug-out. At Bramall Lane on Wednesday, he was at it again, barking orders to his players and eventually triumphing in his personal duel with Liverpool's French tactician Gérard Houllier.

A few miles away, his brother John is winning battles of his own at the Academy. Unlike Neil, Warnock Snr never played at professional level, deciding instead to gain a university degree. "I went out to learn the science of the sport," he explained, "and have now put it all into practice here at Sheffield United. Neil's in charge of the football, but the Academy is my baby. We have our own responsibilities but we're both working towards the same target: to get the club back to the top with local lads in the side."

At least United are well on their way to promotion. The manager's shrewd transfer dealings (he has spent only £600,000 in the last three years), coupled with his engaging coaching style, have contributed to the club's steady rise up the First Division table. The top two, Portsmouth and Leicester City, seem to be out of reach, but the play-offs should easily be attained. "I don't mind the play-offs," Warnock quips, "but then I've won five out of six matches in the event."

Before the potential end-of-season finale, Blades' fans have another important date pencilled in their diaries. The 21st of January will be the day of the Worthington Cup semi-final second leg. United go to Anfield with a slender 2-1 advantage, thanks to the double helping of goals from their young attacking midfielder Michael Tonge. "He has certainly set them wagging," Warnock cracks, "but the really pleasing thing for me is that he is one of several kids who we are bringing through ourselves."

When Warnock took over at Bramall Lane in December 1999, he knew that the club needed to start producing their own players again. "For some reason," he explains, "we had no youth policy at all anymore. So the first thing I did when I arrived was ask the board to build us an academy."

Three years on, and the centre is in full swing. Of the current first-team squad, no fewer than four players (Tonge, Nick Montgomery, Phil Jagielka and Ben Doane) came through the ranks. Warnock believes that a large part of the scheme's success is down to the academy's director. "And I'm not just saying that because he's my big brother," Warnock junior says. "Right from the off, John and I had a vision. We wanted to try to emulate what Ipswich have achieved. Selling one homegrown player every year is the only logical way we can survive." Should United fail to reach the Premiership this year, Tonge would almost certainly be the first to go, probably to Liverpool. "That's the reality," Warnock says, "and that's why we have to make absolutely sure we get promoted."

Warnock, who journeyed around the lower reaches with Chesterfield, Rotherham, Barnsley and Crewe among others, would have loved to have played for the Blades but was never "quite good enough". "I quickly decided that if I wasn't going to play for the club, then I sure as hell was going to manage it one day."

As during his playing days, he was forced to start his coaching life at the bottom. He took over Gainsborough Trinity in 1980 and has slowly worked his way up to his present position. Aside from setting his sights on the hot seat at Bramall Lane, he also aspired to leading a team out at Wembley as well as managing in the Premiership. He has achieved the former, guiding Notts County to consecutive promotions via the play-off finals at the national stadium, but still awaits his first taste of what he calls "the big boys' league". "I've been in the top flight before [with Notts County in 1991], but that was the old First Division. It's not the same. It doesn't really compare."

Had he chosen a different path one February day in west London, Warnock might be a Premiership veteran by now. "I had my chance," he says, "when I was offered the Chelsea job in 1992. Don't laugh, yeah, but at the time I just felt that I had a moral responsibility to the players I had taken up. It seems silly talking about loyalty these days, but that was the way I operated then."

Predictably, Notts County sacked Warnock less than 12 months later. Since then, he has acquired something of a reputation. His dubious decisions during last season's infamous "Battle of Bramall Lane", when a League game against West Brom was abandoned because United had been reduced to six men, or the tales of players being made to drink sherry and raw eggs before going on a run to break a long sequence of poor results, have led Warnock to be labelled a maverick. "What is now abundantly clear to me," he answers calmly, "is that my only chance to manage in the Premiership is by taking Sheffield United up. Chairmen want young foreigners, not experienced Englishmen like me, so I have only one way left to the top."

Listening to Warnock speak about his first love, one cannot help feeling that he will not leave until his Premiership destiny is fulfilled. "The weird thing for me," he says, "is that I am both the manager and a fan. During the match, I am 100 per cent focused on my job as coach, but when I go to have a soak and a glass of orange in the tub after the game, those five minutes alone are magical. I can close my eyes, walk down memory lane, and remember what this club means to me." You suspect it may not be long before Warnock means just as much to his beloved Sheffield United.