I went off this, although of course it may just have been a case of us allowing Warnock to save face with the "I believe it was the right time to go" comments:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/sheff_utd/6659513.stm
Definitely face-saving I think. I suspect they settled on a respectful compromise – Warnock allowed to have a dignified exit where he is allowed to suggest it was his decision (remember he was also allowed to hold his own press conference at the club to announce the departure – a real rarity in football) probably in exchange for Warnock not criticising the club at a time Blades for Justice was kicking off.
This is essentially the perfect metaphor for why Warnock was such a divisive figure as our manager. On the one hand, how he got that squad to 38 points, I really have no idea. On the other, a myriad of things he did / didn't do that directly contributed to us ballsing up what was a pretty strong position to survive. This must be the only time in his entire career that he had people pointing at him wondering why he didn't sign more strikers...
We definitely needed one more reliable option rather than the punts that had been made. Hulse was a good investment that paid off. Of the Nade, Stead, Shelton punts made only Stead could be described as consistently good for us. I imagine that Warnock wrongly assumed that the likes of Webber, Kabba and Akinbiyi would make the step up and be consistently effective. Webber was the best of that bunch and still wasn’t near what we needed.
Looking at the the cost of other strikers that summer, you had Johnson £8.6m, Heskey £5.5m, Berbatov 10.9m – Roberts at £3m is probably about as close as you’d get to in the market we were prepared to spend in. The BBC preview is interesting to see the signings (and to be reminded that Charlton were
tipped for Europe under Dowie). I can’t actually remember all of the players we were linked with in the summer (or how feasible any of these were) but a bit of a google has thrown up the following rumours over the course of the summer and lead up to the January window:
Michael Forrsell (then Birmingham)
Michael Mifsud (then Lillestrom for £700k)
Alan Smith (then Man U for £7m)
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (then Middlesbrough)
David Healy (then Leeds)
I feel sure we were linked with Heskey that summer too before he signed for Wigan.
Players we were linked with that I think would have been good signings for us: Scott Brown & Kevin Thomson from Hibs (were linked for months at the time), Mark Delaney. We had a bid accepted for Stephen Warnock in January, but he chose blackburn
Players that were mentioned as being press rumours (courtesy of the pages at the back of the Rumour Mill on the forum – don’t judge me, I’ve had a lot of time to kill today!): Mark Kennedy, Danny Mills, David Dunn, Nicky Butt, T&T international Chris Birchall (
Foxy ”had a whisper” on this one), Ben Watson, Salif Diao, Nugent (we know about the Jan bids, but was also linked in the summer), Greg Halford, Kilgallon (as a summer signing), a mystery full-back that Warnock quotes we had a £2.5m bid rejected for, Caleb Folan, David Thompson, Richard Cresswell, Barry Ferguson, Emile Mpenza, Chris Eagles, Chris Brunt,
I’d forgotten that we’d turned down bids in the summer for Nicky Law too. Also that Marmadou Seck came courtesy of Laurent D’Jaffo, our then European scout.
Only Watford that season spent less on player wages incidentally. As is commonly known, we had a higher wage bill the following year under Robson.
I’ll end this splurge of random 06/07 info by sharing this classic Warnock interview from September that season...
EXCLUSIVE: BLADES BOSS SHOCK
By Michael Morgan
NEIL WARNOCK has named the day he'll end his colourful, controversial career as a manager - when he reaches 60.
Warnock, who turns 58 in December, sees his current Sheffield United contract run out at the end of this season.
And all he wants after that is another two years with his beloved Blades before bowing out after two explosive decades in management.
The Bramall Lane boss, who guided United's promotion last May to end their agonising 12-year exile from the top flight, told Sunday Mirror Sport: "I am not looking to be a manager beyond 60 - no chance.
"Ideally, I would like to finish my managerial career here. I would like to have two years in the Premiership with this club, then call it a day.
"Of course, nobody can tell you what is around the corner. If we miss two penalties every time we get them - like we did against Blackburn - and then consistently make the kinds of mistakes that led to Reading's two goals against us last week, we are not going to climb away from the foot of the table.
"That will be when it's all about results. And it will be down to the chairman to decide whether a new manager would change the prospects of the club. That's what happens with every club.
"But I think you've only got to look at how United's board have been with me over the seven years I've had in charge here.
"On two or three occasions it would have been easy for them to change the manager.
"But they have always stuck by me because I always think that, if you are considering changing your manager, you have got to ask yourself, 'Will I get anybody better?'"
United's PLC chief Kevin McCabe and football board chairman Terry Robinson clearly agree that Warnock remains the man to take their club forward.
Warnock added: "Being in the Premiership has whetted my appetite to extend my managerial career.
"But I never thought, in my wildest dreams, that it would be as good as this. It has totally surprised me because everything about this league is incredible.
"Everybody here is enjoying it, even though our pride is hurting a little bit because we're down at the bottom of the table at the moment.
"But it's fabulous for me, as a United fan anyway, to see full houses at Bramall Lane and everybody enjoying the success we are having.
"Of course I'm disappointed about where we are in the table just now, but I honestly don't feel that I could have done much more from a managerial point of view in the games we've had so far."
I've been missing the chance to talk about football!
