Would Nottingham Forest be safe from danger with Neil Warnock at the helm?
With Cardiff City skyrocketing from the verge of the relegation zone to the floating comfort of mid-table, here is a question for all you Nottingham Forest fans out there: Would you have accepted Neil Warnock as your new manager at the start of the season?
Rocking up in South Wales in October, the veteran gaffer is now edging The Beatles in the comeback stakes and, just a season after parachuting in to Rotherham United and saving their bacon, he is repeating the trick and more at the Cardiff City Stadium and appeared on Sky Sports’ Goals on Sunday this weekend.
Meanwhile, Forest are now six points and nine points adrift of the Bluebirds and, if either of the clubs are going to be dragged into the relegation dogfight, you’d get short odds on Gary Brazil’s side.
And while Warnock is often derided for his commitment to certain players (ahem, Paddy Kenny) and his rather old-school approach, he simply guarantees results in the second tier. And results are something Forest could do with right now.
Yet the 68-year-old was very much interested in the vacant managerial role at the City Ground in the summer before the ill-fated reign of Philippe Montanier began. He would even set out his transfer targets.
“I had a couple of players up my sleeve, I was talking to [Sol] Bamba about Forest and [Junior] Hoilett, then that didn’t come off,” Warnock said on Goals on Sunday, broadcast on Sky Sports 1 at 11.30AM (19/02).
“I just thought it only needed two or three players there, but it never materialised.”
Former Blackburn Rovers starlet Hoilett and towering centre-half Bamba (below) have been at the forefront of Cardiff’s remarkable resurgence as Forest are forced to look on in envy.
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