The Mirror sports writer believes QPR's temporary boss has both the experience and appetite to return on a permanent basis
As soon as Queens Park Rangers brought Neil Warnock back to the club in a ‘first team advisory role’ the writing was on the wall for Chris Ramsey.
“Adding someone to the backroom team has been on my mind for some time and I know Neil well, having spoken to him at length during his time at Crystal Palace when we were in talks about me going to join him as part of his staff,” Ramsey said at the time, trying – and failing – to sound convincing.
That was just one month ago, and even then you suspected that bringing in a wise old head to work at the club who had been there and done that when it comes to earning promotion to the Premier League was far from Ramsey’s own idea.
Perhaps Ramsey really did mean it when he said: “Neil has a passion for this club and for football in general, and he’s got too much to offer for us to waste an opportunity to tap into his knowledge.”
To me, though, that sounded like a man coming to terms with a situation foisted upon him.
Even at the time it smacked of when Harry Redknapp arrived at Portsmouth as director of football in 2001, his jowly presence hanging over manager Graham Rix until he was inevitably sacked and ‘Arry replaced him.
Middlesbrough, QPR’s opponents on Friday, had a similar situation in 2000 when boss Bryan Robson was struggling and Terry Venables was brought in as ‘joint-manager’.
In the end both Venables and Robson left the club at the end of the season, although El Tel would undoubtedly have taken Robson’s job if he had wanted it.
So it was the least surprising news of the season when Chris Ramsey was sacked and Warnock installed as his ‘temporary’ replacement two weeks ago.
“Full-time management doesn’t interest me anymore but, if I can help Chris and QPR by acting as a sounding board, then that’s great,” Warnock said when he re-joined the club last month.
Pull the other one, Neil.
Once a manager, always a manager – and already club sources are indicating that Warnock will remain in charge until at least the end of November.
But what if he leads them to victory in their next two games, away at Boro and then at home to his former club Leeds?
Just this week director of football Les Ferdinand said when asked about the new manager search: “There is no rush. We have Neil Warnock in charge who will be in the job until we get someone in. We have to make sure it’s the right man.”
But have they already got the right man on the books?
The only criteria for success this season at Loftus Road is a return to the Premier League, and who better to achieve that than a man with seven promotions under his belt – two of them to the top flight, one of which was with this very club just four years ago?
After all, a couple of wins, starting at the Riverside on Friday, and you would bet your house that Warnock suddenly rediscovers that interest in full-time management after all.
