Greatly misunderstood Warnock will be football's loss

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The business of results claims another victim

Football managers live and die by results and given QPR's perilous state, Neil Warnock's departure is no surprise.

Yet I feel an intense sadness at seeing this Yorkshireman lose his job. Warnock may be one of the most controversial managers in the English game with a career littered with clashes with opposing players, managers and referees, but there is something intensely sweet and human about him.

Eighteen months ago, I went to his house in Richmond to interview him, and he made me a cup of tea, explaining that his tea making involved just dipping one tea bag and then recycling it for his wife to use. And then he provided this wonderful explanation of the contradictions in his own personality: "I tell my children they must have good manners. I'm okay except between five to three, and ten to five during a game. Then somebody else takes over. People say, why don't you change? But it's difficult to at my age. To be successful, I have to be what I am."