Town boss Mick McCarthy says he can’t see his Rotherham counterpart Neil Warnock ever giving up management, the 67-year-old having returned to the hot seat last month having previously stated his intention to retire.

McCarthy says he kept in contact with his former Barnsley team-mate when he was out of the game prior to taking over at the New York Stadium.

“I texted him and said that his missus would kill him when he wants to come back in because he was supposedly going to retire. But I just can’t see it happening,” the Town boss said.

“He’s a good character and he’s a mate of mine, I’ve known him for a long time. I played with him at Barnsley.”

McCarthy, who used to clean Warnock's boots at Oakwell, can understand why his opposite number keeps returning to management: “It must be [hard to give it up]. I’ve no thoughts of doing that yet. Before I took this job I was out of it for seven months.

“The first couple of months was OK, I probably needed it, actually. It does wear you down, especially if you’re struggling.

“And then when you’re out for two or three months you need to get back to work and you miss the banter, you miss the craic, you miss the football, everything about it. It’s not easy being a civilian.”

He and Warnock are perhaps perceived as unfashionable managers in the current era, a tag the Blues boss scoffs at.

“What’s that, getting teams to play well and win games and do well in the league?” he said. “It’s a pain in the arse that ‘old-fashioned management’, eh?

“I've said before, me and Steve Bruce were away in Portugal when he’d just got the Hull City job and I was out of work.

“He’d had to take Hull in the Championship and a few months later I had to take the bottom of the league in the Championship.

“Over a bottle of beer we were just bemoaning the fact that maybe it’s not what people want any more. But it is, it turns out.

“And Neil’s the same. I guess there are a few of us of that ilk and none of us are going to change. But keep getting results, that’s the main thing.”

He added: “I was at a League Managers’ Association function and it’s not the League Head Coaches’ Association, it’s League Managers’.

“And for me it is managing. Managing a club, managing assets, managing people and that for me is the biggest thing of all, getting the best out of them.

“Getting the best out of their abilities, so you’re managing that as well. It’s not just about managing them in the building, it’s managing them on the pitch, managing them on the training ground and that is a skill and it’s not something that everybody’s got.

“Everybody can take a bag of balls and some bollards out and put a session on, some better than others, some are brilliant at it, some are good at it, some not so. But getting the best managing people, for me, is the biggest part of the job.”

Coming back to Warnock, he says his impact since he took over at Rotherham - in their last four games they’ve won three and drawn one from being 3-0 down and are now in with a chance of staying up - is no fluke.

“It’s not a one-off,” the Town boss continued. “He’s done it at Notts County, Scarborough, he’s been at QPR, he’s been at Sheffield United.

“Everywhere he’s been he’s done that and he’s had a team that’s always been really hard to beat, always worked hard and got the best out of them and got the best out of them in their positions or even in positions they don’t play in.

“I hear mixed reports about him but I know him personally and for me he’s good at what he does.”

Warnock’s animated presence on the touchline has often wound up the Portman Road crowd, which McCarthy says could help build the atmosphere this afternoon.

“Won’t do any harm, will it?” he laughed. “There are lots of them [do that] now. At least he’s had a lot of success doing it.

“That sometimes is a bit calculated, I think from some of the older managers when they have a pop at the referee or a pop at something or at the fourth official.

“I could honestly say I’ve been guilty of it myself sometimes. I’m not at it all the time, but sometimes you need to just liven somebody up, liven the game up.

“It might be at half-time, it might be on the pitch, but that’s actually managing the game as well.”

Warnock says he loves his trips to Portman Road having enjoyed a lively relationship with Blues supporters over the years.

“When I go there now, me and the staff, we all chuck £1 in and we can have from 15 seconds from the whistle for the first time they call me a rude name,” he told the Sheffield Star. “It’s usually within the first minute. Very rarely does it get to two.”

He says the relationship goes back to an incident during a game against Sheffield United at Portman Road in 2006.

“We were losing 1-0 and their fans were asking me what the score was,” he recalled. “I put one finger up and made a nil sign with my other hand and they all clapped and cheered. But I also pointed to my watch because there was still 18 minutes left.

“When we equalised with five minutes to go, you can imagine I was very, very happy. I ran on the pitch afterwards with my lads. To ‘the kop', as I call it at Ipswich, I put two fingers up - one on each hand to signal 1-1. I remember their centre-half [Richard Naylor] chasing me and having a go at me.

“I looked round the press conference afterwards and there was one snake sat to my left from one one of the national papers. I think DM were the initials of that publication. He asked what my reasoning was for putting two fingers up.

“That’s what he wanted. He’d made up his story for Monday already - Warnock and the two-fingered salute, which was total rubbish. I wrote to the local paper and I was inundated with letters from fans saying they knew straight away it was great banter and they enjoyed how I was giving it back. I’ll never forget that. Their fans were fabulous.”

Regarding his former Barnsley team-mate McCarthy, he added: “I have a lot of time for Mick,” he said. “He has his critics, but he’s always got a competitive side. He’s a bit like me, isn’t he? It’s our roots. We’re both from up here.”

Photo: Action Images

bluefeast added 07:44 - Mar 19 Will be like Jurassic Park on the sidelines today. Combined age 122. Ideas may work in certain ways for the older managers. However last season the promoted 3 had two managers in their 30s and one who was early 40s. This season the top two have two managers who are in their 30s. Modern ideas and the ability to change is easier when you are younger. The first sign of madness is continually doing the same thing when it does not work. So there you have it. MM is now MMM aka mad mick macarthy. COYB

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Radlett_blue added 07:46 - Mar 19 No, Warnock will keep re-appearing until Van Helsing finally gets him with the stake.
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jert16 added 09:04 - Mar 19 So lucky to have you Mick, thank you!
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Dalty added 09:28 - Mar 19 Nice selective use of stats there, bluefeast. Ignoring the fact that the two "managers who are in their 30s" in the top two in the Championship that you mention are actually 44 and 42 years old, the bloke at the the top of the Premier League isn't exactly a rookie manager is he? I could also add that 4 of the top 6 managers in the Premier League are in their 60s.
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VulpineBlue added 10:56 - Mar 19 I really don't see what age has to do with it. It comes down to horses for courses. Wenger is no spring chicken and as Dalty rightly says neither is Raineiri. It comes down to whether you are good at the job. What Colin has achieved at Rotherham in his time there is quite remarkable. Mick hasn't done too badly here in the light of his immediate predecessors (all of whom were younger).

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smellmycheese added 21:00 - Mar 19 Nearly shat myself when read this. For a moment thought it said Mick will never retire!!! Now that would be a bad news story.
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