• by Dave Stevens, writing from Las Vegas, NV

Ah, Neil Warnock. Was there ever such a polarizing figure in the sport? Brian Clough, I suppose, but I think the majority deep down liked him. Warnock, by contrast, seems to be a favourite of the fans of whomever he is managing, while universally hated by everyone else. I don’t think he would begrudge us that opinion; more so I think he revels in his reputation as such!

But this is not a character assassination of the man, nor is it an attempt to address anything he’s said himself – more an abstract look at the notion put forward frequently that he’s an expert at getting teams from the Championship to the promised lands of the Premier League.

We heard it when he took QPR up last season, and the same argument has been wheeled out again this past week following his appointment as the new manager of Leeds United. Looking at short-term history, it seems like a good conclusion: Warnock took Sheffield United up as runners-up in the 2005/06 season, and as previously mentioned, captured the championship title with QPR in 2010/11. However, unless my maths are still as poor as they were when I left school, that makes a total of two promotions. Is that really the benchmark for expertise? Surely two successful attempts to achieve promotion isn’t all that rare is it?

Well, before I continue, I should make a quick note regarding the timeline I’ll be referencing from here on out. I am not someone who thinks Football began in 1992 with the formation of the Premier League. Nor do I think that promotion and relegation only began to matter at that point. Of course not! My very first steps in exploring this most wonderful of sports took place before this event and I have fond memories of collecting First Division Football Cards on the playground when the words “Premier League” had not entered our vocabulary. But, I don’t often hear mention of Mr Warnock being great at getting teams up to the top flight – he’s always touted as a Premier League achieving specialist. Plus, I’m trying to prove a point and the fact I can do it with a small dataset helps my argument, so there. It’s definitely not because I’m too lazy to go back a hundred years.

So, on to the question at hand. Is Warnock the most successful manager at getting a team from the tier below in to the Premier League? If not the most successful, is he a cut above the majority?

No! He’s done well with two promotions, but he’s not exactly standing out amongst a small crowd. Let’s take a look at the managers who’ve made their chairmen happy since the 92/93 season…

Fifty-six teams, at time of writing, have made the move up since the Premier League’s inaugural season concluded and entry in to the league was based on this criteria. Many great managers have been at the helm of these clubs at the time of their elevation, but for the purposes of (relative) brevity, we’ll focus on those with more than one promotion to their name.

Beginning with those who have equaled Warnock’s achievement with two teams promoted, we see that Neil has some esteemed company.

Managers with two promotions to the Premier League (* if as Champions)

Name	First PL Promotion	Second PL Promotion
Kevin Keegan	Newcastle United (92/93)*	Manchester City (01/02)*
Bryan Robson	Middlesbrough (94/95)*	Middlesbrough (97/98)
Peter Reid	Sunderland (95/96)*	Sunderland (98/99)*
Alan Curbishley	Charlton Athletic (97/98)	Charlton Athletic (99/00)*
Paul Jewell	Bradford City (98/99)	Wigan Athletic (04/05)
Gary Megson	West Bromwich Albion (01/02)	West Bromwich Albion (03/04)
Mick McCarthy	Sunderland (04/05)*	Wolverhampton Wanderers (08/09)*
Neil Warnock	Sheffield United (05/06)	Queens Park Rangers (10/11)*

So if we’re looking at that evidence, a good choice if you want to go up winning the league, you’ll want Kevin Keegan, Peter Reid or Mick McCarthy as your top choices. Any of the above 8 managers will of course be hot contenders for a team with aspirations of playing at the highest level.

But it’s no fun if we have eight equal winners of “best man for the job” when it comes to promotion to the top level, is it? We want a single, standout candidate, a man who stands above all others as the man for the promotion-desiring chairman.

The good news? There lives such a man! And what a man he is. With an unequaled THREE promotions to his name, the man Royals call “Sir”:

photo by Ashley Ledran

Steve Coppell
Crystal Palace (93/94) – Champions
Crystal Palace (96/97) - Playoff Winners
Reading (05/06) – Champions (with a record-breaking, to-date unbeaten 106 points)

Ah, Sir Steve. Hero of Berkshire, long time legend of Palace, not all that well received in Bristol and were it not for the clearly incompatible media attention that goes with the position, my ideal candidate for the England job.

So, I think we’ve conclusively proved that Warnock, while good at achieving this most desired of feats, is not the overarching go-to man for the task. I don’t know about you, but I’ll sleep better knowing this. Best of luck though Neil, it’s not personal, I just don’t like you very much.

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