The Gaffer: The Trials and Tribulations of a Football Manager

A top manager's intriguing insights into the daily trials and tribulations, the peaks and troughs of life as a football "gaffer"

For football fans who have ever wondered how a transfer deal is done, what a manager says during his prematch team-talk, or what he screams from the techincal area, here the manager of Leeds United tells all. He also reveals what goes on in training sessions and on those long away trips, how a manager carefully builds a team, and what he does when the planning is disrupted by injuries. He explains how he lifts a team after a crushing defeat, and how he keeps their feet on the ground after a resounding victory. And he answers the question of how the man in charge handles the ever-present danger of getting sacked in the ultimate results business. In short, this book explains how one of today's top professional footballer managers somehow copes with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, with having to live, breathe, and sleep football 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

In his 32-year managerial career Neil Warnock has taken charge of Gainsborough Trinity, Burton Albion, Scarborough, Notts County, Torquay United, Huddersfield Town, Plymouth Argyle, Bury, Sheffield United, Crystal Palace, and QPR. He is currently manager of Leeds United. He has enjoyed seven promotions in that time, taking three different clubs into the country's top division.