Neil Warnock on the football clubs Built Different, VAR and the Championship chaos ahead

Neil Warnock remembers the officials who cost him.

Not roughly.

By name.

“Craig Pawson was the referee, and Ed Smart was the linesman,” he said while recalling Cardiff’s defeat to Chelsea.

“I’ll remember them on my deathbed!”

Retirement has apparently done little for his ability to let things go.

We spoke to Warnock as part of Midnite’s Built Different Index, our look at the clubs where football runs a little deeper than most.

That meant talking supporters, football towns and the places that still mean something to a manager who has been just about everywhere.

It also meant VAR, Premier League predictions and a Djed Spence cigar story.

Warnock interviews tend to wander into useful places.

Middlesbrough matches are “almost like a religion”

Middlesbrough rank among Britain’s strongest clubs for local support in the Built Different Index.

Warnock gets why.

“I think it’s because it’s a one-town club, and it’s got history, and Steve Gibson’s been there for a very, very long time.”

Then came the line that probably explains it best.

“Each match is almost like a religion to them. It’s something they just have to go to.”

That is difficult to manufacture.

You can spend money on players and improve the stadium. You cannot suddenly create generations of people arranging their weekends around the same patch of grass.

Warnock felt that connection while managing Boro and still speaks warmly about the place.

“I thought I could have got promoted when I was there, but unfortunately I got sacked, so it was one of those things.”

Very Neil.

He likes their chances this time around too.

Will Lankshear has particularly impressed him.

“I think Lankshear is a Premier League striker in the making.”

When pushed for his three Championship promotion picks, Warnock went with Burnley, West Ham and Middlesbrough.

No sitting on the fence there.

Plymouth support still amazes him

Plymouth also scored highly in the Built Different Index.

They ranked as the sixth best-supported club in Britain by our local-support measure, above every Premier League club apart from Newcastle.

Warnock had recently been back at Home Park when we spoke to him.

“When I read that I thought, ‘Wow, that’s amazing.’”

He went to the cup game against Exeter with his daughter Amy and found a full house.

“The atmosphere, the Green Army... in fairness, both clubs, the Exeter fans were brilliant as well.”

Then he got onto the travelling.

“When you get to Bristol, the country finishes then, according to football, where poor old Plymouth fans have got another two and a half hours.”

And still they turn up all over the country.

For Warnock, that says plenty about the club.

“It’s a fabulous club.”

He also praised owner Simon Hallett and the way Plymouth have been run without spending money they do not have.

Then came possibly his strongest endorsement.

“The food I had before the game was the best I ever had.”

Forget expected goals.

That’s proper analysis.

VAR has lost him

Warnock once wanted VAR.

You can trace the exact moment.

Cardiff against Chelsea. A goal he believes should never have stood. A result he still thinks mattered in their relegation.

“I championed VAR after that because it wouldn’t have happened with VAR.”

Then VAR arrived.

Now?

“I am glad I’ve had my time as a manager now. You can’t celebrate a goal in the Premier League.”

His problem is not simply the technology.

It is what football has chosen to do with it.

“It was for clear and obvious errors.”

Warnock thinks the game has gone far beyond that point, with incidents being rewound and rechecked until somebody finds something.

His suggestion is to involve more people who have played.

“The only way around it I can see is if VAR gets specialists and some people that've played the game, some people that understand the game.”

Given his feelings about certain referees, we’re guessing he already has a shortlist.

Arsenal could be the big winners

Warnock would have backed Manchester City for another title had Pep Guardiola stayed.

Without him, he thinks the picture changes.

“I think now Arsenal will be laughing their heads off.”

Liverpool interest him too.

“I like the manager and I think he'll attack.”

Anfield is a big part of that.

“He'll want to get the crowd going and the way Liverpool play at Anfield, I'm quite excited about them.”

He hopes Michael Carrick does well at Manchester United and thinks Chelsea could benefit from having more experience around a young squad.

The Premier League feels less predictable to him than it did.

At least near the top.

At the bottom, he knows exactly how ugly it can get.

Promoted clubs are in for it

Coventry, Ipswich and Hull all face the same problem.

The Premier League does not give you many quiet Saturdays.

“They've got it all on,” Warnock said.

“When you are at a club that's just been promoted, it's so difficult to get wins under your belt.”

The gap is not just about the best sides either.

Every week brings another squad full of players capable of hurting you.

“There’s no respite as a manager.”

Warnock thinks getting points early will matter.

A couple of wins can change how a newly promoted group sees itself.

A bad start does the opposite fairly quickly.

Hull’s rise has particularly caught him.

“Hull’s a miracle. Hull is an absolute miracle.”

That sounds complimentary.

We’re fairly sure it is.

He’s still watching his old players

One of them is Hayden Hackney.

Warnock gave him his Middlesbrough debut and expects him to do well at Everton.

“He's got such enthusiasm and I think it rubs off on his teammates and he'll want to prove things.”

David Moyes should suit him too.

“I think in David Moyes, he's got the right manager as well.”

Warnock still tracks plenty of former players.

Jack Rudoni gets a mention.

So does Djed Spence.

That one goes slightly differently.

“I didn't see him with a cigar at Inter Milan! He normally comes on Zoom with a cigar in hand.”

Warnock says Spence’s ability was never really in question.

He is pleased to see how his career has developed.

Although his assessment of the move to Italy was perhaps less conventional.

“In Milan, nobody will understand a word he says, so it'll be good for him.”

You will not get that in many scouting reports.

Some clubs just get under your skin

Warnock has managed across England and Scotland.

He still watches old players. He checks scores involving former staff. Certain grounds bring back very specific memories.

Huddersfield means survival and one of the most emotional nights of his career.

Oldham means cold.

Bury means clearing dog mess off the training ground.

Plymouth means the Green Army.

Middlesbrough means supporters treating matchday like religion.

That is really what sits behind the Built Different Index.

It is easy to measure league position.

What is harder to capture is why 16,000 people turn up for a cup game, why away fans travel half the country every other week, or why a club still matters to someone years after they left it.

Warnock has spent his working life around places like that.

He remembers all of them.

Especially the referees.