The Gaffer: The Trials and Tribulations of a Football Manager

Genuinely interesting. Focussing on Warnock's time managing QPR, when they won the Championship, this is an informative insight into the day to day realities of running a football club from a man who has been doing it a long time. This is not the fire and brimstone, swearing ref-baiting lunatic that you see on the touchline, but there are still some strong opinions. Warnock is happy to share his faults and come across as a thoroughly decent bloke, who loves football and cares deeply about his football. Joey Barton, on the other hand, comes across less well (to put it mildly), and it is easy to see why Adel Taarabt never achieved anything significant, given the extraordinary behaviour that Warnock has to put up with.

Neil is, under the exterior, one of the good guys and he has a good story to tell. But it all seems a bit random at times with recollections from all over the place appearing. Lots of great man management experience which is instructive, but peppered with lists of name checks that don't add anything to the narrative. Neil also chucks more confusion into the mix by referring to players by their first names, surnames and even their nicknames in rapid succession. Wow. I'm glad I read it but I think it loses out by being not as well written as it could have been.

Neil Warnock has managed football clubs at all levels for nearly 40 years. I wanted this to be a tale of an ex player who nearly made it to the top with lots of ups and downs along the way and good to see he tried his hand at reffing and journalism. The unfortunate thing about the book is that it jumps from here to there and the reader is sometimes left wondering which club or player he is talking about. He shows lots of admirable qualities but some continuity would have made this a five star read and not something that reads like a brain dump on to a word processor

A patchy story of the managerial career to 2013 of Neil Warnock.Nothing to really grip you, a story of players, chairmen, clubs, referees, that goes on and on. The weird thing is that early on Neil Warnock's voice faded away and Sam Alardyce's took over and it was over half way through that Neil regained control (or until I remembered that Neil had written this!). Probably because all these biographies are nearly all the same. Worth the 88p I spent but not the couple of hours I spent reading it. I can get another 88p but those hours are gone.

Having read this, I'm convinced that Neil Warnock doesn't go out to upset people, he just does. He got my back up almost instantly. In the first few pages he implies that the average football fan doesn't have a clue how a football club is run. Although it is true that I have never managed a team, it doesn't mean that I have not had experiences of having to deal with awkward bosses or troublesome employees. At least as a football manager you can just ship a bothersome player out of sight until his contract runs out or he is sold, a luxury someone like me working in an office cannot do. Also, like many working class men and women who watch the game, we do know about budgets. Okay, we don't have thousands of people screaming for our heads, but we can't all just go to our homes in Cornwall or Scotland to clear our heads after a bad day like he can. According to Warnock, apart from one Millwall fan chucking an egg at his head, he enjoyed talking to the fans and never shied away from them.I found the book started off quite interesting and ended in disappointment - as you'd expect - at Leeds. I found the QPR bit in the middle a bit long and laborious. I'll readily admit that I nearly abandoned the book halfway through, as the constant whining drove me mad. I think we all know that Taarabt is a bit of a `colourful' character, but the point is drilled home time and time again. It is as if he wants a medal for getting the best out of him.But you cannot knock the guy's record. He's won seven promotions. I hope he stays in the game, because my team always beat his teams (1-3 at Gigg Lane, 1-4 Bramhall Lane, 1-3 Loftus Road and 1-6 Leeds). Thanks for the points Neil!The book is a must for a QPR fan, as it does go into detail about how the club is run. As for Palace fans, if you want your ego massaging, then you'll enjoy this. Leeds fans, like the other clubs will only find this is a passing interest. £8.49 is a fare old sum for a Kindle book. My advice would be that it is worth the read, but maybe wait until you see it for a quid in Oxfam.Sorry Neil.

He’s one of those managers which most football fans dislike unless he is managing their club. I was initially so excited when he went to Leeds but then felt really let down because he didn’t deliver but upon reading this book the issue was more the senior management at Leeds rather than him. He subsequently went on to achieve success at Rotherham and Cardiff. After reading the book he comes across as a nice guy who offers the odd interesting snippet about the title of the book ie trials and tribulations .

Probably the worst football autobiography ever written. Confused, lacking any sense of sequence or chronological order, one would want to be a member of the CIA to figure out what team, what year, or what era Mr Warnock is writing about. In a genre noted for the dreadful, this makes the dreadful seem almost like good value. If it ever comes on a free offer, decline it with all haste!

This book is aptly titled as it provides a real insight into everything a football manager has to face on a day to day basis. It certainly isn't just about players and tactics and Neil Warnock uses his time at QPR as a sort of case study to illustrate the difficulties of meeting the demands of fans, agents and foreign owners. He demonstrates that even someone of his considerable experience struggles to face the 360 degree challenges of football management. A great read for all football fans and also for anyone interested in learning about management in general.