Yorkshire Evening Post 20/2/12
Warnock calls for a united front
By Phil Hay
Neil Warnock today called for a united front at Elland Road after vowing to inspire a late run to the Championship play-offs.
Leeds United’s new manager urged the club and their supporters to put aside recent differences and come together for the last 14 games of the campaign, admitting: “I don’t want to write this season off.”
United’s search for a new boss ended over the weekend when Warnock was named as Simon Grayson’s replacement on a contract until the end of next season.
The 63-year-old played an active role in Saturday’s injury-time win over Doncaster Rovers, and he took charge of his first training session at Thorp Arch yesterday morning.
His appointment comes after weeks of unrest in Leeds, with the club’s disappointing league position leading to protests against their board, but United’s pulsating defeat of Doncaster kept alive their hopes of promotion to the Premier League.
Warnock said: “It’s an opportunity now to put to bed these differences and the problems they’ve had over the past few months. Everyone get behind the team.
“We’ve only got 14 games left for heaven’s sake. Let’s put that all to bed and everyone be like they were on Saturday. It’s a great club when it’s like that.”
Mick Jones, Warnock’s long-standing assistant, has joined his staff as United’s number two, and coach Ronnie Jepson, who worked under Warnock at Crystal Palace and Queens Park Rangers, was also present at Thorp Arch for yesterday’s training session.
Further additions to Warnock’s backroom team are expected in the coming days, and he is hopeful of securing at least one new signing before Saturday’s visit to Portsmouth.
Defender Clint Hill and former Leeds midfielder Shaun Derry, both of whom were part of Warnock’s squad at Queens Park Rangers, are potential targets, and Warnock has stressed the need for new signings to chairman Ken Bates.
Warnock said: “The chairman was supportive when I spoke to him. He knows I feel we need two or three players, if we can get the right ones, to supplement what we’ve already got. Ideally I’d love to get somebody in before the weekend.
“There are areas we have to improve if we’re not to write this season off. I don’t want to write this season off, not just yet – even though the bookies aren’t giving us much opportunity.”

Independent 20/2/12
Neil Warnock: I haven't got a clue what we can achieve, but let's have some fun
Why it's fantastic to be manager of Leeds, one of the biggest clubs in the country
Neil Warnock
It is exciting to be back and it is even more so to be at a genuine, big club like Leeds United.
I've spoken to three or four clubs in the last 10 days and I've been really pleased with being wanted. Leeds was the one that I listened to a lot and I saw the fans' forums. They seemed to be united that they wanted me. I do feel that when you've got potentially 30,000 people it's a bloody fantastic place to be. I reckon Leeds are the fourth- or fifth-biggest club in the country.
I love it at my age. I have nothing to fear. If things go wrong, I will call it a day. As long as I enjoy it, I will see how it goes between now and the end of the season. My contract is until the end of next season, but I've spoken to Ken Bates, the Leeds chairman, and if we know it's not working – I'm not into contracts now, I was when I'm younger – we'll go our own way. I've always got on all right with the chairman. I know how he runs his clubs, he gets them organised. I know they've had lot of protests, but I'm saying to fans: "We've got 14 games to go, put everything to bed and let's have some fun."
I honestly haven't got a clue what we can achieve. If you'd seen the first half against Doncaster on Saturday, you'd have said, "Let's avoid relegation." If you saw the second, you'd say, "Let's go for it." We've got some good players, and the crowd is an extra player.
I regretted not putting myself on the bench after 10 minutes of the game. I said that to Mick Jones. I went down at half-time and changed three or four things and that really helped us. They're a very keen set of lads, they all want to do their best. That's great for me.
Yesterday was a warm-down and a chat so we could get on with it the next day. I had a word with the lads I didn't see. It's a clean slate. With me leaving QPR there were one or two comments about players who had been left out. It reminded me so I said to the players here, "No rude comments in the press about the past manager ... or me!"
I first spoke to Leeds 10 days ago. They asked me my situation. I didn't know what I was going to do. Over 10 days, I had two interviews with other clubs and another close one before then. Then everything at Leeds happened in 24 hours last week. I spoke to Wolves on Wednesday, I don't think they wanted to make a quick decision. I spoke to Ken on Thursday. He said, "Come over and I'll tell you about the club, you can start on Sunday and meet them on Monday."
I went back and thought that would be a waste of a game and I wanted to make sure we got three points against Doncaster, which we did – even if it didn't look possible at 2-0 down. It wasn't a bad first team-talk! They responded to the changes. Neil Redfearn was already shouting at them when I went in. I let him do that. I wanted to be the good cop! It was fantastic when the third goal went in at the end, it was hairs on the back of your neck time. The lads know it will give them belief, that has probably been missing. We will get better for next week. We will be more organised after a week's training, and then another week training gives us a great chance to get sorted out.
I would imagine a betting man would say the play-offs would be difficult. We have to win every game. If we lose a couple it's beyond us. But I've been in to the academy and you've never seen anything like it. It's the biggest academy complex at a club I've been at, by a mile. It's "top of the Premier League" standard.
I tell you what: it feels good to be back!

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