“I don’t miss those horrible bits about management,” says Neil Warnock as he reflects on his first four months as Torquay United’s football advisor.
Warnock – who is widely regarded as one of the best English managers of modern times – has been a non-executive director of the club since new owners took over in May.
The Gulls – who were an English Football League side until 2014 – almost went out of business earlier this year before new owners came in to stabilise a side now in the sixth tier on English football.
Over 43 years and more than 1,600 games as a manager, Warnock led teams to a record eight promotions and managed more games in English professional football than anyone else.
Now he is helping to resurrect a club that helped him resurrect his managerial career in 1993 as he advises new manager Paul Wotton and his coaching team at the National League South club.
“I’ve enjoyed every minute,” he tells BBC Radio Devon.
“I know football’s take, take, take a lot of the time, but I’m retired and it’s nice to actually put something back into a club that gave me and Sharon [Warnock’s wife] a big lift when we first came down here.”
“You can’t explain it,” says Warnock, who has guided the likes of Sheffield United, Queens Park Rangers and Cardiff City to promotion to the Premier League.
“Everybody who has retired will understand what I mean when I say all of a sudden you’ve got a blank in your life at times.
“You have to have something, and for me it was to try and put something back into Torquay that they gave me.
“They gave me the belief and I still get that kick when we score a goal and when the final whistle goes.
“In some of the results we haven’t played overly well, but I always think good teams win games when they don’t play particularly well.”
‘We’re incredibly happy to have Neil as a mentor’
Having dallied with relegation last season following a 10-point penalty for their financial woes, Torquay have thrived this season.
A five-game unbeaten run had placed them second in National league South before a 2-0 loss at mid-table Welling United on Saturday.
But having a club playing football at all is a feat for the Gulls’ new owners, who took over when unpopular former owner Clarke Osborne cut his funding and sent the club into administration.
A chance meeting between Warnock and co-chairman Michael Westcott on a train set the wheels in motion for Warnock to rejoin Torquay and give the consortium that took over the football knowledge they needed.
“The advice that he can give the consortium about how the business of football is conducted and help to interpret things for us, I think we’re incredibly happy to have Neil as a mentor,” Westcott tells BBC Radio Devon.
“What’s been lovely to see is I’ve seen Neil enjoy his involvement with us, but I’ve also seen the way that the fans respond to Neil every time he comes to Plainmoor, and it just helps with that whole feelgood factor that’s back at the club again, that’s been absent for so long.”
‘We want to leave the football to the football guys’
Newly appointed manager Wotton and Warnock have had to rebuild an entire squad from scratch on the field, while off it the Bryn Consortium of owners – named after the police dog that bit Gulls player Jim McNichol during the final match of the 1986-87 season – have been doing a similar job off it.
The club had debts of over £6m and Westcott and his fellow directors have entered into a Company Voluntary Arrangement with most of the creditors.
But there are still more bills to pay – the floodlights and big screen have seen better days, and the club’s CCTV system needs upgrading – all while the new owners finance a playing squad at the same time.
“Normally when you acquire a club you get several weeks to do some due diligence,” says Westcott.
“We had several days, so a few things came out of the woodwork which have surprised us – mostly around investment required in the infrastructure to get Plainmoor up together again.
“But by and large I think the way the staff have responded to some of the significant changes we want to put in place, the ways the fans have responded to our tenure and our custodianship, has been absolutely fantastic.
“I said from the beginning that we want to leave the football to the football guys and we would crack on with the rest of the business.
“We’ve thrown a lot of resources around the club and I think off the field we’re by no means the finished article.
“The consortium’s been thrown together quite quickly, we’ve inherited a new staff, but we’ve got a plan, we’re ambitious, and so far we’re on the plan and we’re really delighted with how the season’s started for us.”
