London: Sixteen months after apparently settling for a quiet life with his family in Cornwall, 65-year-old Neil Warnock returned to football management with one of his many former clubs, Crystal Palace, on Wednesday.
“Neil has agreed a two-year deal and will lead the team this Saturday in our Premier League game at Newcastle United,” Palace said on their website (www.cpfc.co.uk) on Wednesday.
Warnock left the south London club in 2010 after they went into administration, joining Queens Park Rangers and taking them into the Premier League before being sacked eight months later, in January 2012.
The following month he was appointed manager of Leeds United, only to be sacked just over a year later.
“We’ve got a lovely house in Cornwall and I love living there, so I think it’s important to have your priorities,” he said at the time.
“I still want to get involved and I think there’s a space for someone between the board and the manager who’s not a threat, but I only want to do a couple of days a week — and in commuting distance from Cornwall.” Now, however, he is back for the long haul, with the immediate aim of securing Palace’s Premier League status.
They have lost their opening two league games since Tony Pulis, who had steered them to an 11th-place finish against the odds last season, left two days before the start of the current campaign.
In all Warnock has managed 13 clubs, starting in non-League circles almost 35 years ago.
