Neil Warnock held a question and answer session at Cardiff City Stadium on Wednesday night and delivered an entertaining evening.
Thanks to Wales Online here are a number of quotes from the manager.
So three wins in the last week
"It really couldn’t have got much better. We’ve had problems but we haven’t bleated on about them, with Ken and Mendez and Gunnars, and poor Kadeem too.
"But we looked at the opposition and how we could nullify them and create things. It doesn’t get better than three wins and three clean sheets in a week does it!"
Warnock on Loic Damour
"He’s probably the lowest paid in the team at the minute but he’s underrated and a lovely lad.
"It’s very good for me because I can shout at him and he doesn’t understand me! He has to go to Sol and ask ‘what does he say’? But I’m not sure Sol tells him exactly what I say.
"He’s been a breath of fresh air. We haven’t actually lost a game when Loic has started!
"I’ve been speaking to his agent about giving Loic a new contract."
On injuries, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and Callum Paterson
"It’ll be like having four new players, I think. Mendez was supposed to be back against Brentford but suffered a flare up.
"I was a quick winger like Mendez-Laing so I know what it’s like... but if you come back too soon it can be bad.
"So we decided to leave him against Barnsley and that he’d be ok for Saturday (Sunday). But I thought after getting the result at Barnsley why risk it?
"It augurs well if we can get one or two back in the next game and them all back by Christmas. Rhys (Healey) is looking really sharp in training and back into the full training this week, tackling and everything else, same as Paterson was.
"I spoke to Vincent about signing Paterson and Camp and they were both injured. But I knew we’d need Camp before the end of the season and we’d have Paterson by November. I said to Ken at the time ‘this is an investment for the club’, we only paid peanuts for him. He’s 23 but he looks 33... he must have had a tough upbringing! He just struggles with people running at him so that’s why I’m playing him in front. But my beautiful right back is an amazing player at the moment."
Are you looking to buy in January?
"If I wanted someone in particular I would ask, obviously Vincent has the last shout but I don’t think there’s any need to do that. We only spent £1.5m net in the summer so it’s a matter of looking. Do we need another body in that position? When I was at Sheffield United, we lost three centre-halves in a week and we couldn’t get anyone till January.
"Matt Connolly was 19th man on Saturday and there wasn’t a bit of trouble. But if I had an injury tomorrow I’d play Connolly without a minute’s hesitation. He’ll always have a job at my club because I can trust him."
Thank you once again to our incredible manager Neil Warnock for such an entertaining evening and to everybody who came along👏
— Cardiff City FC Foundation (@CCFC_Foundation) November 29, 2017
Nights like these really do make us #CityAsOne 🔵⚽️🔵⚽️ pic.twitter.com/8nlpClc8aq
I came here to be a winner
"90 per cent of winning games has nothing to do with training and tactics. You don’t take over a club and decide how you’re going to play.. you see what you’ve got. It’s amazing what lads can achieve if you’ve got that belief.
"What I say to teams is ‘I’ve not come here to pick money up because I’ve got enough. I come here to win."
Why so passionate and what about other clubs
"It’s just how I am. I get terrible nerves before a game. I can’t eat until 6 o clock after a game. It’s what drives me on, that winning feeling. When I’m on my tractor, feeding the chickens or on my school run, I can’t get that buzz. Sharon kicked me out of the house and that really got me going for Rotherham.
"It was an impossible task at a nice club with lovely people. But nothing is impossible. And it’s his own fault, if he’d given me what I wanted I would have stayed (at Rotherham)."
But you came to Cardiff
"We spoke to Blackburn and Forest and Derby County. Originally I’d been to Derby (for an interview) and I said anyone could manager Derby County for 30 games but you need me because I can manage those extra 16 games. I said to them I’ll get you promoted and then I’ll find you another manager. They said they need that stability. Guess who it was? Nigel Pearson. Three months later, he’d gone!"
You fit in well at Cardiff.
"I used to like the old Ninian Park. It is my cup of tea here. Sharon told me ‘I’ve just been on all the forums and Cardiff City websites and I can’t believe it... but they all like you!'
"Nowadays you get the sack in six games and I’m fortunate because I can do it year to year and I don’t worry about getting the sack because I think I can get a better job. When you’re younger you worry about paying the mortgage and that’s natural but I don’t have to worry about that now."
All in it together
"Vincent and the lads have learned from me. I try and build a club, it’s important we’re all together, commercial department and ticket off. I had that at Sheffield United and told them ‘you won’t know what you’ve got till I’ve gone’ and they plummeted for years.
"Chris (Wilder) is bringing it back because he’s bread and butter like me. Groundsman.. women who do the washing... kitman, we’re all together."
Goalkeepers
"I think Murphy is better than most keepers in this league. You’ve got to try and keep them onside because you don’t want them to leave. Neil (Etheridge) has had a few errors but they’re getting fewer, (Andy) Dibble is working on that. It’s only under pressure that he makes a bad kick but when I look at others’ mistakes the last few weeks... good goalies are the ones that make the fewest mistakes.
"Neil is only young, he’s not played at this level before. You can see the lads going up to him the last few weeks and they trust him. Camp is not far away either."
I want to succeed and I can see this group going all the way
"I do get driven but it’s not the financial thing, it’s wanting to succeed. I want to be proud of that team and show people ‘that’s my team’. You don’t get it very often. I’ve had seven promotions and they all still have reunions.
"This group is very very similar. This is the best staff I’ve had now. To the players, I said at my barbecue in the summer, I know if we’re not careful we’ll get promotion this year. We’ll have our critics but we’ll stick together now.
"When you’ve been in the game as long as me you can see it coming."
Pilkington to leave in January?
"Everyone knows Pilks hasn’t been in my thoughts but he hasn’t complained, he’s done well in training and I said to him ‘train and do what you can’. But the chances are he will leave in January."
If you did get promoted. Would you stay?
"We’re miles away from it at the minute. And I didn’t say I wouldn’t manage in the Premiership... I said I didn’t like it when I did. I couldn’t go into the Premiership and sign lots of foreign players,spending £10m or £15m on Antonio Whoever.
"The only way I would do it is with a squad like this, the togetherness we’ve got and do what Sean Dyche is doing. I would have to supplement what we’ve already got."
Low crowds are a disappointment
"I was disappointed with 14,000, 15,000 (crowds) and thought ‘what have I got to do?’
But I can’t let that fester and the main thing is the 250-odd who came to Barnsley and they’re my heroes. They didn’t stop singing and they didn’t half help us!"