Neil Warnock: Missed chances, late goals and Barack Obama's gift of the gab
What I Learnt This Week
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Your support makes all the difference.Management. Bloody hell. The last three games, we've missed two open goals and conceded an equaliser in the 93rd minute. No matter what coaching you do, how do you legislate for that?
We could have got nine points. We got one. That is how close it is. We had the Yorkshire derby up at Middlesbrough and gave away a goal with 10 minutes to go. I found myself shaking my head.
I didn't really want to go to bed too early when I got in. I found myself watching Barack Obama's State of the Union speech. I didn't go to bed until 3am. I did feel when I was watching him what a clever man he is.
If everything happened like he said in his speech, America would be a fantastic place, but unfortunately when you listen to politicians you're always thinking "what if?" You never really trust them.
The easy part is putting it across. As a football manager I know that. It's getting people to react to what you've said that's the hard thing.
What he said was common sense. He was talking about poverty in the country, the gun thing took up a lot of the time. We sent a shirt over to the school in Newtown where the shootings were at the end of last year. We think our country is quite bad but the gun situation is appalling over there.
We had a day off the next day so I was supposed to have a lazy morning. I had forgot William and Amy were calling me at 7.15.
When the phone went I didn't know where I was.
The good thing about kids is they don't care if you won or lost a football game. They have more important things like maths and history and what they're going to do during the day.
It's always nice to hear from them. Management is a lonely job at times. It's even more so for me because the family is away.
It's nice to speak to the kids in the morning on the way to school. They cheered me up. Apparently we've had eight eggs from five chickens in two days. Whatever they're feeding them I've told the kids to put it to one side for when I'm next down there. It might just give me a boost.
2) A manager made to last
I haven't looked forward to a game for a long time as much as I did for Real Madrid v Manchester United. It's a few seasons since I planned my evening around a game, I cooked my meal, I lit a fire, and got sat down and got ready for it. It didn't disappoint. I thought it was a fabulous game.
I'm intrigued now to see how Alex will play at home. They've so much quality on the break. It will be interesting. Personally I have a sneaky feeling he might say, "To hell with it and go for it, we're at home."
I bet he doesn't really know now what he will do. He would have taken 1-1 before the game.
The one comment Alex said, the day before the game, stood out for me. He said that Man United build teams to last and he's right. Look at the players, David de Gea, Phil Jones, Danny Welbeck, Rafael, Jonny Evans. When you look at those players he's not wrong, is he? Those players won't kiss the badge and after 12 months go scooting off. They'll be there for a long time.
It's fabulous to see how much Alex wants to win that Champions League. Age and money don't come into it. If they get through this one they have a right chance.
3) Fan-tastic
I saw the Bradford City fans on the telly the other night. They'd sold 30,000 tickets for the Capital One Cup final against Swansea and had got another 2,500 that went on offer. The cameras went down to their ground and they were camping out in tents in horrific weather.
They interviewed a lad and he just said, "I'd have done anything to get one of these ticket," and I just thought that is fantastic."
4) Moses avoids Brom deal
I wonder if Victor Moses is remembering what I said to him when I was at Crystal Palace. I said, "You could go to the very top son, or you could end up playing for Bromley. It's up to you."
He didn't work very hard. Then it clicked into place one day. I've never felt prouder than when Nigeria won the African Cup of Nations, and who got the player of the tournament? Victor Moses.
It also made me think why England didn't try to get him. He would have played for England but we never got near him.
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