Neil Warnock to sue West Ham for loss of moanings

CRYSTAL PALACE manager Neil Warnock has announced plans to file a claim against West Ham United for the moaning opportunities he lost a result of the Carlos Tevez Affair.

The Yorkshire-born serial whinger claims that Sheffield United’s relegation, and his subsequent failure to manage in the top flight, has had a disastrous impact on his chances to publicly bemoan the many officials, clubs, players, chairmen and goals panels he perceives to have wronged him.

“This isn’t about money,” said Warnock. “It’s about Sheffield United being a small club, that pompous lion on the Premier League’s logo, Richard Scudamore, Carlos Tevez’s grinning mutant face, Margaret Thatcher, Stéphane Henchoz, Sean Bean, Graham Poll, and the memory of Duncan Edwards.

“Above all, it’s about me, and the enormous difficulties I’ve had in getting media time to complain in the Championship.”

Warnock’s attempts to engineer a fully-fledged back page bust-up have failed miserably in a season of mid-table serenity for Crystal Palace.

In October his rant about the under-inflated warm up balls at Aston Gate was only covered in The Telegraph’s News in Brief section, and last month his row with a QPR programme seller over the best direction for blue stripes failed to even make Sky Sports News’ ‘in other news’ segment.

The 60-year-old believes he would be collecting far more headlines if he was still moaning at the highest level: “There’s no level playing field in football in anymore. I’ve got just as much right to get in the tabloids for haranguing Roberto Martinez as Arsene Wenger has for refusing to shake hands with a Barm Pot like Phil Brown,” said Warnock, employing a specific northern inflection in his accent that normally signifies he’s spoiling for a fight.

Warnock earned a reputation as a world-class grumbler during his early days as manager at Notts County when a series of bad-tempered tirades alienated the club’s fans, squad, board, and ultimately the river Trent over a four year period.

His bitter rants have generally been delivered with a twinkle in the eye which is notoriously only visible to fans of the club he is currently managing.

West Ham have failed to respond to Warnock’s outburst, instead releasing a statement offering their view on more popular media matters, including Jade Goody (saddened), Josef Fritzel (shocked) and Watchmen (four stars).

Published February 12, 2009

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