Neil Warnock, 75, takes 20th managerial job

Neil Warnock is adding to an impressively long resume of managing soccer clubs by taking over at Aberdeen. Warnock’s last job was a brief stint with Huddersfield Town. Upon taking over in February, Warnock turned around the relegation-threatened Huddersfield Town with a blazing run of form to close the campaign. He returned at the beginning of the 2023/24 season in the Championship, but Huddersfield struggled. The club and manager eventually moved on at the end of September.

Since leaving, several clubs expressed an interest in singing Neil Warnock. Queen’s Park Rangers had links with Warnock. However, Aberdeen emerged as the destination for Warnock to manage his latest club. Remarkably, this is Warnock’s first job outside the English Football League. Warnock was the manager of Cardiff City in Wales, which was the only job on his resume outside of England. Now, Warnock is going to the Scottish Premiership.

Aberdeen has been struggling in Scotland this season, and Neil Warnock must turn the club around if it is to have any level of success this season. In the 10 previous seasons, Aberdeen finished in the top four nine times. However, Aberdeen is eight points behind Kilmarnock in fourth. Crucially, Aberdeen has two games in hand that Warnock can take advantage of.

Warnock only plans to stay at Aberdeen until the end of the season on an interim basis. He replaced Barry Robson, who was only in charge at Pittodrie Stadium for one year. Interestingly, Robson arrived as the manager around this time last year to turn around Aberdeen’s fortunes. Robson won nine of his 14 league games as the interim head coach last season.

Neil Warnock beats out others to Aberdeen job

Warnock will look to have a similar level of success with Aberdeen in his allotted time in Scotland. Few can bring the level of experience Warnock has managing at the top level. That assuredly played a role in Aberdeen selecting Neil Warnock.

One of the managers Aberdeen looked into was Jack Wilshere. The former Arsenal midfielder, whose career ended prematurely due to rampant injuries, is a coach in the Arsenal academy. This would have been his first significant managerial post. Also, the Scottish club wanted Neil Lennon. The former Celtic manager has won the Scottish Premiership as a manager five times. Also, he has claimed the Scottish Cup four times. Those included domestic doubles with Celtic in both 2018/19 and 2019/20.

Warnock got the job, and his first game in charge is a daunting task on Feb. 6. Aberdeen travels to Glasgow to take on Rangers, which is fighting for another league title.

Success in the coming months

The focus for Aberdeen is to finish as high as possible in the league table. Qualification for Europe is still within the realm of possibility, but results need to come fast. In the Scottish Cup, Aberdeen has a last-16 matchup at home against Bonnyrigg Rose from the fourth tier of the Scottish soccer pyramid.

PHOTOS: IMAGO.