The Yorkshire Post Abandons Warnock After Leeds Defeat At Middlesbrough

It's not the best way to go into a game at the Etihad is it?

Warnock, a dead man walking since...well October in my book...has at least been propped up by the pall bearing fans, who have been carrying the corpse of the once great club for years now and so are used to shouldering a dead weight, Bates who would back anybody who didn't spend too much money, Lorimer who licks the ankles of any friend of the Chairman, and the Yorkshire Post, no doubt because Neil is always good for a page and a half of impassioned copy. The fans turned a few weeks back; Bates no longer cares as the window has closed and it is somebody else's money anyway; Lorimer is probably too busy fetching sticks for Haigh and Patel to notice that Neil is offering him a Bonio; and the local rag knows that fans are becoming bored with Warnock's illiterate rantings.

So poor Neil is now friendless. He has blamed the referees. He has blamed bad luck. He has blamed the protracted take over. He has blamed Becchio. He has blamed school boy errors by a school boy aged defender. He has blamed red cards given and red cards not shown. He has blamed transfer targets for not wanting to join Leeds and blamed rival clubs for being unwilling to give their players away for peanut shells. Give him more time and he will blame Global Warming, Romanian abattoirs, the European Union, the bankers and Gordon Brown. But how much more time does he have?

Phil Hay of the Yorkshire Post has now called for his head and pushed the case for Adkins, a man who may not be available if Leeds delay. So defeat against Man City could be Warnock's last hoo-ha.

From a personal point of view, it would be a shame to see him go but it seems as if we are now in the final throes of Mad Neil's fitful reign. Hay wants to see a dignified parting; I would much rather see blood and phlegm on the dressing rooms walls. If Neil has failed, it can't be his fault can it? So let's hope he spews the shit!