Former Leeds United star makes blunt admission over Elland Road spell after move from Aston Villa

The defender joined Leeds in January 2013, making the move from Aston Villa. He made the move less than three years on from his last England appearance and was considered by many to be a coup for the Whites

During a turbulent chapter in the club’s history, Warnock was among the club’s better performers and served captain for a period before leaving for Derby County.

Warnock’s move to Leeds was the first permanent switch away from the Premier League of his career and he has admitted he found the drop in standards difficult.

Speaking on the Undr The Cosh podcast, he said: "I found it tough. What helped was, I had Michael Brown alongside me as well, who had been a Premier League player. His attitude is phenomenal. The way he approaches training, things like that, I sort of bounced off him a lot, because of the way his attitude was.

"I felt sorry for myself for a bit. I hate being disrespectful but if I made an overlap, a run forward, at Blackburn, Tugay [Kerimoğlu] would pick me out. But then I’d have [James] Milner and [Stiliyan] Petrov at Villa. And then I went to Leeds and I’m making runs and the ball’s not coming.

"You have to change your game. I remember just becoming a static full-back, thinking ‘I’m not running forward’. To be honest with you, I probably dropped my standards because of it as well.”

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Warnock confided in Wayne Bridge about his struggles, another former England left-back who had dropped into the EFL. Warnock explained: "I probably thought I could go down into the Championship and p**s it, which you can’t. I struggled for a bit to be honest with you. I thought ‘I’ll go Leeds, maybe I’ll stay for six months to a year, and someone will buy me’.

"I remember speaking to Wayne Bridge about it when I retired, because Bridgey went to Reading. He said exactly the same. I was making runs and doing things and it wasn’t coming to me. He said ‘I’m getting exposed’, thinking ‘what is going on here?’. I had exactly the same problems, it’s just part and parcel of it.”

Despite encountering frustration on the pitch, Warnock was full of praise for the Whites and paid tribute to the passionate support the club receives from fans.

He said: “I went to Leeds and to be honest, it was brilliant at Leeds for a period. When you talk about [Aston] Villa being a massive club, they [Leeds] are huge. The following they’ve got is phenomenal.”