Warnock is certain he made correct decision

The 63-year-old looked to be heading to Wolverhampton Wanderers as the replacement for Mick McCarthy after meeting the Molineux board.

That was, however, until an 11th-hour approach by Ken Bates led to Warnock flying out to Monaco and, once there, accepting the offer to become Leeds’s new manager.

Six months on and Leeds are preparing to host Wolves in a lunchtime fixture that will be shown live by Sky.

Warnock said: “I have no regrets, none at all. You always want a bit more money to spend on players and Wolves’ targets are probably a little bit different to our targets. But there are only 11 on each side on the pitch and I will enjoy being the underdog.”

Warnock first met Wolves chairman Steve Morgan and chief executive Jez Moxey on Thursday, February 16 – a day before flying to Monaco to meet Bates.

He explains: “I would have taken it (the Wolves job). I wanted the opportunity to keep them up.

“I liked them (Morgan and Moxey). They run the club well. It was an opportunity but when I went to speak to them I was driving there and the chairman (Bates) rang me. He didn’t want to interview me. He just said, ‘Come over and join us’.

“He knew where I was so I said to the board at Wolves, ‘Can you give me an answer in 24 hours?’ They wanted longer and they wanted to interview other people, which they were entitled to.

“But I felt that if I’d had three hours with them and I wasn’t their man, then I wasn’t their man.”

United will today attempt to avoid an unwanted hat-trick of opening-day defeats after losing to Derby County and Southampton since returning to the Championship in 2010.

Before the loss to the Rams, however, Leeds had last lost on the opening day in 1989 and Warnock is backing his side to start strongly again this term. “It would be my biggest ever achievement if I got promoted with this squad as it is at the moment. But I wouldn’t write it off.

“It is amazing what you can do if you can get on a roll. That is why teams coming up have got an advantage – because they are used to winning. It is a habit.

“All I’m trying to do is to put out a team who I know within 10 per cent how they will play. Last year was 50-50, the toss of a coin in my eyes. I never knew what we were going to do. Nine out of 11 players, I didn’t know what to expect.”