Middlesbrough chief Neil Warnock believes Paul Warne is a brilliant fit for Rotherham United

He has met scores of people in the game and knows a good football person from a bad one and despite only working alongside Rotherham United manager Paul Warne for a few months during the club’s memorable ‘Great Escape’ act of 2015-16, he knows he is made of the right stuff.

The Middlesbrough chief is the first to admit he did not think Warne would be a future manager when he first met him, but life is full of surprises.

Warne has taken the baton on and impressed many including Warnock and he says that he is a brilliant fit for Rotherham and keeps reminding his former chairman and friend Tony Stewart of the need to stick by him during tough patches.

Warnock, whose side’s scheduled meeting with Rotherham today was called off due to several positive Covid tests in the Millers’ ranks, said: “He (Warne) is a lovely family man. He is not one who I think will go from Rotherham and want to continue.

“I think this is ‘his’ job and I keep saying to Tony when they do have a few bad results: ‘Don’t get silly, Tony’ because Warney is a gem of a lad and he cares.

“The best chance at Rotherham to stay up is by staying together and they are together. They showed that with the Bristol City result and I was really pleased for him (Warne) and I sent him a message that night because he was a bit down after a few defeats. But they have been unlucky.

“They have got to keep going. I love him (Warne) as a person and I would recommend him to anybody – even if he does leave Rotherham as he is so honest.”

On working alongside Warne, he added: “He was doing fitness and in the first meeting I had with him, I remember saying to Blackie (Kevin Blackwell) and Ronnie (Jepson): ‘Bloody hell, I like him, I can trust him.’ You can tell people you can trust straightaway. I knew I could trust him and it was brilliant.

“We took him in more, on board, so we did not keep him out of meetings when we had meetings ourselves. He was with us and knew how we worked and what we were saying.

“I hope he learned a lot from those first few months because when they gave it to him, I was absolutely delighted.

“But you have heard him say he hates the games. I understand where he is coming from!”

Warnock’s stop-off at Rotherham was brief, but thoroughly enriching and he is the first to admit that it is a time he still cherishes and says it rekindled his managerial fires.

Warnock, who plotted the Millers’ survival act from the club’s modest Roundwood training base, which has come on a long way since he worked there, added: “We’d got nothing...The only time I remember having worse conditions was when I first went to Sheffield United and we had a training ground up Millhouses.

“They showed me into the training ground and my room and there was a bucket on the floor and I said: ‘what’s that?’ and it was to catch water coming through the ceiling.

“The changing rooms at the training ground (at Rotherham) weren’t great, but we said we’d got to make them feel like Wembley when the players came.

“To be fair to Tony, I said we are going to have to change that (training ground) and get it better and he has done. He is going to come up and have a game of golf with me, because I am not very good, soon. I do like his company, although he has a cigar in every minute of the day!”

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