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Neil Warnock has revealed for the first time that he has come close to leaving the club this summer. However he has credited the club’s supporters for keeping him at Elland Road with their fantastic support.
The 63-year-old is putting all his efforts into taking Leeds back to the Premier League after a nine year absence from the top flight. Warnock’s doubt over whether to stay at United occurred when a £400,000 deal to sign Joel Ward from Portsmouth collapsed at the end of May.
Ward instead joined Crystal Palace and saw Warnock left extremely frustrated as he failed to sign a single player for six weeks following the signing of Jason Pearce.
However, the heavy 7-3 defeat at home to Nottingham Forest in March has stayed with Warnock. This is as the supporters backing in the game despite the score line made him even more determined to bring success to the club.
The manager’s son James has also played a pivotal part in ensuring that his father didn’t walk away from the challenge at Elland Road.
Warnock is looking to reward his family and the supporters this season whilst achieving a record breaking eighth promotion in his managerial career.
He has also declared that the United job is easily his biggest task he has ever faced in management.
He told the Yorkshire Evening Post:
“I was disappointed to lose Ward to Palace earlier on in the summer; in fact at that stage I’m not sure I was going to be here.
There were temptations and I think it might have been easier to take an offer elsewhere than stay here. My son James lives here and he's the one that over this summer - when it would have been easier to leave - who has pleaded with me to give it a go. Because he knows how desperate I am to get another promotion.
I'll never forget the fans' support here last season. The one thing about the fans since I've been here is that they have been magnificent.
I'll never forget the Forest game at home in the last ten minutes of that game when I was talking to Ronnie Jepson and saying: 'Lets put something on this pitch next season for this lot to get excited about.' And that's what I'm trying to do."