Cardiff City back in Premier League with Neil Warnock’s eighth promotion

It was carnival time in the Welsh capital as Cardiff City celebrated their return to the Premier League on a day that felt like a triumph for Neil Warnock as much as for the club he has revived.

This is Warnock’s eighth promotion – a record that sees him eclipse the achievements of Jim Smith, Dave Bassett and the late Graham Taylor – and completes an astonishing turnaround since he took over as manager only 19 months ago, when Cardiff were second from bottom.

The goal the home supporters craved failed to materialise but in the end it did not matter, courtesy of Fulham’s defeat at Birmingham, which meant Cardiff were promoted irrespective of the scoreline here. Those goals at St Andrew’s were greeted with huge cheers, no more so than when Birmingham scored a third in the 89th minute to put to bed any lingering fears Fulham could somehow spoil the Cardiff party.

A premature pitch invasion followed before the real thing, which ended up with every blade of grass covered by thousands and thousands of Cardiff supporters, who spilled over the hoardings to salute their heroes. Amid a sea of blue shirts, bathed in glorious sunshine, Warnock’s name reverberated loud and clear as the Cardiff fans paid tribute to the man who has galvanised their club and put together a team who are far greater than the sum of their parts.

This is the fourth occasion he has won promotion to the top flight, following the success he enjoyed as a manager with Notts County, Sheffield United and Queens Park Rangers across three decades, and Warnock described it as “the biggest achievement in my 38-year career by an absolute mile”.

Vincent Tan, Cardiff’s owner, was there to see everything unfold and to join in raucous celebrations that continued long after the final whistle. Appointing Warnock is arguably the best decision Tan has made at Cardiff and it promises to be a colourful experience with the two of them working in tandem in the Premier League.

With Cardiff’s direct and uncompromising style, Warnock talked about how he has “built a team capable of ruffling a few feathers” in the Championship and made it clear he plans to do exactly the same next season. “That’s all we can do. It’s not rocket science when you take the top six out of it in the Premier League. We’ll be odds-on favourites to get relegated. But we were 33‑1 this year to get in the play-offs, let alone win promotion. So we’re going to enjoy it. At my age you can’t help but do that.”

Warnock turns 70 in December and one school of thought would be that now would be a good time to call it a day and go out in style, yet he was totally dismissive when the word retirement was mentioned. “Oh no, not at all. I think I’ve got to stay here for the club. I saw a story this morning that Vincent might be selling. You just don’t know.

“But as quickly as the club has developed, it could go the other way, make no mistake. And I’m not going to let it go the other way after what I’ve done. So whatever happens, I’m determined to see it through.”

The Premier League has not been particularly kind to Warnock. He was relegated with Sheffield United on the final day in 2007 and sacked midway through the season with Crystal Palace and QPR, yet he sounded totally relaxed about what the future holds for him with Cardiff next season and, in what felt like an important message, vowed to sign only players prepared to buy into his way of working.

“I don’t like losing four or five games on the trot and then all the experts will come out next year and tell me where I’m going wrong. But if it goes pear-shaped, I’ll just leave. So there’s nothing to worry about really,” Warnock said. “But I’m really looking forward to it. I don’t think we should worry about it too much. We’ve got the basis. We’ll have to buy five or six players to supplement the squad but it’s good to have different styles.

“You get what you see with us and that is 100%. And we’ve got a bit of ability. We’ll need more but we won’t be going silly and into markets that we don’t want to get in. I’m not going to destroy what we’ve already built up now.”

Although the game itself was largely forgettable – Reading were never really at risk of losing their Championship status – Cardiff’s journey back to the top flight after a four-year absence will live long in the memory of their supporters and the manager who has written his name into the record books. “I know we’re going to get one or two things thrown at us next season,” Warnock said. “But, hey ho, it’s better than playing in the Championship, isn’t it?”