Warnock: Leeds are in England´s top-six

New Leeds United manager Neil Warnock has claimed that the Championship side are ‘one of the top half-dozen’ clubs in England.

The 63-year-old also revealed that he is looking forward to guiding the team back to the Premier League after an absence of eight years.

Warnock was sacked as manager of Queens Park Rangers in January, but has now put pen-to-paper on an 18-month contract at Elland Road.

“The club itself must be one of the top half-a-dozen in the country,” Warnock told the Yorkshire Evening Post.

“There’s no local rivals, it’s just a one club city. They’ve got every ingredient they need.”

Warnock accepted the job offer from chairman Ken Bates some 20 years after turning down an offer from the same man to manage Chelsea.

“It was a shame really. I was just starting out in my career and I thought London, or going down below Watford – well, I didn’t think anyone lived or survived down there,” he said.

“I went twice and got stopped on the motorway for four hours on both occasions. I wasn’t really into that.”

“Also, the lads at Notts County put a lot of pressure on me to stay and help them out because we’d got two promotions in two years, and I felt morally obliged to do so.”

“I think Ken appreciated that, but he was surprised when I turned the offer down. Over the years a number of people told me how stupid I was but I always do stupid things.”

“When I left Notts County I went to Torquay for 17 games and they were bottom of the league – I’m not a predictable person.”