Neil Warnock: 'I regret turning down Sunderland more than Chelsea snub'

Neil Warnock says turning down the Sunderland manager’s job is the ‘biggest regret of his career,’ even more so than declining an offer to manage Chelsea.

Warnock is one of the most enduring managers in English football and is still going strong at 74-years-old.

He brings his Huddersfield side to Sunderland on Tuesday still in desperate need of points in their bid to avoid relegation.

Ahead of the trip, though, he couldn’t help but think back to the 1991/92 season when, following the sacking of Dennis Smith, Warnock was offered the chance to take over at Roker Park.

"It’s my biggest regret in my whole career," Warnock said. "I turned Chelsea down but that wasn’t a regret – but Sunderland was a regret.

“But I didn’t want to do the dirty on a player I used to play with, Malcolm Crosby, who was caretaker manager.

"I said to the chairman there, Bob Murray it was: ‘Bob, I’ll come when they got knocked out the cup’. Then they got to the final, didn’t they! So it must have been fate."

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