Neil Warnock has that football buzz back and he’s ready to stay in management well into his 70s.
The 68-year-old Yorkshireman has been a manager for 37 years, starting at Gainsborough in 1980, and he has a burning desire to lead Cardiff City back to the Premier League.
That has everything to do with his personal ambition to achieve a record eighth promotion, but it’s also true that he has settled in South Wales and is winning the hearts and minds of Bluebirds fans.
He was appointed City manager five months ago at a time when they looked certain to be heading towards relegation danger and has steered them into the top half of the Championship table.
Warnock has already had a meeting with owner Vincent Tan and chairman Mehmet Dalman to discuss his future and there are more talks early next week.
Dalman will outline financial proposals put forward by Tan to give Warnock backing.
The highly experienced Warnock believes he can turn Cardiff into promotion contenders in 2017-18 if he is given £6m or more to strengthen the squad.
But even that may not be a deal breaker.
“I feel refreshed and I might even do a couple (of years) whatever the situation,” says Warnock.
Cardiff have back-to-back home fixtures against Rotherham United on Saturday (3pm) and Fulham next weekend.
Warnock saved Rotherham from relegation after taking charge there last season, leading them out of danger during a 16-game stay.
Now, after City’s back-to-back away wins against Leeds (2-0) and Derby (4-3), he is feeling good about life with the Bluebirds.
“It’s given me the belief in what I do really,” he says. “I have been a manager 37 years, that is a long time. A lot of my lads weren’t even born when I started out.
“To still have that enthusiasm and desire to want to put one over people or managers or clubs. That is what I thrive on.
“The biggest thing is for Cardiff fans to go home having seen a performance or effort of their team and to be talking about the club again in the good sense rather than a negative sense.
“We need to know what we can do to be able to bring the three or four players in because we don’t have that many players out of contract really, so it is not as straightforward to thin my squad or to do things.
“So its going to be difficult in the next few months to put things in place.
“It is nice to be wanted. The biggest thing coming here was the reaction of the Cardiff fans to me taking over, it was fantastic.
“It would have to be something extreme I have not even thought about to take me away from that.”
Bottom of the table Rotherham have earned only four Championship wins this season and all of those have been at home. They have lost 15 of their 16 away games, earning only one point from the 48 available!
The Millers have scored 10 goals on their travels, conceding 43.
To make their situation even worse Rotherham will be without defender Semi Ajayi and midfield player Tom Adeyemi, two of their most prominent competitors, at Cardiff City Stadium.
Both are on loan from the Bluebirds and a clause in those agreements means they cannot play in this fixture.
“I can’t play, but I’ll be cheering on the boys to win and if we can get a positive result and get back to winning ways then great,” says Ajayi. “Tom and I know Cardiff really well and we’ll pass on any information which may help our players.”
Tickets are available before kick-off at Cardiff City Stadium, from the ticket office next to corporate entrance two.
The stadium ticket office can be contacted via 0845 345 1400 and is open until 3pm today.
City are offering cut price tickets for the game against Rotherham (£18 adults, £5 u-16) and are hoping for an attendance of around 18,000.
The club set out 60,000 emails to supporters this week encouraging them to support the Bluebirds at this game.
Rickie Lambert and Bruno Manga are both rule out by injuries, while Greg Halford and Sean Morrison are expected to start even though they have had treatment for knocks since the win at Derby on Tuesday.
Cardiff City (possible): McGregor, Connolly, Morrison (capt), Bamba, Richards, Ralls, Halford, Noone, Gunnarsson, K Harris, Zohore.
