At Plymouth I wrote 'Neil Warnock's Wembley Way', a one-year diary, to show people what being a manager was like. I got lucky as the year ended with us winning promotion through the play-offs at Wembley.

Football is a relatively small industry and there are times, while you want to be honest, that it is best to pull a few punches. You never know, you might need to work with that person again.

I don't think it is wrong to have a bit of banter with refs. My Dad would always manage games by talking to players and so did I when I reffed.

I have spoken to refs after games, just to ask about something that had occurred during a game. It's always been off the record and I've never had a ref not answer.

I can't say I ever got to the stage of swapping phone numbers with refs, but I don't have a problem with managers and referees communicating.

You need good staff with their own opinions - Mick Jones has been a great No 2 as he's not a yes-man - but at the end of the day the buck stops with you and the good managers are the ones who make more good decisions than bad.

For a lot of young managers, especially those who have not played at the top end of the game, there is also a financial need to work. Some of them could find employment in another field, but you can't beat making a living out of something you really enjoy doing.

I've been fortunate most of the seven promotions I've won have been with sides I built from zero, so it is doubly rewarding. There is nothing to match being in the dressing room celebrating promotion after a long season with a group of lads you have put together.

Older readers will remember there used to be matches on Christmas Day. I remember leaving the fireside and the presents to watch matches on the day as a boy but such matches were rare by the time I began playing.

I am finding I have to watch what I am doing otherwise I may as well be in full-time football again and, while I'm available if something interesting comes up to take me to the end of the season, I don't want a long-term commitment at this stage in my life.

On the plus side, leaving Leeds meant I have been able to spend a lot of time with the family, enjoying a very rare summer off and my first Christmas without work worries since I was a teenager. I was also able to accept an offer to work with BT Sport.

When I joined QPR in March 2010 we were rock bottom and heading for League One. We conceded too many and didn't score enough, which was a recipe for relegation.

The sack is a sad fact of life for football managers. I have been axed three times. The chairman at Notts County was on record as saying it's the worst thing they ever did. Within a couple of years they were one game from losing league status.

Maybe we have more young English players than people sometimes think. They just need a chance to show their ability.

Older players who have experienced failure in the past can sometimes be held back by the fear of it happening again, young ones just want to go out and play.

I like experience in my side, but you need a balance and young players give you energy, pace and, often, a freshness which means they have no fear.

I would like to wish Harry Redknapp the best of luck filling my old seat in the dugout at Queen's Park Rangers. It was one of the achievements of my managerial career getting QPR back into the Premier League after a 15-year absence and I would be very sad to see them go back down after all the hard work the players, staff and myself put in.

As I found at QPR, a club in the process of a takeover is paralysed.

Statistics can be so misleading. It is funny, though, how often at the moment you see one team had 60 per cent of the ball but still lost.

I never thought I'd rather watch England's cricketers batting for a draw than their footballers in the World Cup but it was a lot more exciting.

As far as I can tell most people in football do not take colour into account when judging people. I certainly don't.

Apparently I have 12 league games to go to get 1,500 and that is really tempting to me.

It doesn't bother me what division I am managing in.

It's suggested I am big pals with Willie McKay. Am I? I don't think I am. He is an agent. You need these agents if you want to do a deal.