NEIL WARNOCK could make a shock return to management with Middlesbrough.
Jonathan Woodgate is facing the sack at the Riverside after a dismal start which has seen him manage just three Championship wins.
Boro were thrashed 4-0 by Woodgates former club Leeds on Saturday and his position is now at crisis point.
Owner Steve Gibson has been determined to give Woodgate every chance but he is now preparing to make the big decision and Warnock is waiting in the wings.
Warnock, who turned 71 yesterday on Sunday, left Cardiff last month after three years as manager.
He took the club into the Premier League last season and described the spell as one of the best of his entire management career which has spanned 33 years.
Woodgate signed a three-year contract as Boro manager in June and told SunSport in August that he believed the mistakes he made as a player would make him a better boss.
SunSport told you last month how Warnock had also been linked with the Hearts job.
Reports in Scotland said the former QPR chief wanted to form an elderly dream team in Edinburgh with Sven-Goran Eriksson.
SunSport columnist Simon Jordan recently paid tribute to Warnock’s long career.
He called the gaffer “the last bastion of a certain type of English management” and said he “embodies a culture that is in short supply pure character and heart”.
