Neil Warnock: Middlesbrough boss to remain at Riverside next season

Neil Warnock guided Middlesbrough to Championship survival at the end of the 2019-20 season

Neil Warnock will stay on as manager of Championship club Middlesbrough next season.

Warnock, who replaced Jonathan Woodgate as boss on 23 June, guided Boro to 17th having battled against relegation for much of the season.

It was uncertain whether the 71-year-old would remain in charge for the 2020-21 campaign and had taken some time away to decide on his future.

Assistants Kevin Blackwell and Ronnie Jepson will also be staying on.

The pair were brought in when Warnock was first appointed, with Boro 21st in the table at the time.

They went on to win four of their eight remaining games, although he was unable to oversee a first victory at the Riverside Stadium since Boxing Day.

"I've really enjoyed myself since I've come up here," Warnock told the club website. "The people in the area have made me and my family really welcome.

"It's been hard work, make no mistake. But this is a great club and I'd like to take it towards the other end of the table.

"I just felt it was the right thing to do; to continue to shape the squad and take it forward. That's what I'm going to try to do.

"I must have retired about five times now, but there's always something that's brought me back; a challenge, helping somebody out, and this is a similar situation."

Warnock, who said in January that he was looking for one last job before retiring, needs just four more matches to reach the milestone of 1,500 league games in management.

Boro are the 16th club of Warnock's managerial career, which started at Gainsborough Trinity in 1980 and has seen him win promotion to the top flight on four occasions - most recently with Cardiff in 2018.

"He's busy already," Boro chairman Steve Gibson told BBC Look North. "He said he was going to take a week off down in Cornwall and switch his phone off - and I wish he had, because he's been on the phone to me every 10 minutes."