Chippy, arrogant, antagonistic. Everyone has a word for him. Opposition fans wrap them all up alliteratively in one phrase, as he concedes.

"Warnock is a w. . . . . .". But suffice to say that the coming of Warnock from the Championship is akin to tossing a still-smouldering banger into a box of fireworks. When the new Premiership season kicks-off on Saturday he will find himself amongst a bunch of characters, many of whom, it must be said, possess a very short blue touch paper themselves.

Who knows what commotion he'll create, when it all goes off, though for the moment, he gives the impression that the welcome from the brotherhood has been almost masonic.

"Yeah, I've had one or two very nice letters from Alex and Jose, " Warnock says, as though the Manchester United and Chelsea managers, Ferguson and Mourinho, were regular wine-supping buddies. "That's typical of Sir Alex. I can't remember the last time I didn't get a Christmas card, signed by him and his wife. People don't always see a lot of what he does behind the scenes. From a manager's point, he's always there, if you need him. Football-wise he's sort of the godfather to all of us."

He adds: "I respect all those (Premiership) managers, and they know what I've done. They know it's been hard work here. But they know they'll be in for a game.

"I've had battles with Alex over the years. I remember when I was manager at Bury, we played in front of 50,000 against United in the Worthington Cup, and I got a little bit carried away with myself when it was 0-0 in extra-time. Tried to win the f****** game and put forwards on."

He laughs to himself. "We lost 2-0. That might be a little lesson to remember. Yeah, got to remember where you are. That was our cup final, and we'll have a lot of those this year."

He may be on Ferguson's Christmas card list, but it would be fair to say that he would not be on everyone's.

"People ask me about managers I've fallen out with, " he says. "There's only three managers I totally despise.

Most managers, I have a good relationship with. Of course, I have barneys on the bench.

(Alan) Pardew and I had a bust-up a couple of years ago at West Ham. But I thought it was great what he did last season. I respect people like that."

But it is officials with whom the fall-out has been greatest.

Warnock spends far too much time in the stands, and not because he admires the architecture. He is banished there for the start of the season, the legacy of an incident in a match against Leeds which culminated in police intervention.

Though the dug-out area can be a pit of profanities, of over-heated exchanges, he objects when supporters transgress a line of what he considers tolerable behaviour. "Managers should get more protection, " Warnock says. "I'm used to 15,000 calling me a plonker. It's going to be 40,000 this year, or maybe 50,000. By all means they can shout things like that, but when people around the dugout area are saying things about your wife and children it's about time the police or stewards intervened as they would if it was a racial chant.

I've asked the union (the League Managers' Association) to look into that."

Some may contend that he had brought some of that hostility upon himself? "Oh, God.

Aye, " agrees the 57-year-old who has already revealed that he may swap his familiar tracksuit for a suit in order to enhance his image. "I don't think the perfect, quiet managers get that much abuse.

Probably, I should stop and think a little bit more. But I'm a bit long in the tooth for doing that now."

This season, he will have other priorities. Having patiently constructed a promotion-winning team, he is determined that they maintain their new status.

The embryo of this Sheffield United was created early on a Wednesday morning, November 24th, in 1999.

You can even put a precise time to the conception. The previous night the Blades had been defeated 3-1 at home by Port Vale, in front of 8,965.

Manager Adrian Heath quit after the game. Chairman Mike McDonald had resigned before it.

"The following morning, at 10 to seven, Kevin McCabe (now the Plc chairman) and I were on the phone, speaking about what was happening to our club, " he recalls. The outcome was the arrival eight days' later of Warnock as manager. "From that, it's become one of the most progressive clubs in the country. Survival would be a utopia. But I don't think survival is enough. In fact Kevin McCabe thinks we should be in Europe in the next three years."

He adds: "Very positive person is Kevin. Usually gets what he wants. We're talking about playing in Europe now, but the only chance we had of when I took over was playing the waiters at Malaga at the end-of-season do.

We've come a long way."

True, though United are favourites for only one destiny this season. Relegation.

In the summer, they have negotiated painstakingly and outlayed £4.7 million on Preston's Claude Davis and Leeds' Rob Hulse. They have also brought in Mikele Leigertwood, Chris Lucketti, Christian Nade and David Sommeil.

Meanwhile, with two openings Roman Abramovich's vaults, Chelsea have enticed Michael Ballack and Andrei Shevchenko.

Warnock can only envy the spending power with which Mourinho is endowed.

"Crikey, I'd like to have £100 million, " he says. "No, they're going to grace the Premiership. It's all right having money, but you've still got to spend it wisely, and you've got to keep a happy camp.

I've got nothing but admiration for him, apart from him being far too good-looking."

He adds: "We haven't been there (in the top flight) for a long time, but our average gate is going to put us in the top 12 in the Premiership. We shouldn't feel inferior. We've progressed every two years, with a better squad of players and bringing young lads through, who are now mature. . . (Michael) Tonge, (Phil) Jagielka, (Nick) Montgomery, (Paddy) Kenny.

"We can't afford, at the moment, the Hasselbainks of this world, but there's no reason why we can't afford them in 12 months' time."

The curious thing about Warnock is that, despite his affinity with his home-town club, the Blades' own supporters have taken some convincing about his ability to propel United through that glass ceiling.

He recalls the last home game of the previous season, against Millwall. We lost 1-0, and we eventually finished eighth; it was quite vociferous, the chants of 'Warnock out'. My oldest daughter, Natalie, was there, crying her eyes out. But I said to Kevin [McCabe], 'we're at a situation you have to support me now with a couple of million to buy one or two players, or we may as well split now, because if I lose the first five games with this lot, they'll be smashing the windows in the car park." McCabe backed him and, but for a late blip in fortunes, promotion was secured.

During the season, Warnock was tempted by the offer from Milan Mandaric to join Portsmouth, but rejected it. He remained faithful to Sheffield, on a one-year contract, though Warnock concedes that if he and McCabe parted "there's still a lot of clubs that I've always wanted to manage". He adds:

"But I'm not going into a season thinking abut that. I'm going in to it to pit my wits against the best, and be talked about for what I'm achieving."

It is a daunting proposition, starting with Liverpool at home on Saturday, the first Premiership game of the day.

"I don't think any of the three promoted teams are as good as Wigan and West Ham were when they went up, " he says. "They had better squads and more investment.

It's how we cope; not when we win one or two games, but when we lose five or six games on the trot, as the promoted teams will. That will be the real test."