'I'm not the problem': Neil Warnock criticises 'three or four' Middlesbrough players who don't want to be at the club

Boro have picked up just one point from their last five games following a 2-1 defeat by QPR at the Riverside – with Warnock admitting after the match there are a handful of players who don’t want to be there.

When asked if he’s always known there are players who want to depart, Warnock said: “Not really, no. Some of them, yes.

"Three or four lads who don’t want to be here, typical because we don’t have a squad size to cater for that really. I know what I would like to tell them, I have to bite my tongue and get these games over the line.

“I have told the players like Grant (Hall), Jonny (Howson), Paddy (McNair), Duncan Watmore, that they will enjoy next season when I have sorted it all out because we want people like that who want to be here. That is what we want.

Several Boro players will be out of contract this summer, while Yannick Bolasie, Neeskens Kebano and Marcus Bettinelli are nearing the end of their loan deals on Teesside.

“Yannick and Kebano did alright today,” added Warnock after the QPR defeat. “Yannick should have scored two or three.

“Other than that I am disappointed with two or three things at the club. That’s why I am the manager.”

The result left Boro 11th in the Championship table with four games remaining, starting with this week’s trip to Rotherham.

When asked how important it is to finish in the top half of the division, Warnock replied: “It’s not that important, it’s more important that I get the people out who I want to get rid of.

"It shows you what a good job we have done really. To be disappointed not to have got in the play-offs shows how well we have done really.

“I bet there are plenty who think this job is easy. It is not an easy job. It is probably going to be my biggest challenge to get success from where I am. I think it’s doable. I just have to work really hard, have a bit of luck with recruitment.

“We have to get ready for July. It can't come quick enough really. You have seen today you can’t fault some of the effort but I can't understand when you are losing the game why you take a short corner kick for instance.

"I don’t understand being offside when you are wide, looking across. There are a lot of things I don’t understand.

“You get that at clubs. You get little cliques at clubs. As a manager you know they are there.

“I am sure if you spoke to two or three they will say I was the problem. Because they blame everyone else don’t they. That’s natural for footballers, but I am not the problem. I have to solve the problem.”

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