Neil Warnock is nervous but you wouldn't have guessed it. He's making his way around a side-room inside Middlesbrough Town Hall, smiling and speaking to supporters as though he's known them decades, posing for pictures as he goes.

A voice calls over to him. It's Ronnie Jepson. "Gaffer, have you got a minute?"

Old habits die hard.

It's Friday night and it's the Teesside leg of Warnock's Are You With Me tour and in the three hours that follow there are laughs, tears, memories and stories. Loads of stories.

READ MORE: Coburn's Bristol Rovers loan is playing out exactly as Boro hoped

"It isn't like the football nerves but you still get nervous," Warnock tells The Northern Echo afterwards.

"But it was fabulous to meet some fans beforehand, that relaxed me quite a lot.

"I always just think I hope I remember all the stories."

No issues there.

The Town Hall is packed out with only the odd spare seat here and there and though he claims to be nervous, when Warnock takes his seat he looks immediately at home.

And away he goes, regaling the many tales from his decades in the game. He starts by talking about his playing career. He was a winger, "brainless and quick" he laughs. He tells the story about when he signed for a struggling Scunthorpe and was told the only way is up...."I soon proved them wrong".

At Hartlepool United he played for Len Ashurst and learnt about the art of man management - a quality that he put to expert use during the incredible management career that would follow.

On stage with Warnock was John Foster, the host for the evening, stepping in for the Middlesbrough and Scarborough legs of the tour. John received a call in the weeks leading up to the event asking if he'd be interested. Of course he would.

"He's a one-off," John tells The Northern Echo afterwards.

"He has an aura about him and as a football fan, to be sat there on stage with him for three hours, it was surreal and brilliant.

"He has so many stories. You think about the players who've played for him, the managers he's locked horns with, he's fascinating and I'm sure we could have done another three hours."

It's not all about humour. There's emotion. Warnock fills up as he tells of how Junior Hoilett - a player who he rescued from the reserves at QPR and managed again at Cardiff City - rang him last week on the eve of his flight to the World Cup with Canada to thank his former boss for the impact he's had on his career.

On the subject of phone calls, Warnock later tells of the call he received from Jose Mourinho thanking him for his blast about the state of the Stoke City dressing rooms when Boro played at the bet365 Stadium during lockdown. Spurs, then managed by Mourinho, were the next visitors in the FA Cup. Safe to say conditions in the away dressing room were better for the Premier League side.

Warnock was briefly joined on stage by Boro's head of communications Paul Dews, who tells of how the 73-year-old went above and beyond to keep fans engaged during lockdown. There wasn't just the long and entertaining Zoom press conferences, but countless letters, phone and video calls to fans, plenty of whom were in attendance at the Town Hall.

For Warnock, there were also some extra special guests in the crowd. Unbeknown publicly at the time but when he was in charge of Middlesbrough, he discovered two blood clots in his legs. He has kept in touch with his consultant Dr Mahir Hamad and his team at the James Cook University Hospital and still raises money in support of the hospital and the department.

He looks back on his time at Boro fondly and is excited about what Michael Carrick can achieve in charge. He wouldn't be surprised, he says, to see Boro finish in the top six this season. The squad, he believes, is certainly good enough.

For all Warnock is adamant he's now finally retired, he reveals he was keen on the Barnsley job at the end of last season and would have backed himself to keep the Tykes in the Championship. Is he officially retired, then? He likes the idea of working a few months a year, he jokes. So basically, don't rule out a return to rescue a club at the back end of the season.

For now, though, Warnock is enjoying the opportunity to reflect and reminisce. He's written a poem looking back on his entire career and silence falls upon the Town Hall as he pulls a chair to the front of the stage and reads every word.

At the end of the show there are thanks and Warnock fills up at the reception as he leaves the stage.

Later, he tells us: "I looked out at the crowd and it was just absolutely fabulous.

"When I was telling my stories, you could just hear a pin drop. 

"We loved our time here. It was good to get one or two things off my chest, but I was talking from my heart.

"I hope the fans could see that I still care for the club and I want them to do well.

"I got quite emotional up there on stage. The reception was so good and I just kept thinking that's why I've spent so long in the game, to make people happy, it's just lovely to make people smile."

READ NEXT:

Iconic & never-seen-before Middlesbrough pictures on show in new book

Under the radar summer signing is key man for Michael Carrick's Boro

Middlesbrough's Riley McGree backed to star in Qatar