Colin W's origin story

[Felicity, I guess so]

Having lunch with my old boss today, Huddersfield fan who has gone along with all my emails and texts about "Colin" saving them but only came clean last night that he didnt know about the anagram.

Can anyone enlighten him about its origins, when and where, I.e. which job or group of fans first saw him dubbed thus?

[Patrick Thistle]

Earliest online reference I can see is 2009 when someone is asking why he's referred to as Colin in a book they are reading. The book isn't mentioned.

I learned his nickname on OTF, I think.

Edit - this is from a S*n article

It has stuck by him in the past few years, after it was coined by Sheffield Wednesday fans while Warnock was in charge at cross-city rivals Sheffield United.

Safe to say, Warnock takes it in good humour, if a little begrudgingly.

He said in an interview with FourFourTwo in 2006: "Well if the person think it’s funny then so be it – I’m not against anything that makes people laugh.

[Etienne]

Neil Warnock (born December 1, 1948^[1]) is a football manager, currently in charge of Crystal Palace. Warnock was born in Sheffield and is a lifelong supporter of Sheffield United Football Club,^[2] which he managed from 1999 to 2007. Rival fans nicknamed him Colin, as, when combined with the insult "wanker", it is an anagram of Neil Warnock. The anagram first appeared in 1997, in Exeter City fanzine 'There's a Good Time Coming', towards the end of Warnock's period in charge of local rivals Plymouth Argyle.

From https://www.bionity.com/en/encyclope...l_Warnock.html which is not a source I know, so may be unreliable.

[Giggler]

We certainly called him that at Bury in 98/99 (a season never included on his CV).

[Felicity, I guess so]

Thanks both, that gives me a couple of sources for him to follow up (and I remember his Zola lectures, he likes a bit of detailed research)

[NHH]

I first heard it from a Exeter City fan back at the same time; I think it was even earlier than 97, so I'd suggest it comes from the Exeter mailserver list which had its fair share of witty folk on it.