Neil Warnock has lauded fans of Arsenal, Bournemouth — and Southampton — for the respect they have shown to Cardiff City following the Emiliano Sala tragedy.

That's despite two "yobs", in his words, being ejected from St Mary's Stadium and detained by police for allegedly mocking Sala's death with aeroplane gestures during Saturday's game.

Warnock, speaking on talkSPORT , also reflected on the "surreal" and "eerie" experience leading the Bluebirds through the tragedy, again heaping praise on Cardiff's own supporters whose 'song for Sala' has become an anthem in the terraces of late.

When asked how traumatic the experience has been for him personally, he said: "Only because you don't experience things like this.

"You can read books, study things, but you don't come across things like this in life let alone in football management.

"It seemed surreal, like it wasn't happening and you're looking at it from a distance.

"It's been the most traumatic thing to deal with.

"It's no good saying it hasn't taken its toll. I've never felt as tired, but that's a natural thing.

"Usually as a manager you wake up at 3am or 4am thinking about your team, your substitutes, who's going to play.

"But in this situation you don't think about anything other than the boy and his family. Football became almost irrelevant and it was nice to get back playing, to have that distraction.

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"And the boys and the fans don't half help when you're in this situation.

"Arsenal and Bournemouth fans were great, and even though two or three were ejected, the Southampton fans were super, so let's not talk about the one or two yobs."

Warnock made no apologies for his repeated praise of the Cardiff fans, 3,000 of them who sang Sala's name and watched their team roar to a vital 2-1 win at Southampton.

The veteran boss said on Saturday that he'd "never heard anything like" the noise they made at St Mary's.

He added: "I get criticised everywhere I go, because they say I say that about every club's fans — but these have been exceptional.

"On Saturday even the Southampton staff even said all they could hear was our fans.

"I just think it brings you together, something like this. Everyone looks at each other in the dressing room and it could have been anyone. That's the eerie part of it.

"You look around and one or two of the lads when it first happened, took it really bad. Especially the young lads, because things like this don't happen.

"But whatever comes next you have to deal with it and the club have done it together as a family."

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Warnock also responded to talk from some pundits that he could be named the Premier League's manager of the season if the Bluebirds stay up.

Cardiff's latest victory lifted them above relegation rivals Southampton and out of the relegation zone, on 25 points.

But the boss cooled talk of personal honours, with 12 big games between his side and the most unlikely Premier League survival.

"I think we've got to stay up first," he added.

"Look at the teams around us: Southampton, Newcastle, Palace, Burnley — they're all established but we're new at it, like the bottom two. But we've given ourselves a fighting chance.

"We get criticised with adjectives to describe our football, but my lads have rolled their sleeves up and just got on with it."

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Warnock also reiterated that he had no plans to walk away from Cardiff, despite rumours to the contrary.

The 70-year-old and wife Sharon are spending time away in a south Wales village during his side's mid-season break. He revealed they had remained close to Cardiff to liaise with the club and Sala's sister Romina about the striker's funeral.

"When things like this happen and you are my age — and I don't feel my age — you don't know what's around the corner yourself," he said.

"I've retried about 15 times in the past 10 years so now I don't look that far ahead, I just look at the next few games, I don't want to plan any further.

"We're in a lovely village in the south of Wales. We didn't want to go far, we wanted to wait to see about the funeral arrangements with Romina.

"You don't realise how pretty Wales is, so we're just away for a couple of nights, which is nice."