Warnock was in charge of Sheffield United in the second tier of English football at the turn of the century when he had a tip off from one of his players to sign the former Ivory Coast international from Le Mans, a second division French club at the time.
Warnock bulked at the price tag for Drogba and let the opportunity to sign him pass by.
As it turned out, Drogba joined Chelsea from Olympique Marseille for £24m in the summer of 2004 and went on to become a club legend, winning the Premier League on four occasions, the League Cup three times, four FA Cups and scored the winning penalty as the Blues defeated Bayern Munich to lift the UEFA Champions League for the first time in 2012.
Asked if he’d ever been haunted after missing out on a player during his career, Warnock told talkSPORT: “I think every manager has, really.
“Just thinking about it now, usually it’s a striker.
“One of the main ones early on in my career. I had a French lad playing for me, Laurent D’Jaffo, and he once rang me and said: ‘Gaffer, I’ve seen a player for you in the second division in France, very good, £100,000.’
“I said: ‘£100,000? It’s a lot for a second division French player.’
“I then said: ‘What’s his name?’ and he said ‘Drogba’.
“I said ‘we can’t pay £100,000 for a second division French player’. But you all know what happened to him in the end!
“That’s my biggest. I don’t think I could have had a bigger loss than that one.”
