Whelan told Sky Sports News: “Paul is simply the best, if we are unlucky and go down this season, and even if we went down out of the Championship next season, that man would still be my number one manager and one of the best managers in the land.
“No question about it, we are in a dog fight.
“There are five teams down there at the bottom and three will go down, and we have got to fight like hell to stay up.”
