It’s great to see him back. Not only is he a fantastic manager, he’s one of the great characters of football.
There’s certain people who have that aura of not just being a good manager, but being an entertaining one.
Football has missed him. When Blackpool were in the Prem, he was a big thing with his interviews and stuff – I think the whole country looked forward to hearing from him.
We’d go in for a team meeting at 10am, and sometimes you wouldn’t finish until quarter to 12.
I think his bubbliness at times might’ve been mistaken for clowning about, but that was never Ian Holloway. He’s a very astute manager and a very clever person.
He knows his stuff. He’s got that charisma and personality that can bring the best out of players.
His man management is up there with the best of them, and that’s massively important, even more so nowadays when you’re trying to give younger players the confidence to go out and play.
Brian Clough was very similar in terms of getting the best out of players, but he would knock them back down to earth, whereas Holloway has the opposite approach, he builds people up and finds a way of getting them to play for him.
Man management is about identifying which players need a kick up the backside at times, and those who go into their shell and need an arm around their shoulder.
He has immediately demonstrated his abilities and might provide Swindon with the boost he needs. He was only supposed to be a spectator during the weekend’s match against Gillingham, but before halftime he was down on the field, helping to organize the players.
They must have had an amazing week practicing with him because he seems eager to get back in.His influence at Blackpool was practically immediate; from the moment he entered, everything was essentially a fantasy. He immediately shifted the mindset from one of only surviving in the league to one of “why not?”
To quote Oscar Wilde: “We’re all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
He took everyone by a whirlwind on his first day with a 4-3-3 formation and a style of play he’d learnt from watching Spanish football. It was like he had reinvented the wheel.He put that into us, along with the belief.
I remember him saying he’d get me back into the Premier League, and I sort of laughed out loud. My career seemed to be on the decline, but then I think I finished that year as second-top scorer and got the winner in the final.
I’m indebted to him for what he did for me, and what he did for Blackpool. He took everyone with him.
We beat Wigan 4-1 in the EFL Cup – we battered them, and that’s when everyone started to take notice. It was one of the best seasons of my career
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