Ian Holloway

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Ian Holloway
Personal information
Full name	Ian Scott Holloway
Date of birth	12 March 1963 (1963-03-12) (age 45)
Place of birth	Cadbury Heath, England
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Playing position	Midfielder (retired)
Club information
Current club	n/a
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1981–1985 1985–1986 1986–1987 1987 1987–1991 1991–1996 1996–1999	Bristol Rovers Wimbledon Brentford → Torquay United (loan) Bristol Rovers Queens Park Rangers Bristol Rovers Total	111 (14) 019 0(2) 030 0(2) 005 0(0) 179 (26) 147 0(4) 107 0(1) 598 (49)
Teams managed
1996–2001 2001–2006 2006–2007 2007–2008	Bristol Rovers Queens Park Rangers Plymouth Argyle Leicester City
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Ian Scott Holloway (born 12 March 1963 in Kingswood, Bristol) is an English former professional football midfielder.

Contents 1 Playing career 2 Managerial career 2.1 Bristol Rovers 2.2 Queens Park Rangers 2.3 Plymouth Argyle 2.4 Leicester City 3 Stress test 4 Personal life 5 Managerial stats 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Playing career

A native of Bristol, Holloway grew up in Cadbury Heath where his mother Jean still lives in the same council house. Holloway was in the same class as fellow player Gary Penrice at school and they still remain close friends today. His father Bill, an outstanding amateur footballer, was a seaman, then a factory worker. Holloway began his playing career as an apprentice with his hometown team Bristol Rovers, turning professional in March 1981 and making his league debut the same year. He usually played on the right side of midfield, and made his name as one of the more promising players in the Third Division (now League One). After four seasons at Rovers, he was transferred to Wimbledon in July 1985 for £35,000.

His stay at Wimbledon was a short one. In March 1986, after less than one year at the club, he was sold to Brentford for £25,000, where he also spent just a little over a year. In January 1987 he joined Torquay United on loan, playing 5 times. In August 1987, after two disappointing years in London, Holloway returned to Bristol Rovers for a fee of £10,000.

Back at Rovers, who were now playing "home" games at Twerton Park in Bath, and under the wing of new Rovers manager Gerry Francis, Holloway flourished. In four seasons, he missed only five games, and was a key player as Rovers gained promotion to the Second Division in 1990. When Francis was appointed manager of Premiership side QPR in 1991, one of his first signings was Holloway, for a fee of £230,000 in August 1991.

Undeterred by his previous failure to settle in London, and the fact that he had never played at the highest level before, Holloway made the most of his second spell in the English capital, and became a crowd favourite at Loftus Road with his tireless running and determination. He spent five seasons at QPR, playing more than 150 games for the club, before returning to Bristol Rovers for the third time in August 1996, this time as player-manager.

[edit] Managerial career

[edit] Bristol Rovers

Holloway took over a club that was struggling both on and off the pitch. In his first season in charge of Rovers, he led the club to 17th place in Division Two (now League One). The next season, however, Bristol Rovers gained fifth place and made the playoffs. Despite taking a first-leg advantage of 3-1 against Northampton Town, Rovers subsequently lost 3-0 in the second leg and went out 4-3 on aggregate in the semi-finals. The 1998-99 season ended with a somewhat disappointing 13th place. Holloway retired as a player following that season, having played more than 400 matches for Bristol Rovers, to concentrate fully on management. In 1999-2000, his last full season at the club, Rovers finished 7th, narrowly missing the playoffs.

[edit] Queens Park Rangers

In February 2001, midway through the 2000-01 season, Holloway was appointed manager of QPR, where he was given the seemingly impossible task of keeping the now-struggling team in Division One. He failed to do so, as QPR finished second from bottom and were relegated to the third level for the first time in 34 years. Despite the relegation, Holloway stayed on and rebuilt the side. After steadying the ship in 2001-02, and a near miss in 2002-03, Holloway and QPR were promoted back to the second level in 2004, finishing second behind Plymouth Argyle.

Holloway's first full season in The Championship ended with a respectable 11th place, and during the following season 2005-06, the club continued to hover around mid-table.

Ian Holloway was suspended (sent on gardening leave) as manager by Queens Park Rangers on 6 February 2006. The reason given by the Q.P.R board was that the constant rumours linking Holloway to the vacant managerial position at Leicester City were causing too many problems for the club.^[1] As it turned out, the Leicester job went to Rob Kelly, and QPR went on to finish 21st, just one place above the relegation positions.

[edit] Plymouth Argyle

On 28 June Holloway became the manager of Plymouth Argyle, and promised to take the club to the Premiership.^[2] On 12 August after Plymouth beat Sunderland away 2-3, in celebration of his first away win as manager Holloway offered to buy every one of the 700 fans who made the 805-mile (1,296 km) round trip a drink: "Anyone who travelled up there please send me a letter. I would love to buy you a drink.".^[3] On 10 October 2006, Ian Holloway made a remarkable return to football, playing for Argyle's reserve team against South Western side Liskeard, however he only did this due to a number of players being injured, and has since vowed to hang up his boots permanently.

[edit] Leicester City

Following press speculation, on 21 November 2007, Holloway submitted his resignation to the Plymouth Argyle board, with speculation that he was about to be offered the vacant managerial position at Leicester City.^[4] The Plymouth board issued a statement saying he was still employed by Plymouth and tied legally to his contract, and the board's decision on whether or not to accept his resignation would be made on Friday, 23 November. Having agreed a compensation package for his services, he was announced in a press conference by Milan Mandarić as Leicester manager on 22nd November, signing a three and a half year contract.^[5][6] Holloway made history when he became the first Leicester manager in over 50 years to win his first league game in charge, beating Bristol City 2-0.^[7]

On 7 February 2008, in the build up to a match against Plymouth Argyle at the Walkers Stadium, chairman Paul Stapleton spoke out against Holloway for allowing several high-profile players to leave the club before joining Leicester. A total of five players^[8] left Plymouth in the January transfer window, which Stapleton claims is all Holloway's fault.^[9] Holloway, stunned by the claims, had his lawyers look at the statements. Mandarić accused Stapleton of sour grapes over Holloway's move to Leicester, saying Plymouth should be thankful for what Holloway had achieved during his time there.^[10] On 4 May 2008, Leicester were relegated from the Football League Championship.

On May 23rd 2008, following Leicester's relegation from the Championship, Ian Holloway and Leicester City parted company by mutual consent. Reflecting on his time at Leicester, Holloway said "Leicester City is a marvellous club and I am as devastated as anybody that this great club suffered relegation. I gave 100% to the cause but unfortunately we ran out of time. The fans here are a different class and deserve a lot, lot better. I'd like to wish everyone connected with Leicester City well for the future - the club will always remain close to my heart."

[edit] Stress test

In June 2004, Holloway took part in the BBC series "Stress Test". The documentary addressed the fits of rage which were disrupting Holloway's home life, with the help of psychologists and an anger management expert. Holloway said afterwards: "If I hadn't done that programme, I wouldn't be sitting here now. Before I did it, I believed that I was a person who was kind, considerate, and believed in free speech. The anger management expert showed me I was a jumped-up, obnoxious little git who wouldn't listen at home because of what happened at work. If I'd carried on the way I was, I would have destructed everything I had." As a result he changed his attitude, and painted Promotion, an abstract canvas in the style of Jackson Pollock which hangs in the lounge of the family home.^[11]

[edit] Personal life

Holloway met fellow Bristolian Kim when she was aged 14, and after marrying nursed her through Lymph cancer. The couple have four children: William, twins Eve and Chloe, and Harriet. The twins were born profoundly deaf, as both Ian and Kim had a gene which means that they were more likely to have deaf children. The doctors told them that there was only a remote possibility of any other children being deaf, but Harriet was also born deaf.

With three children in one family deaf, it has challenged Ian and Kim to get their children the best education. But the couple made the choice to put the children first, meaning that for the last three years of his QPR career, Holloway commuted daily from Bristol to London so the children could attend a deaf school in Bristol. They then moved to St Alban's when the children were of secondary school age, for the same reason. Holloway has learned to communicate via sign language, and his quirky media-loving quotes have made him a high-profile campaigner on deaf issues and concerns.^[12]

Holloway is well-known for his many strange and bizarre comments in post-match interviews, which are often quoted in the national media. His creative use of metaphors has made him one of the most popular interviewees and one of the cult personalities in English football. In June 2005 a book of his quotes, "Let's Have Coffee: The Tao of Ian Holloway", was published; and in June 2006 he came 15th in a Time Out poll of funniest Londoners, ahead of Paul Merton and Ali G.^[13]

[edit] Managerial stats

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				P	W	L	D	Win %
Bristol Rovers		May 13, 1996	January 29, 2001	247	90	87	70	36.43
Queens Park Rangers		February 26, 2001	February 6, 2006	252	100	81	71	39.68
Plymouth Argyle		June 28, 2006	November 21, 2007	71	28	20	23	29.43
Leicester City		November 22, 2007	May 23, 2008	32	9	15	8	29.03

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Ian Holloway career stats at Soccerbase
• Ian Holloway management career stats at Soccerbase

v • d • e Bristol Rovers F.C. – Managers Homer (1899–1920) • Hall (1920–21) • Wilson (1921–26) • Palmer (1926–29) • McLean (1929–30) • Prince-Cox (1930–36) • Smith (1936–37) • Fletcher (1938–50) • Tann (1950–68) • Ford (1968–69) • Dodgin (1969–72) • Megson (1972–77) • Campbell (1977–79) • Jarman (1979–80) • Cooper (1980–81) • Gould (1981–83) • Williams (1983–85) • Gould (1985–87) • Francis (1987–91) • Dobson (1991) • Rofe (1991–92) • Allison (1992–93) • Ward (1993–96) • Holloway (1996–2001) • Francis (2001) • Thompson (2001–02) • Graydon (2002–04) • Atkins (2004–05) • Trollope (2005–)

v • d • e Queens Park Rangers F.C. – Managers Cowan (1913–20) • Howie (1913–20) • Liddell (1920–25) • Hewison (1925–31) • Mitchell (1931–33) • O'Brien (1933–35) • Birrell (1935–39) • Vizard (1939–44) • Mangnall (1944–52) • Taylor (1952–59) • Stock (1959–68) • Dodgin (1968) • Docherty (1968) • Allen (1968–71) • Jago (1971–74) • Sexton (1974–77) • Sibley (1977–78) • Burtenshaw (1978–79) • Docherty (1979–80) • Venables (1980–84) • Mullery (1984) • Sibley (1984–85) • Smith (1985–88) • T. Francis (1988–89) • Howe (1989–91) • G. Francis (1991–1994) • Wilkins (1994–96) • Houston (1996–97) • Hollins (1997) • R. Harford (1997–98) • Dowie (1998) • G. Francis (1998–2001) • Holloway (2001–06) • Waddock (2006) • Gregory (2006–07) • M. Harford (2007) • De Canio (2007–08) Dowie (2008–incumbent)

v • d • e Plymouth Argyle F.C. – Managers Brettell (1903–05) • Jack (1905–06) • Fullerton (1906–07) • Committee (1907–10) • Jack (1910–38) • Tresadern (1938–47) • Rae (1948–55) • Rowley (1955–60) • Buckingham (1961) • Dougall (1961) • Stuttard (1961–63) • Beattie (1963–64) • Allison (1964–65) • Ufton (1965–68) • Bingham (1968–70) • Stuttard (1970–72) • Waiters (1972–77) • Kelly (1977–78) • Lawrence (1978) • Allison (1978–79) • Saxton (1979–81) • Moncur (1981–83) • Hore (1983–84) • Smith (1984–88) • Brown (1988–90) • Gregory (1990) • Kemp (1990–92) • Shilton (1992–95) • McCall (1995) • Warnock (1995–97) • Jones (1997–98) • Hodges (1998–2000) • Sturrock (2000–04) • Williamson (2004–05) • Pulis (2005–06) • Holloway (2006–07) • Sturrock (2007–)

v • d • e Leicester City F.C. – Managers Clark (1896–97) • Johnson (1898–07) • Blessington (1907–09) • Aitken (1909–11) • Bartlett (1912–14) • Hodge (1919–26) • Orr (1926–32) • Hodge (1932–34) • Lochhead (1934–36) • Womack (1936–39) • Bromilow (1939–45) • Mather (1945–46) • Duncan (1946–49) • Bullock (1949–55) • Halliday (1955–58) • Gillies (1959–68) • O'Farrell (1968–71) • Bloomfield (1971–77) • McLintock (1977–78) • Wallace (1978–82) • Milne (1982–86) • Hamilton (1986–87) • Pleat (1987–91) • Little (1991–94) • McGhee (1994–95) • O'Neill (1995–00) • Taylor (2000–01) • Bassett (2001–02) • Adams (2002–04) • Levein (2004–06) • Kelly (2006–07) • Allen (2007) • Megson (2007) • Holloway (2007–08)