After a five year spell as a player at Loftus Road, the popular and slightly eccentric Ian Holloway ended his playing career at Bristol Rovers and moved into the world of management. A first spell in the dugout at Queens Park Rangers saw him in position between 2001 and 2006, and he returned to the club in 2016 before being summarily sacked over the summer.
With Ollie having success and disappointment in his first spell at the club, the second spell was purely about cost costing, keeping us afloat and keeping us in the second tier of the English game, and he achieved that. It wasn’t always pretty and he expectedly lost more games than he won as first team quality was stripped after previous player excess and he moved to youth.
Ollie certainly doesn’t shirk from controversy and following his sacking, he told Talksport.
“He took my job. I still had another year left at the club. I’m still being paid by them now. He was talking to the chairman while I was in the job, saying what he’d do and what he’d change. He hasn’t been able to do that. What goes around comes around. Where the hell are the young lads I was told to bring through? Ebere Eze isn’t playing, what about Ryan Manning? They’re not playing. I was told to promote the youth and bring people in who cared about the club, it’s not happening. Would I go back? It depends who calls me, Les Ferdinand didn’t want me to go.”
Not all agree Holloway was treated unfairly, but plenty do and given his prior words, it’s no surprise to see he’s been asked for his thoughts on the recent managerial change at the club.
Speaking on the day of McClaren’s axing, he said.
“I wish I was still there. I’ve never been so gutted in my life. It was horrible. That was without a shadow of a doubt the worst moment of my managerial career. From the bottom of my heart I can tell you I could not have done any more to help that football club. It still hurts thinking about it now. I’ll tell you one thing; I left that club in a far better state to when I arrived. Fact. They’ve got more players who are valuable assets which they’ll be able to sell on and make money from. It was a mess when I first came in. I was asked to do a job and I did exactly what the club asked of me. At the end of the day when you do a decent job you expect to still be in one. I’m very, very proud of the times I’ve had at QPR.”
It’s worth reading the lot as he praises Ferdinand and insists that whilst he always takes the flack, he should be allowed to do his job, but the ultimate go-to is, given the names on the list as replacements, should Ollie return, or has he already been burned?
His words imply burnt.
