Ian Holloway has taken charge of Swindon Town in an effort to save them from relegation from League Two, in what is the iconic manager’s first job for four years
Ian Holloway has taken charge of Swindon Town in an effort to save them from relegation from League Two, in what is the iconic manager’s first job for four years Ian Holloway has taken charge of Swindon Town in an effort to save them from relegation from League Two, in what is the iconic manager’s first job for four years
It’s Halloween in Wiltshire’s rural hinterlands, and free spirit Ian Holloway has already found another one roaming the corridors of Swindon Town’s training ground.
Less than a week after his return to management, ‘Ollie’ has turned ghostbuster. He said: “Apparently there’s a poltergeist at large here because the other day I was in the office and the door opened by itself.”
But there are greater mysteries to solve in the West country – like how Swindon landed in the quicksands of League Two. This is the club Ossie Ardiles and Glenn Hoddle ushered into the Premier League 31 years ago.
They only won five games out of 42, and shipped 100 goals, but they had some fun at the County Ground as well, like the day Eric Cantona was sent off in a 2-2 draw with Manchester United. Dear old Eric thought Sir Alex Ferguson had told him to get stuck in with “mon coeur” but instead he piled into John Moncur and saw red.
At 61, Holloway is just 11 games away from reaching 1,000 as a manager. Four years after his last assignment at Grimsby, he feared the phone had stopped ringing for good and he would be stranded just short of the magic landmark.
Now he is within reach of exalted company including Fergie, Brian Clough, Sir Bobby Robson, Arsene Wenger, Graham Taylor, Harry Redknapp, Roy Hodgson and Jim Smith.
“My wife says it’s just a number, but to me it means much more,” said Ollie, who is sporting a hipster’s ruby-red stud and silver ear-ring in his left lobe these days, plus a tattoo of his missus Kim – inked by their son Will – on his forearm.
“But I didn’t come here because of that. I’ve played in all four divisions and managed in all four divisions – there aren’t many of me to the pound. I’m not normal – I don’t think any football manager is normal – but I want to bring some optimism, some confidence, back to this club.
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“In my dictionary it says the definition of confidence is ‘anticipation of a positive outcome’ and that’s what I am trying to spread at Swindon. This job has made me feel alive again. I went to see Neil Warnock up at Huddersfield last year for a documentary.
“They were in terrible trouble but he kept them up, one of his greatest achievements, and I said to him, ‘How do you do it?’ He said, ‘I just make everybody feel better about themselves – it’s amazing the difference it makes’, and I was dead jealous of him.
“I was thinking, ‘You’re 75, I’m 14 years younger than you, I’m not finished yet.’ God, I missed it so much. You might ask why do you want to go back to football when it kicks you so many times? Simple – because it’s all I know and it’s what I love doing.”
During his four-year intermission out of the game, Holloway indulged his passion for tennis by studying Roger Federer’s career and exploring the eight-times Wimbledon champion’s longevity.
The Fed Express was a good case study of fine margins in sport. “He played 1,526 matches and won 82 per cent of them, and yet he won only 54 per cent of the points. That fellow dominated tennis for God knows how long because he never let his mind wander back to the last overhead backhand winner, or the last lousy double fault.
“He always moved on to the next point immediately, and that’s what helped him win the points that mattered. Fergie was the same, a genius. He won when it mattered and his players, especially Roy Keane, developed an aura because of his leadership.
“I once said Keane had shark’s eyes – you don’t know if he’s going to buy you a drink or eat you – but what a player he was. You have to keep aspiring. Did people expect us to get promoted at Blackpool when I took them into the Premier League? I don’t think so.
“We were relegated with 39 points – nobody has gone down with that amount since. Did people expect us to get promoted at Crystal Palace? I don’t think so – and 11 years later, they are still in the Premier League.”
Holloway, who takes charge of his 990th game as a manager in the FA Cup against Colchester today saying: “On my headstone, I just want it to read, ‘He tried as hard as he could.’ I don’t want to be judged on what I’ve done before – I want to be judged on what I do for Swindon.”
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