While Ian Holloway’s post-playing career has led to managerial tenures at Bristol Rovers, Plymouth Argyle and Leceister City, it was Olly’s spell in charge at Queens Park Rangers that brought the former midfielder his greatest media exposure.
While ensconced at Loftus Road, Holloway served the subject for an episode of the BBC’s “The Stress Test”. He also proved to be a bit of a quote machine, though there was one commentary in particular that generated the most attention. On the occasion of Holloway being named the new manager at Blackpool, the Guardian’s Barry Glendenning and Rob Baghi have seen fit to make certain it is repeated with each rung on Olly’s career ladder.
He’s had his share of bad luck – “Right now, everything is going wrong for me. If I fell in a barrel of boobs, I’d come out sucking my thumb” – but his enthusiasm has rarely flagged: “I couldn’t be more chuffed if I were a badger at the start of the mating season.” After QPR beat Chesterfield he describe an ugly win as follows: “To put it in gentleman’s terms,” he said, somewhat redundantly. “If you’ve been out for a night and you’re looking for a young lady and you pull one, some weeks they’re good looking and some weeks they’re not the best. Our performance today would have been not the best looking bird but at least we got her in the taxi. She weren’t the best looking lady we ended up taking home but she was very pleasant and very nice, so thanks very much, let’s have a coffee.”
The Fiver will leave you with our favourite quote, as Holloway starts to ponder the theory of evolution, fancying himself as football’s Richard Dawkins, before getting slightly tangled close to the end. “We are an offshoot of apes – allegedly – but who knows?” he pondered. “We don’t really, do we? How long have we been on this planet? How long are we going to be here? What is it all about? We reproduce. Our offspring carry on. But that will only happen for a limited time. Before the whole thing blows up and we are sucked into a black hole. You know what I mean?”