There's a really nasty article today in the Sunday Times today by Rod Liddle on Ian Holloway. Liddle is a Millwall fan and, fairly typically for that particular tribe, directs some unsavoury bile in the direction of Ian Holloway. I won't post a link because you probably need a subscription to view the article but I have copied and pasted it below. I thought Social Media was bad but to see this in the Times.... "There is a minute’s silence at most games these days. If the authorities ever run out of people to mourn, perhaps they will adopt my suggestion of a minute’s silence for all clubs who have been visited by Ian Holloway and are now, as a consequence, on a respirator, the clock ticking. The latest mugs to buy into the man’s idiotic, grandstanding spiel are poor old Grimsby Town, who are desperate to consolidate in the Football League rather than rejoin those gently declining northern sides that will soon make up the entirety of the National Leagues. Holloway arrived with the usual fanfare in December 2019. This was a superbly run club, he said. Not only would he be manager but he’d also take a seat on the board, invest £100,000 of his own money in their future and move house from Bristol to Lincolnshire. The fans — and you can blame them for this, given the bloke’s track record — were very optimistic. In the summer Holloway went about his important and familiar work of getting rid of all the good players and replacing them with people who were not any cop at playing football. please log in to view this image The results, as you might expect, bore testimony to his unique managerial approach. Down and down Grimsby went. Holloway did not put £100,000 of his own money into the club and still less did he up sticks from Bristol. Instead, he gave a series of ever more bizarre and querulous press conferences after the defeats piled up. Among other things, he blamed Covid for Grimsby’s lack of success, perhaps believing that — contrary to popularly held opinion — the virus afflicted not the entire world but just a small area of northern Britain immediately to the south of the Humber estuary. Holloway left exactly one year after he had arrived (and three days after he had said he wasn’t going anywhere) with Grimsby deep in the relegation battle, third from bottom having played more games than the two clubs beneath them. They are now bottom, seven points from safety in League Two. After yesterday’s defeat at Bradford City they seem sure to be travelling to Boreham Wood next season. They have my unrelieved sympathy. Holloway managed my club, Millwall, for a short time and was — by both common assent and indeed the stats — the worst manager in the club’s history. He pretty much ensured we would be relegated. Fans of Plymouth Argyle and Queens Park Rangers might wish to add their own reminiscences of Holloway at this point. He will be on the lookout for another side to ruin, as we are speaking. 'By the pricking of my thumbs/Ian Hollowhead this way comes.' Beware all of you." I have posted in the Comments section under my pseudonym, I M Wright, in support of Ian.
By the way, this is what I posted in the Sunday Times comments section: "This vicious demolition job on the career and personality of Ian Holloway is unsavoury, spiteful and unnecessary. Despite’s Rod’s obvious intelligence and excellent articles on other matters, he descends into the nasty mindset often seen amongst the worst of Millwall’s supporters to work out an old and unedifying grudge against an entirely decent man who happened to have an unsuccessful spell as their manager. QPR fans hold huge affection for Ian Holloway as a player and manager at their club. He bravely took over as manager in February 2001 when the club were in financial meltdown. Despite relegation and Administration that season, he subsequently built an entertaining and successful side which recaptured their second tier status in the 2003/4 season. Political shenanigans at board level resulted in him leaving the club in 2006 but that, and a more erratic return as manager in 2016-18, have done nothing to diminish the deep respect and warmth that QPR fans have for Ian Holloway. This nasty and one-eyed assessment of Ian Holloway and his career reflects badly on you, Rod."
To my knowledge Holloway has never walked out on his wife and kids for a girl half his age who he’s gone on to knock about while she was pregnant though so I guess none of us are perfect.
I shall always be grateful to Ollie for getting us out of the third tier. We had no money, the ground was half empty and it was a bloody struggle, but he built the team that did it and we haven't been back down there since.
Never like Liddle. Do not like 99% of his views...on racism, sexism, gay rights, religion. I despise his treatment of his wives/girlfriends. He really needs to get his information correct about Grimsby. There is a lot more to the story than the Ian Holloway side. I do not know all the facts but I had read that Holloway had taken a principles stand about selling club shares to a convicted criminal. I do not know if that is correct, but a little research may have given a better read to the article https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/...l-news/grimsby-town-reject-may-shares-4798619 Ian Holloway has spoken for the first time since leaving Grimsby Town, revealing he departed due to his allegiance to John Fenty and the current board. Holloway resigned as manager just before Christmas, and stated that an impending takeover of the club was the key factor in his departure. Despite that, there has been much wrangling over the ownership of the club over the past week, before Mr Fenty finally agreed to the terms for the sale of his stake to Tom Shutes, Jason Stockwood and Andrew Pettit. Town have since reappointed Paul Hurst as manager, while the takeover looks set to go through, subject to approval from the EFL. Writing in his column for BristolLive, Holloway said: “Without going into too much detail, it became clear that a takeover was in the offing and my allegiance was to the current board.“Therefore, any relationship between me and the new regime would have been soured from the start. It is vital to any club that the board and manager are on the same wavelength. “When majority shareholder John Fenty, the man who attracted me to join Grimsby, told me he was preparing to sell his shares, it made up my mind to quit as manager. “I felt it was best for all concerned that the club made a fresh start with a new man in charge of the team, although it was with a heavy heart that I announced I was leaving. “When I took the job on, I wanted to build something, just as I had done at Bristol Rovers years ago, and I really felt capable of doing it.” Despite leaving Town, Holloway has revealed he still plans on moving further north, but will not go through with his planned investment in the Mariners. Holloway has also cast doubt over whether he will make a return to management, saying some of his appetite for football has been diminished.
Rod Liddle has opinions for money. That is the sum total of his ‘job’. He doesn’t even necessarily have to believe the opinions he dreams up in time for a deadline, he just has to deliver them and make sure that they elicit a response - positive or negative, it doesn’t really matter - from his readers. I’ve ignored his columns, both in sport and news/politics, for years. I was unaware until I read this thread, about his hideous behaviour in his private life, though it somehow fits with his public persona. For balance I tend to ignore all of these opinion columnists, regardless of political stance, they are all in the same pathetic trade. I like Max Hastings though.
Mr Liddle’s article on Holloway tells us more about Rod Liddle than it does about his subject matter.
Liddle has got something wrong. As a QPR fan, I was pleased to see Olly help to take Millwall down Maybe Liddle should also do research on his "work" rather than spout opinions about someone he knows little about.
