Profile of Ian Holloway on Famous Like Me

Ian Holloway (born 12 March 1963) is an English football manager currently in charge of Championship side Queens Park Rangers, whom he also represented as a player. Before being appointed QPR manager in February 2001, he was player-manager of Bristol Rovers.

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 interviews and one of the cult personalities in English football.

Playing career

A native of Bristol, Holloway began his playing career at his hometown team Bristol Rovers, making his league debut in 1981. 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 the summer of 1985.

His stay at Wimbledon was a short one. After less than one year at the club, he was sold to Brentford, where he also spend just little over a year. In 1987, after two disappointing years in London, Holloway returned to Bristol Rovers.

Back at Eastville, under the wings 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.

Undeterred by his previous failure to settle in London, and the fact that he had never played on 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 1996, this time as player-manager.

Managerial career

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, to the surprise of most pundits, Bristol Rovers gained 5th place and made the playoffs. 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.

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 after a promising start to the 2004-05 season, QPR might be a dark horse candidate for the playoffs.

Quotes

• "It's like the film Men in Black. I walk around in a black suit, white shirt and black tie where I've had to flash my white light every now and again to erase some memories, but I feel we've got hold of the galaxy now. It's in our hands."
  - Holloway on QPR's financial situation.

• "It was lucky that the linesman wasn't stood in front of me as I would have poked him with a stick to make sure he was awake."
  - Holloway states his opinion about the linesman's performance in a game against Bristol City.

• "I call us the Orange club - because our future's bright!"
  - on QPR's potential.

• "He's been out for a year and Richard Langley is still six months away from being Richard Langley, and I could do with a fully fit Richard Langley."
  - on midfielder Richard Langley's injury rehabilitation.

• "It's all very well having a great pianist playing but it's no good if you haven't got anyone to get the piano on the stage in the first place, otherwise the pianist would be standing there with no bloody piano to play."
  - after being criticised for using defensive players in midfield.

• "I am a football manager. I can't see into the future. Last year I thought I was going to Cornwall on my holidays but I ended up going to Lyme Regis."
  - asked whether QPR would be able to beat Manchester City.

• "To put it in gentleman's terms 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"
  - on the "ugly" win against Chesterfield.

• "You can say that strikers are very much like postmen: they have to get in and out as quick as they can before the dog starts to have a go."

• "I always say that scoring goals is like driving a car. When the striker is going for goal, he's pushing down that accelerator, so the rest of the team has to come down off that clutch. If the clutch and the accelerator are down at the same time, then you are going to have an accident."

• "I've got to knock that horrible smell out of my boys, because they smell of complacency."

• "Every dog has its day, and today is woof day! Today I just want to bark!"
  - Holloway after securing promotion to the Championship.

• "When my wife first saw Marc for the first time, she said he was a fine specimen of a man. She says I have nothing to worry about, but I think she wants me to buy her a QPR shirt with his name on the back for Christmas."
  - on QPR's new Danish striker Marc Nygaard.

• "Paul Furlong is my vintage Rolls Royce and he cost me nothing. We polish him, look after him, and I have him fine tuned by my mechanics. We take good care of him because we have to drive him every day, not just save him for weddings."
  - on veteran striker Paul Furlong.

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