Blogs

Is Ian Holloway the luckiest man in football?

|
Image for Is Ian Holloway the luckiest man in football?

New Crystal Palace boss Ian Holloway must be pinching himself. A week ago, he was in a stable position as manager of a Blackpool side sitting outside of the Championship play-off positions. A week later, Holloway has taken over the reigns at Crystal Palace on a four-and-a-half year deal, replacing Dougie Freedman after the Scot’s departure to Bolton Wanderers. Moreover, having inherited a Palace side sitting prettily in third place, the Eagles dispatched strugglers Ipswich Town 5-0 last night in Ollie’s first game in charge, taking the Londoners to the very top of the Championship table.

Okay, so he might not have taken over from Pep Guardiola at Barcelona, but very rarely do football managers take up a new job with a team in quite such impeccable shape as Crystal Palace. Having endured a rollercoaster of near misses over the last decade, Palace have finally found stability at the club, with Dougie Freedman leading the side on a nine match unbeaten run to launch them into the play off positions. Despite his departure, the club has remained positive and the Eagles have stayed unbeaten. Holloway subsequently finds himself in charge of a young talented side, who are showing genuine promotion potential after going an incredible twelve games unbeaten.

“The team I have inherited… goodness gracious me… They’ve got balance, dogged determination and are on a really good run.

“I thought they played brilliantly on Saturday [beating Blackburn 2-0] and they probably surpassed that,” he told BBC London 94.9, “Ipswich were as good as they have been all season and my lot just ground them down.”

As for his own fortunes, Holloway commented, “As debuts go it doesn’t get much better than that. Everybody here is motivated to get Palace back to where they deserve, to where the fans want and hopefully it’ll be a fantastic journey.”

Ollie is clearly a very happy man. Although Blackpool supporters will feel a little disheartened to have lost the man who took them all the way to the Premier League, it is evident that Holloway finds himself in the most fortunate of positions at his new club.

“It’s so professional here it’s fantastic. Whatever Dougie and Lennie Lawrence have done, it’s already in place. I sometimes think, pinch me I’m dreaming.”

Perhaps Ollie is not quite as fortunate as Tito Vilanova was to have inherited a team containing the likes of Messi, Xavi and Iniesta; however, he does without doubt have a wealth of talented young players at his disposal.

Click HERE to head to PAGE TWO

Share this article