Ian Holloway makes honest admission about his ill-fated spell as Leicester City manager

[Manwell Pablo]

5 hours ago, Babylon said:

He's right in a way, we were circling a drain at the time. Whether it was him or someone else, we were going down at some point. Look at that squad... jesus. 

 

Levi Porter  

 

Leicester City to Wigston Car Breakers in the space of three years. What. A. Talent.

 

Fulham proper did us with Collins John as well. 

[StanSP]

6 hours ago, Vacamion said:

 

I was very unhappy at the time, but I can no longer bear him any ill will of any kind. 

 

What happened after he left was so gloriously wonderful that it is hard to still care about his spell to any great extent. 

 

 

Pretty much how I feel. 

 

So much time has passed since then as well and it's not as if he was the only one who got us in to the mess. He was the wrong person at the wrong time for the club. But bigger things have happened since that fateful season and we have so much to be happy about with out club right now it's not worth dwelling so much about what he did wrong or what he could have done right. We've got a fabulous owner, a great manager, so fantastic players with so much potential and we're 3rd in the Premier League 10/11 years after getting relegated, having won it once in that time too! 

[Matt]

People claims he’s our worst manager ever.

 

Everyones entitled to an opinion but I don’t agree. Ok he took us to our lowest position ever, took us to a level we’d never played at before but there were many factors than simply just pointing the finger at Holloway.

 

I’m not fond of him by any stretch of imagination but we’ve had some very poor managers in our history and he simply isn’t our worst. Look at Peter Taylor for a start.

 

And for the record I still rank that League One season as one of my favourites, obviously 15/16 eclipses it but it’s up there and whilst I wouldn’t have said it at the time of relegation to league one I think it was needed, we were treading water season on season in the championship (it was only a matter of time till we got relegated), we needed to take a step back and rebuild and that rebuild, stripped back and virtually a new club, new direction, what an upward curve it was!

 

Edited 1 November 2019 by Matt

[ClaphamFox]

Any respect I had for Holloway evaporated that cold February night when we played Watford away. We had a man advantage for most of the game but still put in a pathetically toothless display and lost 1-0. Afterwards he was asked if he had a message for the Leicester fans who had travelled in freezing conditions only to witness such an abject performance, and he replied with the infamous "Chill out and have a sandwich" comment. It was an off-the-cuff remark, but it suggested that he wasn't taking our plight remotely seriously. It was hard to have much sympathy with him after that.

Edited 1 November 2019 by ClaphamFox

[Gazza M]

He just tactically didn't have it for me. He seemed completely incapable of turning a game round as I remember. If we went behind, we lost. What a woeful season. We must have signed 30 players that year across 3 managers. How so very lucky we are today. 

[Langston]

1 hour ago, Matt said:

People claims he’s our worst manager ever.

 

Everyones entitled to an opinion but I don’t agree. Ok he took us to our lowest position ever, took us to a level we’d never played at before but there were many factors than simply just pointing the finger at Holloway.

 

I’m not fond of him by any stretch of imagination but we’ve had some very poor managers in our history and he simply isn’t our worst. Look at Peter Taylor for a start.

 

And for the record I still rank that League One season as one of my favourites, obviously 15/16 eclipses it but it’s up there and whilst I wouldn’t have said it at the time of relegation to league one I think it was needed, we were treading water season on season in the championship (it was only a matter of time till we got relegated), we needed to take a step back and rebuild and that rebuild, stripped back and virtually a new club, new direction, what an upward curve it was!

 

 

He is our worst ever manager, third tier OWEYA

[49er]

6 hours ago, Babylon said:

He's right in a way, we were circling a drain at the time. Whether it was him or someone else, we were going down at some point. Look at that squad... jesus. 

Is the heading in the third column Footballer?

[Langston]

42 minutes ago, ClaphamFox said:

Any respect I had for Holloway evaporated that cold February night when we played Watford away. We had a man advantage for most of the game but still put in a pathetically toothless display and lost 1-0. Afterwards he was asked if he had a message for the Leicester fans who had travelled in freezing conditions only to witness such an abject performance, and he replied with the infamous "Chill out and have a sandwich" comment. It was an off-the-cuff remark, but it suggested that he wasn't taking our plight remotely seriously. It was hard to have much sympathy with him after that.

 

But, League One was enjoyable! And Peter Taylor! And he seemed a nice guy!

[Marshall Cockney Fox]

13 minutes ago, Gazza M said:

He just tactically didn't have it for me. He seemed completely incapable of turning a game round as I remember. If we went behind, we lost. What a woeful season. We must have signed 30 players that year across 3 managers. How so very lucky we are today. 

Exactly. He'd have five strikers on when chasing games and wonder why we couldn't score. Err no midfield numpty!! I thought he was tactically clueless myself. 

[trabuch]

This thread is reminding me what an outstanding job NP did at this club. Built the strong foundations upon which our subsequent glory rests. 

[Corky]

We were in 17th when he took over. He was able to sign plenty of players including Hayles, Howard, Oakley who no doubt he wanted. He still had capable Championship players in Clemence, Kisnorbo, Hume, Fryatt to work with.

 

This was no lost cause or something that was going to happen. People like Rob Kelly managed to keep the team up (with inferior squads).

 

Just not good enough. Whether he's the worst or not, I don't know. He failed miserably, that's what we do know.

[Matt]

34 minutes ago, Langston said:

 

He is our worst ever manager, third tier OWEYA

You’re entitled to your opinion, I’m entitled to mine.

 

But on your theory Peter Taylor ranks amongst one of our best managers as he took us to the top of the Premier League? No?  

[Langston]

Just now, Matt said:

You’re entitled to your opinion, I’m entitled to mine.

 

But on your theory Peter Taylor ranks amongst one of our best managers as he took us to the top of the Premier League? No?  

 

Not really, as that wasn't his legacy was it? Bizarre way of breaking down why I rate Holloway as the worst to be honest. But nice one being deliberately obtuse.

[LC/FC]

I'll always feel a bit bad for him having to firefight the absolute dumpster fire that Milan caused for himself, by hiring the utter charlatan, Martin Allen.

 

Decent guy who tried to get results from nothing but clearly Leicester wasn't in the state of heing a small club that needed to punch above our weight.

 

We were a dazed, sleeping giant that needed to spend some time in Intensive Care of League One completely to rebuild our whole club ideology and philosophy.

 

Yes he was the Captain at the helm rhe moment the ship went down, but the Titanic was sinking at the time anyways. 

And in hindsight, for all of us L1 was the beginning of Leicester's rehabilitation.

 

Look where we are now! 

[Matt]

6 minutes ago, Langston said:

 

Not really, as that wasn't his legacy was it? Bizarre way of breaking down why I rate Holloway as the worst to be honest. But nice one being deliberately obtuse.

Arguably yes.

 

But as I said you’re entitled to your opinion, I’m entitled to mine.

 

No need to belittle. We move on.

[Langston]

8 minutes ago, Matt said:

Arguably yes.

 

But as I said you’re entitled to your opinion, I’m entitled to mine.

 

No need to belittle. We move on.

 

So Peter Taylor's legacy, the over-riding memory that first comes to mind when people mention him, is that he was a league topping manager, rather than the state he left us in? Come on, mate.

[Babylon]

46 minutes ago, Corky said:

We were in 17th when he took over. He was able to sign plenty of players including Hayles, Howard, Oakley who no doubt he wanted. He still had capable Championship players in Clemence, Kisnorbo, Hume, Fryatt to work with.

 

This was no lost cause or something that was going to happen. People like Rob Kelly managed to keep the team up (with inferior squads).

 

Just not good enough. Whether he's the worst or not, I don't know. He failed miserably, that's what we do know.

I disagree, he’s not blameless by any stretch quite clearly. But he was our FOURTH permanent manager in the space of six months and the SEVENTH including caretakers like Worthington. (nine if you include joint managers)

 

That as utterly sodding insane, you cannot go through that number of managers and expect things to go well.

 

We had disaster written all over it, the black clouds were hovering over us and I said it on here that it was a disaster waiting to happen.

 

Too many managers, too many players coming in, woeful atmosphere around the place. It was a matter of time IMO.

[Babylon]

Taylor dismantled a cup winning team who finished top 10 every seasons and got us relegated. You compare what the two took over it’s not even a contest, and what it did to the club in terms of damage isn’t even comparable.

[koop.]

DJ Campbell has to be one of those he wanted rid of surely

[Spiritwalker]

I think it’s also worth remembering that we had a terrible run of bad luck with a

string of shocking decisions going against us that season.

[Matt]

1 hour ago, Langston said:

 

So Peter Taylor's legacy, the over-riding memory that first comes to mind when people mention him, is that he was a league topping manager, rather than the state he left us in? Come on, mate.

Quite the opposite but it gets mentioned, it's synonymous.

 

The state he left us in is the reason he is the worst manager we've ever had - it had effects for years.

 

Edited 1 November 2019 by Matt

[Corky]

24 minutes ago, Babylon said:

I disagree, he’s not blameless by any stretch quite clearly. But he was our FOURTH permanent manager in the space of six months and the SEVENTH including caretakers like Worthington. (nine if you include joint managers)

 

That as utterly sodding insane, you cannot go through that number of managers and expect things to go well.

 

We had disaster written all over it, the black clouds were hovering over us and I said it on here that it was a disaster waiting to happen.

 

Too many managers, too many players coming in, woeful atmosphere around the place. It was a matter of time IMO.

It was a tough job, the club wasn't in great shape but I feel there was enough in the squad to survive relegation. That is what was required. Far too many home matches were shocking and to not win two games in a row is pathetic.

 

Do you think that squad was good enough to stay up that season?

[Langston]

Just now, Matt said:

It gets mentioned yes.

 

The state he left us in is the reason he is the worst manager we've ever had - it had effects for years.

 

But it's not the first thing that springs to mind is it?

True, but relegation to League One could have had serious long-lasting implications had we not hired Pearson though? You could argue the mistakes were made both during and after Taylor's reign, whereas we hit the jackpot immediately after Holloway's and Pearson did an exceptional gig in clearing the mess up so quickly.

It's redundant anyway, I definitely have a lower opinion of Taylor than I do of Holloway, it's just my opinion that the latter is our worst ever. As mentioned earlier in the thread, it's toss of a coin stuff, they were both garbage.

[dayday]

6 hours ago, TJB-fox said:

It was two players that were heavily involved on and off the pitch. There were huge dressing room issues that season which culminated in three managerial sackings. Martin Allen got sacked due to the players, led by a certain centre forward, went to Milan and threatened to strike unless he was sacked. 

So why was Martin Allen sacked? , If you think it was a player then my info was diffrent

[Royston.]

10 hours ago, UniFox21 said:

And that was a shit tonne of money then, especially for the position the club was in. 

 

Looks like he's trying to dig himself out of blame by pointing the finger more at others?

What would that achieve though?

Was a long time ago and proved to be the springboard to greater things.

He's retired now isnt he?