“My glass has always been half full. It was largely down to the way I was brought up but it’s what football gave me. I was described by Bristol Rovers supporters as a 'workaholic fighting cock.' If you reword the last bit, that’s something to be very proud of.
“Really I think my longevity has been down to the fact that I bring that energy to every day no matter what might have happened the day before. I’m still open to learn from those mistakes and try and get better. I was constantly looking for someone to make me better and Gerry Francis was that man.”
Francis coached Holloway the player at both Bristol Rovers and QPR, proving an avuncular figure for the midfielder who would go on to manage both clubs.
“I’ve been very fortunate in my career, and Jonathan Woodgate, when I interviewed him a few months ago he pointed it out. He asked: “Do you realise how long you had in your first two jobs?” I didn’t have a clue. It was five years in each. I had five years at Bristol Rovers and five years at QPR. Managers don’t get that nowadays.
“There would be no Man United if they treated Sir Alex Ferguson like they treated Moyes, Van Gaal, Mourinho. There would be no Man United. Now come on, how wrong is that? So I benefitted from the time.”
Holloway’s willingness to discuss just about anything has given him broad appeal, and his sense of humour and popularity as a player undoubtedly bought him time at both clubs, but he had success on the field with QPR, lifting them out of the third tier in 2004 and propelling them into the top half of the Championship.
He eventually left Loftus Road for Plymouth Argyle in 2006. He then moved onto Leicester after one season in Devon, a decision which he regrets. In his only campaign, the Foxes plummeted into division three for the first time in the club’s history.
A period of self-reflection coincided with a footballing epiphany. Upon joining Blackpool in 2009, Holloway devised a plan to develop a counter-attacking style with forward-thinking full-backs, utilising Charlie Adam’s passing range to switch the play at will.
In winning an unforgettable play-off final against Cardiff on a scorching day at Wembley, he also hoped to become known for more than just ‘Ollie’, his humorous alter ego.
“I tried to do that at Blackpool but my players at times put a cone on my head, because you are what people perceive you to be. I like a laugh and a joke but I had deaf kids, I was told my wife - my girlfriend at the time - was dying. I had to deal with all of that, and I deal with it by laughing because that has always helped me out, but everyone who has worked with me knows there is a time to be damn serious.
“I didn’t care about the odds at Blackpool. I was trying to pick this team. I went to Spain, Swansea umpteen times, I watched Man United and I thought ‘I’m going to do this.’ The way they kept the ball, the way they did things from goal-kicks was different to what I was doing, and I’d taken a year to write it all down.
“We weren’t quite good enough to pin back the whole Premier League but we were good enough to cause a shock in the first half until my goalie got injured and Liverpool came in for Charlie Adam and I couldn’t sell him.
“I wanted to sell him. Not for my own profit but because I wanted to let him go and I had four other people ready to sign.
“I knew we were vulnerable. Halfway through the season we had 28 points, but Gilks got injured. It all fell down because the owner Karl Oyston said to Charlie: ‘If a top six club comes in you can go. It doesn’t matter about the money.’ Liverpool came in and they were seventh so Karl said: ‘No you’re not going’, and he was adamant, but the truth is it wasn’t about losing Charlie because we were about to gain another £6million. It was that he didn’t want to commit to the four other players.
“It was very unfortunate but I was one point away from surviving. The next season I had two players who wanted to come and play for me because they saw how I encouraged my team. Kevin Phillips and Darren Ferguson. The second they walked in our door the lads stopped moaning and began to believe.
“I said to the players: ‘You’ll soon see whether it was those three (who left in the summer) or whether it was us and the system.’ So they helped me prove it was us and the system, but for me it was no good losing to West Ham in the play-off final because I had to get there again.
“The season after, I couldn’t take it anymore. Oyston basically said to me; ‘I’ve got a great Idea. You know you wanted to reward those players? I’m gonna wait until they all run out of contract this summer and I’m going to offer all of them less than they were on when you first came here.’”
“I think he was trying to sell me. He didn’t want to commit to the money that he was then paying me. I had a one-year rolling contract and he didn’t want that, so he got £500,000 for me instead.
“I had lots of things that were good about being at Blackpool and lots of things that weren’t so good, but all I know is that my short period there was one of the best times of my life, because we had some days in the sun, and surely that is what life is about; the feeling that even on a cold, frosty winter’s morning you can have a day in the sun even if the sun ain’t out, because you’re loving your life.
Holloway takes pride in having led Crystal Palace to promotion through the play-offs in 2013, but concedes he was unable to build upon the foundations laid by his predecessor Dougie Freedman. He even believes current boss Roy Hodgson has been the first to leave his mark on an Eagles team since Freedman’s departure in October 2012.
The Bristolian is unrelenting in his honesty, and cheerful stories are occasionally interrupted with moments of negativity and self-doubt, such is the scrutiny placed on managers.
He became an unpopular figure as Millwall boss despite promising early results, but the ending to his second spell at QPR in May 2018 - where he achieved stability in a time of financial austerity and gave debuts to talented academy players - has left a scar.
“I will never get to the bottom of why I’m not still at QPR, because they should have seen what I was doing. That came from before where one of their people had worked with Steve McLaren and he wanted to work with him, so I can’t change that but it would drive me crazy if I sat at home thinking about it every day.
“I don’t trust anybody anymore. I thought they all wanted the same thing as me, to grow the club for their fans. Not everybody does. I can’t work for them anymore. I can’t do that.”
It’s difficult to fathom why the devoted grandfather of six would want to return to football. Many people would be deterred by a job in the unforgiving lower leagues, but he remains motivated by the fundamental enjoyment derived from building a team.
“It’s like painting a picture, but your lads have got to paint it. I’m describing the picture and I’m trusting them with the colours and the brushes. So when I saw Ian Evatt, when I first came, I said ‘you’re brilliant on the ball, don’t worry about defending, I want you to be part of my attack, so if you feel you can go forward, no problem, someone else will fill in for you.’ For months it was like ‘What? What?’ So we practised every day.
“It took a while, but when we played Cardiff he did it. He ended up on the edge of the box, played it over and a team-mate put it in the bottom corner. He was diving on the floor. It was happy days. The look he gave me after he’d done that was priceless, and now he’s a manager himself (at Barrow). He won six in a row. I think I’ve played a little part in that. I hope I have.”
Holloway sometimes appeared forlorn on the EFL highlights show, a punditry role in which he could only play the game vicariously. Now he’s back in the dugout and back in control after taking the reins and buying shares in Grimsby. Success at Blundell Park could provide the perfect encore to an entertaining career.
