Ego

Quoted from Poojah

Some interesting points made in this thread. If we make an objective assessment of Ollie, I think it's fair to say that his managerial career has been 'mixed'. Getting Blackpool into the Premier League and almost keeping them there was an incredible achievement, and the fact he did it again with Palace is enough to suggest it was no fluke.

He was doing an excellent job at Plymouth too, before he jumped ship to Leicester where he duly failed. His more recent stints at Millwall and QPR probably rank somewhere in the region of underwhelming.

So he's clearly got the skills, but hasn't been universally successful. No great shame in that - it's true of most managers who've been in the game for twenty-odd years.

However, I suspect he may be a manager who needs a fair wind behind him to properly get going. His personality is unique, but I can certainly see how he could be received differently in different scenarios. When the going is good, when things are going your way, I imagine his words are galvanising, entertaining, inspirational. But when they're not? I can probably see how the madcap style and zany anecdotes might become tiresome, particularly if you're working at close quarters with him. He has exhibited almost bipolar levels of positivity and negativity in his interviews during his time here.

At a higher level, you can see hallmarks of a strong personality working both for and against the manager in the career of Jose Mourinho. Claudio Ranieri achieved the impossible at Leicester by instilling an unbelievable sense of unity direction in his squad on the back of some unexpected, early season momentum. Those same players forced him out of a job the very next season. People, not just football fans, are fickle, and team pizza nights aren't enough to maintain your popularity indefinitely.

I think we started to see the green shoots of his style working last season, although it probably shouldn't be overlooked that two of our last three games before football was suspended were 3-0 defeats. Certainly, thanks to Covid he hasn't really had the fair wind he needed. Perhaps with hindsight he should have embraced it as a challenge, as an obstacle to overcome, rather than bemoaning the whole affair, but there you go.

Right now, we are where we are. He needs to use his experience, play it safe for a bit and stop the rot. Slowly build confidence and then think again about how to proactively move the team forward. Back to basics.

He has made a big commitment to the club, and I still believe that he can bring back the good times if the right circumstances prevail. But his career statistics do also show that he doesn't always get it right, and his profile and personality shouldn't make him immune to criticism when performances and results are seriously sub-par.

Quoted from Poojah

Some interesting points made in this thread. If we make an objective assessment of Ollie, I think it's fair to say that his managerial career has been 'mixed'. Getting Blackpool into the Premier League and almost keeping them there was an incredible achievement, and the fact he did it again with Palace is enough to suggest it was no fluke.

He was doing an excellent job at Plymouth too, before he jumped ship to Leicester where he duly failed. His more recent stints at Millwall and QPR probably rank somewhere in the region of underwhelming.

So he's clearly got the skills, but hasn't been universally successful. No great shame in that - it's true of most managers who've been in the game for twenty-odd years.

However, I suspect he may be a manager who needs a fair wind behind him to properly get going. His personality is unique, but I can certainly see how he could be received differently in different scenarios. When the going is good, when things are going your way, I imagine his words are galvanising, entertaining, inspirational. But when they're not? I can probably see how the madcap style and zany anecdotes might become tiresome, particularly if you're working at close quarters with him. He has exhibited almost bipolar levels of positivity and negativity in his interviews during his time here.

At a higher level, you can see hallmarks of a strong personality working both for and against the manager in the career of Jose Mourinho. Claudio Ranieri achieved the impossible at Leicester by instilling an unbelievable sense of unity direction in his squad on the back of some unexpected, early season momentum. Those same players forced him out of a job the very next season. People, not just football fans, are fickle, and team pizza nights aren't enough to maintain your popularity indefinitely.

I think we started to see the green shoots of his style working last season, although it probably shouldn't be overlooked that two of our last three games before football was suspended were 3-0 defeats. Certainly, thanks to Covid he hasn't really had the fair wind he needed. Perhaps with hindsight he should have embraced it as a challenge, as an obstacle to overcome, rather than bemoaning the whole affair, but there you go.

Right now, we are where we are. He needs to use his experience, play it safe for a bit and stop the rot. Slowly build confidence and then think again about how to proactively move the team forward. Back to basics.

He has made a big commitment to the club, and I still believe that he can bring back the good times if the right circumstances prevail. But his career statistics do also show that he doesn't always get it right, and his profile and personality shouldn't make him immune to criticism when performances and results are seriously sub-par.

Quoted from BeijingMariner

Just before the 12 minute mark in the pre-Crawley press conference, Ian says that what is testing his resolve is his own ego. Interestingly after that he goes on to talk about everything but his ego. I'm not criticising him, just pointing something out; Ian Holloway is a man willing, but unable right now to stick to one topic of conversation. His mind leaps all over so much that when all he wants to say is "this is hard on me because I know I am good, but I'm not doing well right now, and it will take time" he talks about 15 other things, at breakneck speed for 5 minutes. It's like a stream of consciousness from a football version of The Office. I believe it's up to me to ignore the 90% of stuff that is not to do with the point under discussion and sieve out the good stuff. He knows what to do, it just isn't working right now. Would be simpler if he put it like that, but then it wouldn't be Ian Holloway, would it?

Quoted from Boris Johnson

I stopped listening weeks ago......

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

That's all fair enough, but all managers fail, even great managers such as Buckley at WBA, Lincoln and Rochdale.

There are so many variables for each manager at each club, and some are successful when others have put in the groundwork before they arrived, but this is a horrible situation Ollie has inherited, no groundwork done, years of failure, and to top it all off lower standard players signed due to covid.

I think we have to accept it will be a long term thing for him to turn it round, and as long we survive this season I think we can expect much more next.

Quoted from moosey_club

So ....he wasnt a "great" manager was he..overall in his career wise ?
Two successful stints here to which all of us who witnessed them will be remembered forever but not a real success anywhere else was he?

Quoted from toontown

Successful at Walsall too and did well at Kettering (runners up in the conference the season before us i think but back in the days when only one promotion spot)

Quoted from moosey_club

So ....he wasnt a "great" manager was he..overall in his career wise ?
Two successful stints here to which all of us who witnessed them will be remembered forever but not a real success anywhere else was he?

Quoted from NorfolkImp

Imps should've snapped him up in May 88' after beating Wycombe and regaining FL status ... instead they stuck with Murph too long, you took the plunge and the rest is history.

The same scenario occurred when you beat Braintree in the Play-off semis. You should've snapped up the Cowley's but stuck with Hurst. Imps nipped in and have won an unprecedented 3 trophies in 4 years (unheard of in the lower leagues) Gained £1m in compo and are now sitting pretty playing Buckley-esque football with a young exciting squad.

Sliding door moments?