Two years ago this evening…

Two years ago this very evening, many of us (myself included) were toasting the appointment of Ian Scott Holloway as new Grimsby Town manager as we looked forward to seeing in 2020, a year brimming with optimism and excitement. What could possibly going wrong?

Two years on, the the league we find ourselves in and of course the wider world are very different places. Though I’ll probably stop short of blaming him for the untimely deaths of millions of people around the planet, Holloway himself is largely accountable for the sorry state the club found itself in, and in many ways remains as of this moment.

Which got me thinking. Was the appointment of Ian Holloway the most singularly cataclysmic decision ever made by anyone at GTFC in its 143 year history (granted, only Swin has been around long enough to have witnessed the whole lot)? There have been other notable ones for sure; Neil Woods, bless him, probably wasn’t the right appointment at the time and of course we have the appointment of JSF himself. But while Fenty took many years to run the club into the ground, Holloway made his mark in less than 12 months. So for me, it’s the worst, pound for pound in terms of time taken and size of mess made.

But what about you?

P.S. - happy New Year Fishy friends - praying that 2022 is better than the last couple for each and every one of us…

To be fair to Fenty I thought at the time he had pulled off a real coup getting Holloway and I was over the moon with the appointment if I'm honest.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I don’t think there is one single decision.

It’s just been 20+ years of sloppy dysentery with the occasional solid stool induced erection.

Again, with the benefit of hindsight, I do wonder if more could have been done in the 90s, pre-Fenty, to modernise the club during the halcyon football boom. It’s easy for me to say that now though.

Threatened with the torture of listening to a Coldplay album, I’d have to say either not capitalising on the feel-good factor of the 15/16 season or that monstrosity of a kit in 06-07 (the Blackburn Rovers style half and half scarf banjo string twanger).

I’ll stick my neck out and say I expects it to be a disaster from the start…I’ve got friends and colleagues (sadly none of them sad enough to post on here) to back me up.

Is he the worst manager ever had? Probably not, but, he was an remains a charlatan. He was a flipping snake oil salesman before he came here and we’d be no better off, covid or not…his crowning glory will be a scrappy win at scunny. That is all.

I was delighted with the appointment, but was convinced he wouldn’t last more than 12-18 months. A wild journey and then a parting of ways felt inevitable from the very beginning. Nobody could have foreseen covid, nor Holloway clearly losing the plot in pre season- one friendly, playing darts etc

We wouldn't have been relegated under Holloway, might have been close but given the Jan window i'm sure he would have brought reinforcements in

I think Fenty convinced Holloway that the season would be a none starter, we then ended up playing catch up on and off the pitch

The only bit i don't get is why Holloway didn't at least have a discussion with the new owners

Quoted from Simon

The only bit i don't get is why Holloway didn't at least have a discussion with the new owners

Yeah, never really understood that.

Must admit when Holloway made that speech in the Lower Trust bar I thought this is either going to go very well or it's going to be a disaster, there's not going to be any middle ground.

Yep I don’t think anyone can blame you for your optimism at that time. It was brilliant. A premier league manager from the not too distant past rocking up at BP. Finished the season well with some good players and good football - Billy Clarke the highlight.

I think his whole deal centred around the involvement of Alex May but I won’t say any more.

Quoted from quebec38

I think his whole deal centred around the involvement of Alex May but I won’t say any more.

Exactly. Holloway was here to trouser it in (multi-pocketed combat slacks with reinforced gusset and button fly). The fact that Holloway was a director and shareholder suggests he wasn’t in it for the salary.

…and he certainly wasn’t in it for the ‘project’, free donkey rides and bracing sea air.

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taJ4MFCxiuo[/url]

If the season hadn't ended due to Covid I still think we would have been ill prepared for last season but we might have kept hold of players such as Vernam and Clarke.

There is a huge difference between a manager/director sitting on his backside at home and allegedly not speaking to any of his staff/players for 6 months than doing the same for 6 weeks.

We will never know how much Covid impacted his reign or just how much he knew about Alex May but I think we all knew it was never going to be average with him at the helm.