Ye Gods!

Hollowhead has a new book coming out in October, entitled (and I kid you not), "How to Be a Football Manager".  

Surely with a preface from the writer of that bestseller "How to be a Non-Chairman"

Quoted Text

The funniest and most entertaining sports book you’ll read this year. Peter Crouch’s How to Be a Footballer but for managers.

Football management is like being a potato – you’re never too far from the sack and everyone is constantly chipping away at you. It’s not for the faint-hearted and unless you’ve got skin as thick as rhino and, more importantly, a wicked sense of humour, you’ve no chance of surviving.

Ian Holloway – aka ‘Ollie’ – has all the above and more besides. His press conferences are the stuff of legend. He’s been there, seen it and done it in his 40 years as player and manager, and has been entertaining football fans on and off the pitch for most of his life. He’s been head honcho at clubs in all four divisions in English football, experiencing everything from the giddy heights of taking Blackpool to the Premier League to fighting relegation from the Football League with Grimsby Town. There’s never been a dull moment.

In the joyful How to Be a Football Manager, Holloway weaves a fantastically rich tapestry of hilarious anecdotes to reveal what being the boss is really like. This is not a handbook to tell you when to play a Christmas tree formation or throw on a false nine – it’s about dealing with the ridiculous, fighting your corner and always having a comeback.

Sounds excrement.

22 notes an’ all. Madness.

Anyway, I’m not sure he’ll be selling many after a torrent of 1 star reviews. Fill yer boots, lads…

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw.....659086046&sr=8-6

For balance...

I read his first book long before he came to Town.  I thought it was an entertaining read and offered a decent insight into him as a person as much about his playing/managing career.

He definitely came across a bit 'me me me', but I think that's his personality anyway so didn't really expect anything else from it.  

This just seems like the case of bringing a book out for the sake of bringing a book out.  A bit like the ones that Harry Redknapp brings out every couple of years with anecdotes aplenty that the average armchair fan loves to read.  

As much as I think it sound excrement, I'll be mildly interested to see if he's done any reflection on his time at Town.  In the same week that Jason Stockwood got more national attention to his approach, his vision and how we as a club are presenting ourselves it would be interesting to see if Holloway mentions how he felt Stockwood was underhand in trying to speak to him whilst the takeover was in process...

"An excellent book from someone who excels in his areas of expertise...talking a lot and darts. A must buy!"

Alex May - Business Entrepreneur

I liked his first book which I read long before he was on our horizon. If it is like his page in Four Four Two magazine, I'll resist buying it and wait until it sells for a few quid at The Works.

Quoted from HatTrickHero

"An excellent book from someone who excels in his areas of expertise...talking a lot and darts. A must buy!"

Alex May - Business Entrepreneur

😂

Quoted from HatTrickHero

"An excellent book from someone who excels in his areas of expertise...talking a lot and darts. A must buy!"

Alex May - Business Entrepreneur and crook, allegedly.

It's not allegedly BAWB, it's a fact.

He's a convicted criminal, found guilty in 2014 and sentenced to six years in prison for mortgage fraud.

Quoted from diehardmariner

It's not allegedly BAWB, it's a fact.

He's a convicted criminal, found guilty in 2014 and sentenced to six years in prison for mortgage fraud.

Ok thanks for that, I wasn't sure so just covering my butt!  

Quoted from 123614

Ok thanks for that, I wasn't sure so just covering my butt!  

Funny that's what May was doing for 6 years in the prison showers

I very much doubt the will be any mention of his ambiguous year long time at the club. I doubt the fact he WANTED to invest £100k in the club will get a mention or maybe his house didn’t sell due to in unpardonable solecism (or it just was never up for sale 🤔)

100K? Is that what it was?

Just had a look on Amazon, it states 320 pages, full description should be altered to 320 pages of pure bullsh!t. It also describes the language as English, shouldn't this read unintelligable Brizzle Boll@cks

Gives us chance to give him it big time once it’s on sale online and allows reviews!!!

Quoted from Maringer

Hollowhead has a new book coming out in October, entitled (and I kid you not), "How to Be a Football Manager".  

He's been head honcho at clubs in all four divisions in English football, experiencing everything from the giddy heights of taking Blackpool to the Premier League to fighting relegation from the Football League with Grimsby Town. There's never been a dull moment.

CHRIST ON A BIKE!!!!!

Quoted from diehardmariner

It's not allegedly BAWB, it's a fact.

He's a convicted criminal, found guilty in 2014 and sentenced to six years in prison for mortgage fraud.

I’ve heard from a ‘ahem’ reliable source that you shouldn’t really count mortgage fraud as there are no real victims 😉

I can still remember the exact point in time when I heard those unbelievable words come out his mouth.

I was running along the foot path that joins the Promenade to the Fitties.  I had to stop, go back in the interview and check it at least three times just to confirm I had heard him say what he did.  When it finally registered, the filter between my brain and mouth deserted me and the words 'flipping girl private' came out....Unbeknown to me at the exact point an immaculately dressed elderly lady cycled passed, without missing a beat she told me that it wasn't very gentlemanly.  

She wasn't wrong.  
But neither was I.

That's my secret Santa present for someone I don't like

Going to buy this. Genuinely a nice guy and great manager

Well, when the finally let you write reviews I think I’ll have a new hobby…

Book is out. 6 pages about his time at GTFC. Admits he got it wrong with recruitment during the pandemic and signed 5 strikers without seeing them play. I think that we all sort of guessed that. Also says wanted to re-sign most of the players who left at the end of the curtailed season, but Fenty wouldn't let him and he struggled to get anybody else to come in during the summer.

Blamed the tonking by Tranmere on a staff member who analysed their style of play but got it wrong so we hadn't done anything in training about how to deal with a midfield diamond. Did he moan about this at the time? I have an inkling he might have done.

Not exactly a mea culpa, but at least he's honest that he messed up.

Quoted from Maringer

Book is out. 6 pages about his time at GTFC. Admits he got it wrong with recruitment during the pandemic and signed 5 strikers without seeing them play. I think that we all sort of guessed that. Also says wanted to re-sign most of the players who left at the end of the curtailed season, but Fenty wouldn't let him and he struggled to get anybody else to come in during the summer.

Blamed the tonking by Tranmere on a staff member who analysed their style of play but got it wrong so we hadn't done anything in training about how to deal with a midfield diamond. Did he moan about this at the time? I have an inkling he might have done.

Not exactly a mea culpa, but at least he's honest that he messed up.

Did he happen to mention why he came here in the first place?

Nope.

I say it has six pages covering GTFC, but it is double-spaced, so more like 3 pages. A couple of short paragraphs saying he'd done well before the season was curtailed, then a bit about how it was impossible to meet Covid regulations because Cheapside only had a small meeting room available and he therefore had to give the same team talk to 3 different groups of players. No mention of darts, however.

Quoted from Poojah

Did he happen to mention why he came here in the first place?

I phoned the publisher this afternoon and asked, ‘Has the chapter on Fenty been cut?’

The woman just said, ‘I’ve heard he is’.

We must remember mortgage fraud is a minor conviction and we all make mistakes..............

Quoted from It Bites

We must remember mortgage fraud is a minor conviction and we all make mistakes..............

If you discount all the victims it’s a victimless crime.

Quoted from Maringer

Nope.

then a bit about how it was impossible to meet Covid regulations because Cheapside only had a small meeting room available and he therefore had to give the same team talk to 3 different groups of players. No mention of darts, however.

So why not 1 team talk outside ?

It took me 30 seconds after reading that to think of this.
Surely someone at the Club could have thought of it ??

I'm not sure there was much thinking going on at the time.

Trigger warning! (Paywall in place) https://www.thetimes.co.uk/art.....ht-on-cctv-cx83nf7p9

Only mentions us fleetingly - says Grimsby fans hate him but he loved his time with us.

Reading the comments below the line he’s still held in very high regard by the general public albeit not fans from Millwall, Plymouth and Town…

Quoted from Withnail

Trigger warning! (Paywall in place) https://www.thetimes.co.uk/art.....ht-on-cctv-cx83nf7p9

Only mentions us fleetingly - says Grimsby fans hate him but he loved his time with us.

Hate is a strong word, sadly not strong enough…

Quoted from Withnail

Trigger warning! (Paywall in place) https://www.thetimes.co.uk/art.....ht-on-cctv-cx83nf7p9

Only mentions us fleetingly - says Grimsby fans hate him but he loved his time with us.

Reading the comments below the line he’s still held in very high regard by the general public albeit not fans from Millwall, Plymouth and Town…

He can say what he wants. A disingenuous charlatan, here on false pretences. That we recovered quickly takes nothing away from the disregard he showed this club during his tenure.

A nasty little shít stain on our club’s history; may he never speak of us again.

Quoted from Civvy at last

So why not 1 team talk outside ?

It took me 30 seconds after reading that to think of this.
Surely someone at the Club could have thought of it ??

Because its harder to throw the darts through a window...games would take ages

I'll give him credit for one thing.

Watching us in that last season of his, he made me believe that I could have played for GTFC. That's how bad we were.

Quoted from Withnail

Trigger warning! (Paywall in place) https://www.thetimes.co.uk/art.....ht-on-cctv-cx83nf7p9

Only mentions us fleetingly - says Grimsby fans hate him but he loved his time with us.

Reading the comments below the line he’s still held in very high regard by the general public albeit not fans from Millwall, Plymouth and Town…

No paywall - https://archive.ph/wiFNB

Only reference to us is:

Quoted Text

It’s an itinerant profession, often just a passing passion, often enraging fans left behind. “When I left Plymouth after I’d told them how much I love them they f***ing hated me. I left Grimsby, they f***ing hate me and it’s pretty nasty. But the fact is I loved being there at that time.”

Quoted from Maringer

Admits he got it wrong with recruitment during the pandemic and signed 5 strikers without seeing them play.

Not exactly a mea culpa, but at least he's honest that he messed up.

He has been 'honest' now (allegedly), but if he had admitted it at the time and explained his reasoning and not strung everyone along, rather than his callous disregard to everyone who could plainly see through his inability to rebuild a successful team, maybe fans would only want to run him over with a steamroller...


...........rather than ripping his head off, shitting down his neck until he chokes.............and then running him over with a steamroller.

Quoted from BenBB

No paywall - https://archive.ph/wiFNB

Only reference to us is:

See, here’s the thing, hate is indeed a strong word, and a word I don’t use lightly.  But I do hate Ian Holloway.

I hate him in a way I don’t hate Nicky Law, Russell Slade or Marcus Bignot. All incompetent buffoons in their own special way, but you can’t hate someone for not being capable of doing their job at that moment in time; most of us have bitten off more than we can chew at one time or another.

What I hate about the bloke is that he was happy to use the club as a plaything for his own financial gain, simply couldn’t be bothered as soon as as that financial prospect had disappeared, and left as soon as a viable excuse arrived.

He was complicit in a scheme that could have destroyed this club, and almost did even though it didn’t come off. Imagine a world where Jason Stockwood and Andrew Pettit weren’t waiting in the wings. We’re Scunny, effectively, we’re in the NLN at best and we’ll never return. He didn’t give a fúck about this club, or its fans, whatever he says.

We’re very fortunate. Today we have a full house ahead of a League Two fixture against Bradford, funnily enough the side we faced in front of an empty BP in Holloway’s final game. To the absolute credit of our new owners, things are more positive than I can remember at any point following Town - even in 1998.

But all of that is in spite of Ian Holloway. As I said last night, a nasty little shít stain on our club’s history. A man of many words, most of them treacherously dishonest.

A traitor and a charlatan, never welcome in our town again.