QPR boss Ian Holloway: ‘The ones who truly fail in this game are those too scared to try… well I’ve always tried’
Loftus Road boss has a never give up attitude and, with three wins in a row, its starting to pay off
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IAN HOLLOWAY has certainly endured some trying times since returning to the game after 18 months out.
But one thing he will never stop doing is exactly that: Trying.
Whether it be defying those who said he was too small to ever be a professional footballer, inspiring Blackpool to come from behind twice and win the 2010 Championship play-off final, or nursing his wife Kim through cancer, Holloway simply does not know how to give up.
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So there was no chance of him throwing in the towel even when they lost six of the first seven games of his second managerial stint at QPR — and even though he admits he did fear for his job.
The former Sky pundit, 53, said: “When I came back in, my wife said, ‘don't become the result’.
“The result is not you, it’s the game, you just look at it, analyse it and move on to the next one.
“So thank God she said that because of how bad they were!
“Six games in a row, it had to be dodgy. But hopefully Les Ferdinand, the director of football, could still see what I was trying to do.
“The owners have been very, very patient for a long time.
“Hopefully, I can get them to believe and get them to enjoy this again.”
Holloway’s perseverance has already paid off with three straight league wins ahead of today’s visit by arch-rivals Fulham.
And it has been a particularly joyous week — his daughter Chloe gave birth after suffering two miscarriages last year.
Holloway, in the only way he knows how, encouraged her the whole way, ensuring she never gave up hope.
Chloe and her partner have since named their son Ollie.
It is another triumph-against-adversity tale to add to the Holloway story.
And when you spend time with the ex-Plymouth boss, you see how brilliant he is at convincing people things can and will get better.
Chatting in his office at QPR’s West London training ground, Ollie said: “I think a lot of it comes from when my wife had cancer when she was 21.
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“I had to make her believe she was going to be all right. ‘You’ll be all right, you’ll be all right, and you’ll be all right’. She told me how much I helped her.
“I still remember it every single day. I was at Wimbledon and ended up with glandular fever with the worry of it.
“It knocked me for two years; luckily she was fine in the end. She’s still here. A lot of people aren’t that lucky, are they?”
Holloway is 117 matches away from reaching 1,000 as a manager and is desperate to get there.
But what is most remarkable about his career, both as a player and a boss, is that he and Kim have managed it while looking after four children — three of whom are deaf, including Chloe.
I asked him to reflect momentarily on all he has achieved given that incredible level of added responsibility.
During his first spell in charge at Loftus Road, Holloway even commuted 250 miles daily so his kids could attend a deaf school in Bristol.
He replied: “We haven’t found it difficult; it’s just what I do.
“I’ve just been going to work because that’s what I want to do and my wife let me go to work.
“We’ve had to move all over the place because unfortunately I can’t choose where I work — where I work chooses me. And then I might have to move because you might not be wanted.
“We’ve had 30-odd different houses. It’s all a bit strange. You live by the seat of your pants as a football player and as a football manager.
“Everyone thinks, ‘Oh they’re lucky’. But it’s not lucky; you still have to sacrifice loads of things.”
Holloway has earned a reputation for his amusing turns-of-phrase and bubbly character. It was a key reason why Sky hired him after he left Millwall, along with his Football League pedigree. And he offered a fascinating insight into why he gained that reputation as a joker in the pack.
He claimed: “I just keep chatting and chatting and chatting — because my daughters can’t speak.”
Holloway’s passion for QPR — where he was a player from 1991 to 1996 and managed between 2001 and 2006 — could even rival that of the die-hard Hoops in Loftus Road’s R Block.
But while he will give everything he has to turn things around, he will never lose perspective on the bigger picture — as a recent tragedy involving one of his former Bristol Rovers charges reinforced.
Ollie explained: “The other week it was the saddest day of my life. I had to go to one of my ex-players Phil Bater, who lost his boy. He’s only 32.
“I had to stand there, I knew what Phil was like — and I saw him handle it all. Oh, wow.
“So I am in a great place. I may have lost a few games. It doesn’t matter.
“I’ve got a chance now to learn from those and keep going.
“If I run out of time and don’t do it, then at least I had a go.
“The ones who truly fail are the ones too scared to try.”