Ian Holloway, English footballer and manager
Ian Scott Holloway (born 12 March 1963) is an English professional football manager, former player, media personality and television pundit who was most recently the manager of Grimsby Town.A midfielder, he notably played in the Premier League with Queens Park Rangers where he made just under 150 league appearances in a five-year spell. He spent most of his career at boyhood club Bristol Rovers where he had three spells which included the start and finish of his playing career. He was part of the Wimbledon team that won promotion to the top flight in 1986, a place they would remain for the next fourteen seasons. He also played in the Football League with Brentford and Torquay United.
During his third spell back at Bristol Rovers, he became player-manager before ending his playing career in 1999. He has also managed Queens Park Rangers (where he won promotion from Division Two in 2003–04), Plymouth Argyle, Leicester City, Blackpool, Crystal Palace and Millwall. As he did with Blackpool three years earlier, Holloway managed Crystal Palace to promotion to the Premier League in May 2013, but after the club had won only one of their opening eight games he left, by mutual consent, on 23 October 2013 after less than a year in charge. On 6 January 2014, Holloway signed a two-and-a-half-year deal with Millwall; this was terminated in March 2015. He rejoined Queens Park Rangers as manager on 11 November 2016. In December 2019, he joined Grimsby Town as a manager and club director after committing to purchase shares in the club. He resigned just under a year later.
He is known by the nickname "Ollie", which is also the title of his autobiography. Holloway has a reputation amongst football fans for his West Country accent, off-the-wall interviews and amusing answers to questions from the media, with a wide selection of quotes and soundbites being printed.