He has taken two clubs up in the playoff's NP has failed two times! you might say we were unlucky we only lost because we failed on pen's. But Holloway won today because he had got a player that does not miss when the pressure is on and scored from the spot.
Said it then - will say it now - Holloway would have taken us up from League One at the first attempt IMHO (which is why I've had a few disagreements on here about Nigel's 'achievements') but so should any competent manager - I think it would have been an uphill task for anyone to have saved us that season. Holloway did a very good job at Blackpool and he's done it again - fair play to him. Hindsight is a wonderful thing - he very nearly kept Blackpool up - I think he has a far harder task in trying to keep this Palace side up - but he will give it his best and he won't bleat about it - he knows he's on a hiding to nothing from the start - but if anyone can pull off the unexpected it is probably him.
Not for me mate, wouldn't even go there, he inherited a good team and all the hard work Dougie Freedman did, just glad they beat Italy today. Watford full of Italian Prima Donnas that think they are better than they actually are.
Holloway did inherit a good set of players but he still was able to motivate them across the finishing line. Tactically in the last two games, he was spot on . sit up Nigel and see how it's supposed to done.
You make it sound like our promotion was a foregone conclusion. Many a large club, including Forest, Leeds and Sheff Utd, have not come straight back up. Even those that did, such as Manchester City, didn't manage it as champions. Regarding Holloway, we'll never know how things would have gone at Leicester if he'd stayed but, as the only manager in history to take us down to the third tier, I'm not really surprised he wasn't given the chance to bring us up. I tend to think of him as a small club manager anyway, being more successful at the likes of Blackpool and Palace. Basically, I wish him well at other clubs and think he will do well too. But I wouldn't have him back.
Holloway would still be as he was when he left us. A man without any tactical or motivational skills. He took a year out to look at the game from afar and it did him all the good in the world.
Funny how people can interpret things to suit their arguments. Palace finished the season worse than us, with only one win in ten. They stumbled into the play-offs on the last day, as did we. Their season came down to a penalty against Watford given away by Cassetti, as did ours. The difference? They scored, we didn't. Now Holloway's a tactical genius and Pearson should be sacked. Watford didn't show up today. If they had, they'd have won it. Palace stepped it up in the second half when they realised there was nothing to fear - no fantasy football goals today as they always seemed to hit against us. Watford showed the same inconsistency today that allowed Hull to sneak up in automatic.
Why don't you lot smell the coffee palace sneaked into the playoffs leicester sneaked into the playoffs both brighton and watford were the bookies choice to go up palace beat both of them and holloway got promoted ..end of
At the moment the history book shows the following Ian Holloway - x 2 promotions via play offs Nigel Pearson - x 2 failures in play offs Back to original question - no the holloway we had at the time was a ****wit, he's learned from his mistakes
We know that. But there are margins of failure. Do you think Watford will be thinking of sacking Zola? Or Forest of sacking Davies? Or Bolton of sacking Freedman? Poyet does seem to be leaving Brighton, but not because they want rid. We're the only team in the top 10 that wants rid of our manager. And yet we're the team with that ridiculous record of sacking manager after manager that some people seem to want to add to. For those that think we should get rid now because the timing is right, I'd like you to remember when we did that in the past. Remember Martin Allen? Paulo Sousa? Peter Taylor? The only time in recent memory it worked - Nigel Pearson.
Two things: Holloway has been in management a fair deal longer than Pearson. And how many relegations has Pearson got to his name compared to Holloway? No good looking at half the picture, Holloway jumped to Palace this season when they were already near the top. He deserted Blackpool because they were going nowhere - under his leadership.
I'm not looking at half the picture - stating the facts. Nigel Pearson jumped from Hull to us halfway through the season like holloway jumped to Palace - where did we finish then?
That ****e effort from watford today just rubs salt into the wound.., two very average teams today, so whats that say about us?
Because we were underachieving - Palace weren't. Pearson's had loads of work to do here. I don't believe Holloway has other than playing court jester to keep up morale.
We've been underachieving for the last ten years!!! But in that time, Pearson has come closest to getting us where we need to be.
And failed twice at the final hurdle whereas other managers at other clubs have had less time and jumped the hurdle! Not saying sack him but try looking at both sides of the argument - unless you are Nigel Pearson
I always look at both sides of the argument! Unlike some others, I don't tend to post on here when I'm too angry or excited, I like to weigh up the pros and cons before making a decision. The decision I have drawn is that we were not a million miles away from promotion this season. We finished four points behind Palace who are now up. If we'd been well off the pace, eg outside the top ten or eight or more points away from the top six, I would say this season was a failure and would as likely as not be calling for Pearson's head. I don't regard making the play-offs as failure. I see it as buying a ticket for the lottery. And it is a lottery - we all know Watford were the best side over the course of the season, but they lost out. Palace were arguably the lesser side in the play-offs, but neither Brighton nor Watford performed against them. They got lucky - fair play to them, that's what they play-offs are about. I expect us to improve further next season - I will never demand an automatic place as that is unrealistic because of the competitive nature of this league - but I'll certainly not be expecting us to struggle to make the top six like this season. Basically, we should be in the shake-up every season, as this year's champions used to be. That way, we'll go up eventually, hopefully quicker than they did. Getting rid of our manager could set us back, as it has nearly every other time before.
