| Ian Holloway's "How to be a Manager" book 18:18 - Jan 22 with 5737 views | slmrstid |
Has anyone read this?
My wife bought it for me in the Waterstones sales post Christmas.
I will firstly open up with... I love Ian Holloway, he will always be a QPR hero for me because he was our manager for all my teenage years and he made the club at that time from something that was piss taken about at school to something that people respected. And we were fairly decent for most of it and had some amazing times. Our cave and all that. And whilst the second time around wasnt quite the same, it wasnt disastrous either and ultimately a lot better than what followed with McLaren.
So, the book. In my view its very rambly and very meandery and wanders all over the place within the same chapter. He gives credit to a ghostwriter in the acknowledgements but I'm not sure the ghostwriter has done a very good job because the text is all over the place. And some of the research and recollection of events is terrible. I can't comment on his other clubs, but there's a few QPR stories in there which are wrong, either by referencing the wrong fixture or wrong year. I will forgive Ollie for events that happened 20 years ago to be a bit mixed up in his memory, whilst they are seared in my teenage brain, but I feel that the research or checking could have been a bit better. Some of them aren't hard to disprove/correct.
Two examples:-
- The (in)famous "bird in a taxi" quote was after a 3-0 home win against Chesterfield in 2003 - Ollie has it in the book as being a 3-0 win against Bury. Bury weren't even in our league that year having been relegated at the end of 2001/02 - although we did win that home fixture 3-0 that season which may be where the mis-recollection comes from.
- His final QPR fixture first time round - is in the book as being a 6-1 loss against Leeds. I think his last game was against Leeds (he says it was) in that game we had "Queens Park Strangers" but that game was a 2-0 loss - the 6-1 was the season before.
Small matters maybe but it gripes a bit at me and makes you wonder how many of the other stories around things at Plymouth/Bristol/Palace etc are wrong too.
The book also talks about contemporary football events - which I think is always a bit iffy to do because it then ages the book really quickly. One paragraph mentions hoping Frank Lampard gets the time he needs at Everton.
Fairly interestingly there is only the smallest mention of Leicester City and all that is is that he admits he didn't research the club or team before joining. Given that was probably the most disastrous spell of his managerial career it may well be it holds painful memories he'd rather not revisit but its interesting nonetheless.
The whole thing reads like a text version of one of his after dinner events. Which would probably be hugely enjoyable to attend. I'm just not sure it translates into book form very well.
In the unlikely event Ian Holloway reads this - I still enjoyed the book because its Ian Holloway and I love him and if I ever meet him I will tell him how much of a QPR hero he is to me, so if Ollie is the same to you its worth reading - but as a book its definitely not one of the best of its genre. | | | |  |
| Ian Holloway's "How to be a Manager" book on 19:03 - Jan 22 with 5596 views | TacticalR |
@ "its very rambly and very meandery and wanders all over the place"
This doesn't surprise me as Ollie's monologues are like this. This is probably why the chapter on Holloway in Michael Calvin's 'Living on the Volcano - The Secrets of Surviving as a Football Manager' is entitled 'Ollie's Flying Circus'.
It sounds like someone should have proofread the book. | |
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| Ian Holloway's "How to be a Manager" book on 20:10 - Jan 22 with 5471 views | Wegerles_Stairs |
Echoing his literary heroes, he's employing the unreliable narrator technique. | | | |
| Ian Holloway's "How to be a Manager" book on 10:57 - Jan 25 with 5077 views | TGRRRSSS |
HIs Book was not the best sharpest book in the book shop but it had a nice cover, thanks very much lets read it over coffee. | | | |
| Ian Holloway's "How to be a Manager" book on 20:29 - Jan 25 with 4830 views | LowerloftLad |
Me and my dad are attending an audience with Ian Holloway next month. My dad once met Ian after he stormed up into the upper loft to personally tell him why he wasn't going to be playing Richard langley.  | |
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| Ian Holloway's "How to be a Manager" book on 21:09 - Jan 25 with 4758 views | stowmarketrange |
I went to one of his charity nights in ipswich last March and it was well worth the admission money.I was the only qpr supporter there in a room full of Ipswich and plymouth fans,but he went out of his way to speak to everyone.
I hope you all enjoy yourselves as much as I did. | | | |
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