To every neutral football fan around, Blackpool have been a revelation since they entered the Barclays Premier League via the Championship Play-Offs last season. One man to thank for this is their Manager Ian Holloway. Holloway, manager since May 2009, is more renowned for his off-the-wall interviews and has lit up the country with his quite often satirical phrases, for example:
“In football you need to have everything in your cake mix to make the cake taste right. One little bit of ingredient that Tony uses in his cake gets talked about all the time is Rory’s throw. Call that cinnamon and he’s got a cinnamon flavoured cake. It’s not fair and it’s not right and it’s only a small part of what he does.”
Holloway has had an illustrious career even if it has not been at a TOP club. He started his playing career at Bristol Rovers whom he went on to manage – Holloway was a midfielder in his heyday and clearly his attacking credentials have rubbed off on his players. He seemingly loves his team to play fine, flowing attacking football and it may well have been this philosophy that helped his team rocket into The Premier League.
Before managing at Blackpool Holloway had stints at Bristol Rovers, QPR, Plymouth Argyle and Leicester City. At every club Holloway has had reasonable success but never really hit the heights of the big time, until this year. Whilst he still claims that his Blackpool team is “punching above their weight”, he has always maintained a burning desire to win football matches.
So why else have Blackpool been such a great addition to the Premier League? Well, one man has led the team almost single handedly at times, and that’s club captain Charlie Adam. Without his leadership Blackpool may not have still been in with a shout of staying up. As it is Blackpool could still earn a second year in the top flight. Charlie was named alongside 7 other players for PFA Players Player Of The Year 2010-2011 season. To which he narrowly missed out to Gareth Bale. Having missed out on that accalade, Adam now has to make do with being one of the Premier League’s top summer targets. Both Tottenham and Liverpool are said to be interested in signing him.
More extraordinarily Blackpool are the lowest paid and earning football club in The Premier League with players wages at the lowest. Blackpool also holds the lowest stadium capacity with Bloomfield Road holding 16,220. So in a league which has been taken over with increasing players wages, foreign players, high paid managers Blackpool seem to be one of those teams not being drawn in by this new era, thus contributing to growing fan population.
So speaking for the rest of the country: Holloway, please keep Blackpool up and stop the Premier League being taken over by the “Rich Millionaires” and their banknotes.
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