Ian Holloway is one of football’s larger than life characters.
Never afraid to show his personality, Holloway is loved by many but, at Leicester City, he is remembered as the man who oversaw the club’s relegation to League One for the first and only time in it’s history.
It was the lowest of the lows for the Foxes, who have since gone on to dizzy new heights by winning the Premier League and FA Cup, erasing some of those painful memories.
Holloway’s methods clearly didn’t work on the pitch, but away from it, things seemed even crazier.
Ian Holloway dressed as Dodgeball film character during training session
The former Leicester manager adopted many strange tactics, but none more bizarre than when he was prepping for the team’s away trip to Southampton in the 2007/08 season.
In a bid to motivate the players, Holloway reportedly used to recite speeches from films but in this case took one step further, as revealed by former Foxes striker Matty Fryatt.
He told the Leicester official website in 2022: “I remember it was about 10 or 11 in the hotel and some of the lads had taken sleeping pills to get some rest before the game and he calls everyone down for a team meeting in the squash courts.
“He’s got bandages all over him. Apparently, he’s dressed as Patch from Dodgeball. He’s got his staff with him and we’re in the viewing area above looking down on this. His staff all start throwing size five footballs at him.
“It’s bouncing off the wall and missing his head. If any one of them did hit his head, he’d probably put himself in A&E. He then says: ‘Get the boys down here! This is what we need! This is what we’re about!’
“We turned up for the game the next day and got smashed. I think we were 2-0 down after 10 minutes.”
Ian Holloway’s terrible record as Leicester manager
The Kingswood-born was one of four managers that terrible season, but he is the one attributed with taking Leicester down on 4 May 2008.
Unsurprisingly, the failed Leicester manager was sacked after taking them down to League One, averaging a total of 1.09 points per game from 32 matches in charge.
| Ian Holloway record as Leicester manager |
| Wins – 9 |
| Draws – 8 |
| Losses – 15 |
Following his dismissal, Holloway was replaced by Nigel Pearson who, across two spells, became one of the most popular figures in Leicester history.