Ian Holloway. A legend in his own lifetime

The man in my eyes is a star.

I have the utmost respect for him for the way he conducted himself after City beat his then Q.P.R. team in the 2003 play off final.

When City were awarded the trophy and medals he stood, a lone figure, on the pitch applauding the City players as they were rewarded. I can only imagine how disappointed he must have been feeling having lost the game but his actions were commendable.

Now Holloway has a reputation for whacky press conferences.

After his Rangers side beat City last December Holloway said

'I could not be more chuffed if I was a badger at the start of the mating season.'

Hopefully tonight he'll have nothing to be cheerful about. But whatever he's still a top man.

Thanks to Wikipedia here are a whole load more of Holloway's quotes

It's like the film Men in Black. I walk around in a black suit, white shirt and black tie where I've had to flash my white light every now and again to erase some memories, but I feel we've got hold of the galaxy now. It's in our hands."
- Holloway on QPR's financial situation.

• "It was lucky that the linesman wasn't stood in front of me as I would have poked him with a stick to make sure he was awake."
  - Holloway states his opinion about the linesman's performance in a game against Bristol City.

• "I call us the Orange club - because our future's bright!"
  - on QPR's potential.

• "He's been out for a year and Richard Langley is still six months away from being Richard Langley, and I could do with a fully fit Richard Langley."
  - on midfielder Richard Langley's injury rehabilitation.

• "It's all very well having a great pianist playing but it's no good if you haven't got anyone to get the piano on the stage in the first place, otherwise the pianist would be standing there with no bloody piano to play."
  - after being criticised for using defensive players in midfield.

• "I am a football manager. I can't see into the future. Last year I thought I was going to Cornwall on my holidays but I ended up going to Lyme Regis."
  - asked whether QPR would be able to beat Manchester City.

• "To put it in gentleman's terms if you've been out for a night and you're looking for a young lady and you pull one, some weeks they're good looking and some weeks they're not the best. Our performance today would have been not the best looking bird but at least we got her in the taxi. She weren't the best looking lady we ended up taking home but she was very pleasant and very nice, so thanks very much, let's have a coffee"
  - on the "ugly" win against Chesterfield.

• "You can say that strikers are very much like postmen: they have to get in and out as quick as they can before the dog starts to have a go."

• "I always say that scoring goals is like driving a car. When the striker is going for goal, he's pushing down that accelerator, so the rest of the team has to come down off that clutch. If the clutch and the accelerator are down at the same time, then you are going to have an accident."

• "I've got to knock that horrible smell out of my boys, because they smell of complacency."

• "Every dog has its day, and today is woof day! Today I just want to bark!"
  - Holloway after securing promotion to the Championship.

• "When my wife first saw Marc for the first time, she said he was a fine specimen of a man. She says I have nothing to worry about, but I think she wants me to buy her a QPR shirt with his name on the back for Christmas."
  - on QPR's new Danish striker Marc Nygaard.

• "Paul Furlong is my vintage Rolls Royce and he cost me nothing. We polish him, look after him, and I have him fine tuned by my mechanics. We take good care of him because we have to drive him every day, not just save him for weddings."
  - on veteran striker Paul Furlong.

• "We need a big, ugly defender. If we had one of them we'd have dealt with County's first goal by taking out the ball, the player and the first three rows of seats in the stands."
  - after a defeat against Notts County.

• "You never count your chickens before they hatch. I used to keep parakeets and I never counted every egg thinking I would get all eight birds. You just hoped they came out of the nest box looking all right. I'm like a swan at the moment. I look fine on top of the water but under the water my little legs are going mad."

• "There was a spell in the second half when I took my heart off my sleeve and put it in my mouth."

• "I don't see the problem with footballers taking their shirts off after scoring a goal? They enjoy it and the young ladies enjoy it too. I suppose thats one of the main reasons women come to football games, to see the young men take their shirts off. Of course they'd have to go and watch another game because my lads are as ugly as sin."
  - Ian Holloway about the new rule restricting footballers from removing their shirts during a match.

• "Sometimes when you aim for the stars, you hit the moon."

• "I believe in what I am doing totally and once people speak to me they do too - I could sell snow to the Eskimos."

• "We've got a good squad and we're going to cut our cloth accordingly, but I think the cloth that we've got could make some good soup, if that makes any sense".