“I almost signed Vardy & Benatia at Blackpool” Former PL boss Ian Holloway talks transfers

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Exclusive TM interview 

Back in 2010, Blackpool upset the odds, as the Tangerines came from behind to win the Championship Play-off final 3-2 against Cardiff and earn promotion to the Premier League for the very first time. The charismatic Ian Holloway was the manager that led them there, and this week he sat down with Transfermarkt to let fans behind the curtains on some of the transfer dealings that took place during his extensive managerial career – which is close to eclipsing 1,000 professional games. ‘Olly’ as he is affectionately known in the English game, has taken charge of a number of clubs across the football league, including Blackpool, QPR, Leicester, Crystal Palace, Millwall, and most recently Grimsby.

Unlike the likes of current Premier League bosses such as Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta, Holloway was never afforded the opportunity to spend huge amounts of money on new signings and had to accumulate cash for transfers himself. “I was always at clubs that didn’t have that much until I probably went to Palace. But normally I was the underdog” stated Holloway. “And when you’re the underdog, you’ve got to make ends meet. You might not have the best bit of gear on, but you need to make the best of it as you can. And that’s what I had to do. I had to try and generate the money myself and get a better player in.”

Transfer models that clubs adopt have been constantly evolving, and recruitment is now a very thorough process, in which many backroom staff are involved. Holloway started his managerial career with Bristol Rovers back in 1996, and reveals how the process developed across his career: “Some of the clubs are growing in size and stature now because they’re brilliant in the transfer market. Brentford and Brighton are the two best in my opinion, so yeah it’s a long process and when I first started it was down to me and later on in my career it’s more and more down to someone else, which can be frustrating.”

Missed opportunities – How Holloway almost signed Vardy & Benatia at Blackpool

Holloway pulled off some great transfer coups during his career such as signing Charlie Adam for just €590k from Rangers, and was known for his ability to spot raw talent, but when asked if there was one player he came close to signing and it didn’t quite go through? Holloway responded, “Yeah, there’s two.” Missed opportunities are common in the transfer market but there were two specific cases that still had Holloway kicking himself to this day. “When I was at Blackpool, when we’d just gone up, there was a chance to sign [Medhi] Benatia on a free transfer. He was coming out of contract, we had to pay, I think it was €400 thousand but we had to give him a four-year contract which was the sticking point.”

Benatia went on to make 63 caps for Morocco and win eight major trophies, playing for the likes of Bayern Munich and Juventus. Missing out on the defender still haunts Holloway: “He went from there to Udinese I think it was and they moved him on for around €23 million and about two years later he scored in the the Champions League semi-final and I rung up the club and said are you sure I wasn’t right about this bloke we didn’t sign? I had never seen such a brilliant defender in my life. I was looking for one for a long, long time. And I thought this kid is absolutely sensational.”

The other player Holloway came close to bringing to Bloomfield Road is a name most football fans will be very familiar with, “The other one was Jamie Vardy.” Holloway exclaimed with an expression of frustration. “I got a phone call from Micky Mellon, who was manager at Fleetwood. He said, Olly. this kid’s unbelievable, he’s gonna play for England, have you seen him? I said, well, we got you in the cup next week, Mick, I’ll have a good look. He said, Ollie, I’m telling you, he’s gonna play for England, he’s absolutely sensational. I said, well, what’s wrong with him then? He went, well, he’s got a tag on his ankle. He got into some trouble with the cops.”

“So anyway, we played the game, we won 5-1, my team played outstandingly well, but who scored the one? Vardy. And we tried to negotiate for him, but their owners didn’t want to sell him to us, and my chairman didn’t really want to pay the going rate. And then in came Leicester. But what an addition to my group he would have been. What a wonderful player he’s been for Leicester and his achievements are probably the best thing I’ve ever seen in football So it’s always very, very frustrating. But the Benatia one, I had it in the bank. It was done. We had it all sorted. I had the agent on my side. I made him feel completely wanted, so yeah that was probably the most frustrating one.”

Holloway’s most expensive signing: Dwight Gayle

Holloway’s most expensive signing came when he was at Crystal Palace, bringing young striker Dwight Gayle to Selhurst Park from Peterborough for €5.3m. He was sold on to Newcastle for €12m three years later. Holloway discusses his involvement in the transfer: “Dwight was someone who I kept my eye on, He’d started low down, you know, and that’s normally where I get them in the lower leagues and he was doing ever so well. But I knew Barry Fry [Peterborough Director of football] really well. I would often pick the phone up and bounce things off him with the experience that he had.”

“So I just picked the phone up. I needed a striker. I needed a goal scorer. The great thing about Barry is he gives you everything, the nuts and bolts about the kid, you know. And I liked what he said. Barry told me was a bit fiery. If he didn’t get what he wanted, he was a bit fiery. And he said, he’s not easy to handle, but I think he’ll like you. You’ll tell him straight. And do you know what? There was other options, but because of that statement, I did a little bit more digging and found out a little bit more about Dwight. And I was delighted to get him, absolutely totally and utterly delighted to get him.” Holloway has had some career and knows his way around the transfer market. He is still keen to get another job to get to 1,000 games.