Ian Holloway dismisses quit rumours
Blackpool manager Ian Holloway was rumoured to have walked away from the newly-promoted club just days before the new season kicks off on Tuesday, but has categorically denied the claims in a press conference today.
"Before anyone asks a question, I just want to make sure you can see me – you can see me here and I'm not a cardboard cut-out – because somehow or other, I'm not supposed to be here," Holloway said.
"It's just a crazy world that we have moved into. Apparently yesterday I'd walked out and resigned."
There were reports that Holloway had grown increasingly disillusioned with the lack of money at his disposal ahead of Blackpool’s first campaign in the Premier League, but four players were signed today and the Seasiders’ boss seems his normal jovial self this morning.
Craig Cathcart from Manchester United, Ludovic Sylvestre from the Czech side Mlada Boleslav, Elliot Grandin from the Bulgarian club CSKA Sofia and Malaury Martin from Monaco, have all arrived at Bloomfield Road, as Holloway prepares for a tough season inside the top flight.
On the reportedly strained relationship with his chairman, Holloway was also quick to dismiss those claims, describing it as: "Absolutely fantastic. I came to work for him, I am still working for him and I am delighted to be working for him."
And as for the stories that he’d actually left, the Blackpool manager revealed that he felt particularly sorry for the club’s supporters.
He said: "Our poor fans, who have been worried sick, on websites, asking what's happening and writing me letters – did they think that I didn't want to [sign players]? Did they think that I haven't been trying? I couldn't try any harder and the harder you try, the more lucky you get.
"But you have to be together in this and what has hurt me a little bit is that they think for one minute that, with how long I have worked in football and how hard I've worked, I am suddenly going to walk out on a relationship that I've got here with the fans, the chairman and the team.
"They think that I'm going to give that up? I'm sorry, how wrong is that? Hopefully it will all settle down and they will see that some of the things they were worried about haven't actually materialised and we are still going on."
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