John Hollins

Football manager infobox
playername = John Hollins


fullname = John William Hollins
height =
nickname = Olly
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1946|7|16
cityofbirth = Guildford, Surrey
countryofbirth = England
dateofdeath =
cityofdeath =
countryofdeath =
currentclub =
clubnumber =
position =
youthyears = 1961-1963
youthclubs = Chelsea
years = 1963-1975
1975-1979
1979-1983
1983-1984
1989
clubs = Chelsea
Queens Park Rangers
Arsenal
Chelsea
Cobh Ramblers
caps(goals) = 436 (47)
151 0(6)
127 0(9)
029 0(1)
01 0 (0)
nationalyears = 1967
nationalteam = England
nationalcaps(goals) = 001 0(0)
manageryears = 1985-1988
1997
1998-2001
2001-2002
2003
2005-2006
2008-
managerclubs = Chelsea
Queens Park Rangers "(caretaker)"
Swansea City
Rochdale
Stockport County "(caretaker)"
Crawley Town
Weymouth

John William Hollins MBE (born July 16, 1946) is an English former football player and coach. He was initially a midfield player who, later in his career, became an effective central defender. Hollins is currently manager of Weymouth in the Blue Square Premier after being appointed on the 29th of January 2008.

Hollins' son, Chris Hollins is the main sport presenter on BBC Breakfast.

Playing career

Born in Guildford, Surrey, Hollins was born into a footballing family - his father, grandfather and three brothers were all professional footballers as well.

Chelsea

He joined Chelsea as a youth player and made his debut for the Blues against Swindon Town in September 1963 aged only 17. A talented and hard-running midfielder, usually wearing the number 4 shirt, he was known for his dedicated attitude to the game and went on to become a regular and eventually club captain. Hollins played 592 games, and scored 69 goals in his first spell at Chelsea, and was part of the successful Chelsea sides of the mid-1960s and early 1970s, at one point making 167 consecutive appearances, a club record.

Hollins played in both legs of the 3-2 aggregate victory over Leicester City in League Cup final in 1965 and the loss to Tottenham in the FA Cup final two years later. In 1970, he played a significant part in Chelsea's hard-fought FA Cup final win over Leeds United, supplying the cross for Ian Hutchinson's late headed equaliser at Wembley. Chelsea eventually won 2-1 in the replay at Old Trafford. They won the Cup Winners' Cup in Athens against Real Madrid a year later, again after a replay, but Hollins missed the second match due to an injury. He was Chelsea's player of the year two years running. While at Chelsea, he also won a solitary England cap, against Spain, on May 24, 1967.

He had his most prolific goalscoring season for Chelsea in the 1971-72 season, finding the net 17 times. Chelsea also reached another League Cup final in 1972, losing to Stoke City, but declined thereafter, though Hollins remained until the side's relegation to the Second Division at the end of the 1974-75 season, when he was sold to nearby QPR.

Queens Park Rangers

He stayed at the Hoops for four seasons, playing 151 matches and helping them to runners-up spot in the First Division in 1975-76.

Arsenal

In the summer of 1979, the 33-year-old Hollins made a surprising move to Arsenal, initially as a cover player, but he ended up becoming a regular in the Arsenal side, although by now he played more often as a defender than in midfield. He played 172 matches and scored 13 goals, and was part of the Arsenal side that lost the Cup Winners' Cup final in 1980, coming on as a substitute. He did, however, miss out on a place in the squad for the same season's FA Cup final, which Arsenal also lost.

He was awarded the MBE for services to football in 1981, and also made a memorable anti-smoking commercial for television in the same year as part of a Government campaign entitled "Look After Yourself".

Back to Chelsea

Hollins returned to Chelsea on a free transfer in 1983, and helped the club gain promotion back to the First Division in 1983-84, playing a further 30 times. He retired at the end of that season, having played 939 first-class matches in total.

Managerial career

Chelsea

Hollins was immediately appointed coach at Chelsea; a year later he became first team-manager following John Neal's retirement. Chelsea built up a strong title challenge in 1985-86 and went top in February, but a late slump in form saw them finish sixth. His side still won the Full Members Cup in the same season, though, hanging on for a 5-4 win over Manchester City at Wembley having almost let slip a 5-1 lead. The following years were less successful, as Hollins and his assistant Ernie Walley fell out with several key players, particularly David Speedie and Nigel Spackman, team morale slumped and the side began to struggle. He was sacked in March 1988 with the club in the midst of a four month run without a league win.

After Chelsea

After leaving Chelsea in February 1989 he came out of retirement to sign for Cobh Ramblers [http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/archive/1989/0216/Pg002.html#Ar00208:5BA9C666BA0F2D8A2D303A40397A393C2A4C588A2D5B3A405EAA365F0A495F0A3661AA4961FA36620A49] However he only played one league game before returning to England.

He then set up his own sports promotion and agency company, before being tempted back to join the coaching staff of his old club QPR in 1993, and stepped in as caretaker manager between Stewart Houston's dismissal and Ray Harford's appointment during the 1997-98 season. He later had spells as manager of Swansea City, Rochdale and as caretaker-manager of Stockport County, as well as being a pundit for BBC Radio Five Live. He was most successful in his managerial reign with Swansea City where he quickly established himself as a fan favoruite and guided Swansea to the Division Three title in 1999-2000, but was sacked after they failed to sustain themselves back in Division Two. He steered Rochdale into the play-offs in 2001-02 but was notoriously sacked by fax that summer after prevaricating over a new contract [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/r/rochdale/1986456.stm Hollins leaves Rochdale] ] .

On 21 November 2005, Hollins was announced as manager of Nationwide Conference side Crawley Town after the departure of Francis Vines. He remained with the club during the financial crisis that saw them docked ten points for going into administration, but left the club on October 30 2006 after Crawley had been beaten by Lewes in the final qualifying round for the FA Cup.

In 2007 when Kenny Jackett left Swansea City, Hollins re-applied to become the manager of Swansea City for the second time. He did not get the job as it went to Spaniard, Roberto Martinez.

In January 2008, Hollins took over as manager of Conference National side Weymouth. He was joined just days later by Alan Lewer who filled the role of Hollins' assistant for the second time as they were together at Crawley Town.

References

External links

*soccerbase (manager)|809|John Hollins'