Olly confesses to losing the dressing room.
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Ian Holloway has admitted that losing the Crystal Palace dressing room was the biggest contributor to him losing his job with the club this week, the Daily Mail reports.
The 50-year-old announced that he was leaving the club by mutual consent at a press conference held alongside Palace co-chairman Steve Parish at a hotel in central London on Wednesday afternoon, just 48 hours after going down 4-1 to Fulham on Monday night.
Parish had reportedly heard rumours that Holloway had lost the dressing room and the players were no longer responding to his instructions, rumours which were confirmed by the man himself at the press conference.
“With the changes in the squad, I have to hold my hand up and say we didn’t keep the spirit that got us up, we lost some very important parts of it,” he said.
“I think we have tried to change too quickly. Some of the new lads, their attitude, I’m finding it slightly annoying and that ain’t right.
“I didn’t value enough the spirit of the group [that got us up]. We changed to give us a chance to stay up but lost the spirit of the group.
“We’ve got worse in that vein rather than better, and I owe it to the lads to admit that.
“Sometimes we needed to shut up shop and defend a bit better —when I talked about that with the group, it unsettled them because they were so good at doing different things.
“I’m not saying the players are not good enough but they need to buy into this club like the last lot. So I think someone fresh coming in right now with more experience at this level [would help].
“I’m not bitter, I will never be bitter. I’m privileged to have worked for Palace.
“I want the players to understand that with me out of the way, this will stop and a new man has a chance to start again.
“Not much needs changing but I can’t change who I am because the lads won’t believe in that.
“If I kept taking Steve’s money, that’s not right. I want to do a job I feel is right for the club.
“They have got 30 games left and I understand how wonderful it is for Palace to enjoy those games and not have all this circus flowing around us.”
Former Stoke City boss Tony Pulis is now the favourite to replace Holloway at Selhurst Park.