Ian Holloway is back in football and making his mark at Bloomfield Road. Blackpool have started their Championship campaign on form with three consecutive draws and a Carling Cup victory.
The gregarious gaffer is trying to lift expectations for the
Tangerines to more than a relegation battle, and was satisfied with Tuesday night’s draw against
Derby.
Q: What were your thoughts on the 0-0 draw with Derby?
A: I cannot fault our commitment and there were many positives out of this game. But I have got new faces in. These lads don't really know each other and what to expect of each other on the field.
Jay Thomas, who came on in the second half, hasn't even trained with us. That is not ideal, but we've already started to pick up a few knocks and I need a bigger squad.
I felt we deserved at least one win out of the three games. Had
Jason Euell managed to get onto that cross in the first half I'm sure the whole game would have changed in our favour. We are well short, down to the bare bones.
Q: What new faces are you trying to get in?
A: I had a chat with DJ (
Campbell)'s manager (
Leicester boss Nigel Pearson) which I thought was fantastic. He told me I could talk to DJ, which is really unusual, so I did.
I rang him and told him what we are trying to do and what I am trying to do. I've left my chairman talking to them. It started off as a loan, and then it moved to a permanent. Whether we can dream of sorting that I don't know, but we'll give it our best shot.
We'll see what happens but it's not in our hands because of his wages. Unless he decides to come down to where we are it is probably going to make it a non-starter.
But I've promised people I really want to make a difference here and if I brought DJ back at least I'd be then starting with who did well last year and what we had last year, which was DJ and Charlie Adam.
Q: What can you tell us about your loan signing from Arsenal - Jay Emmanuel Thomas?
A: He had other options so I am delighted he has plumped for us. Jay is a fantastic young lad with great physique. He just wants a chance to come out and play. He belongs to
Arsenal and look what they did on Saturday against Everton.
They have some fantastic lads. Jay is one of them and the good thing is that he came to Blackpool, saw where we train, saw the pitch and how we played against Cardiff and he believes he can help us.
Most importantly he genuinely wants to be a part of it. It's only for a month but in that month I hope to convince him that we can build on it and he could stay with us a lot longer.
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