• Premier League

Holloway stands firm over team selection

ESPN staff
November 11, 2010
Ian Holloway refuses to be told who his best players are

Ian Holloway has warned the Premier League that he will not be dictated to over team selection, in light of his controversial decision to make wholesale changes to his Blackpool side for the trip to Aston Villa.

Holloway made 10 changes from the side that drew 2-2 with Everton the previous Saturday. Only a late goal from James Collins denied his side a point and in his post-match interview, the Blackpool chief hit out at suggestions he fielded a weakened team. He has insisted he has no case to answer with the Premier League despite the governing body confirming it would look into the affair.

"I am paid to be the manager of Blackpool Football Club and paid to utilise them in a 25-man squad, I did not play anyone outside my 25 yesterday," Holloway said. "So I don't know what on Earth they are talking about. They should judge my team on how they played. If they had lost 10-0, maybe then I had played a weakened team.

"I need to take this squad forward to see who is good enough and who isn't and I believe they all are, I would not have signed them otherwise.

"I am not having anyone tell me who I can play. My chairman does not do it, so why should the Premier League? Who the hell are they to tell me, with the greatest respect, who I have signed are they good enough or not even before they have had a chance to play?"

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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