The Crystal Palace manager Ian Holloway has said that he believes that his team can match Stoke city in the way that the club has progressed over the years. Ian Holloway has revealed that he is a good friend of the Stoke city manager Tony Pulis, who has managed to get the club from the Championship to the prospect of being an established Premier league team. Pulis remains the only British manager in English top-flight to have not suffered relegation with any of his teams. Holloway, though, has confirmed that he does not want to play in the style of Stoke city.
Holloway has always been an admirer of beautiful football, with his Blackpool team unable to stay in the Premier league as a result of the open and attractive football. Stoke city, on the other hand, have been able to establish themselves in the Premier league by playing pragmatic and defensive football. The two teams came against each other in the FA Cup third round. The match finished as a 0-0 draw and Ian Holloway will now be taking his players to the Britannia stadium hoping to achieve what few clubs have done this season – get an away victory at the Britannia stadium.
“Those Stoke fans should build a statue to him in my honest opinion, it’s fantastic what he’s done. It’s just remarkable. They’ve had European football, they’ve got in the FA Cup final. He gets slaughtered by some people — it’s absolute nonsense. He’s been completely phenomenal. On the whole, when I’ve first come here our stats were pretty awful, 40 odd per cent [of possession] even when we won 5-0,” said Ian Holloway. After a great start to the new season, Crystal Palace have fallen to the third position due to recent run of poor results in the league.