By Joel Lamy
20 May 2011 19:21:00
EPL: Ian Holloway, Tottenham Hotspur v Blackpool
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Ian Holloway has said that clever financial planning means Blackpool will survive as a club should they be relegated on Sunday.
The Tangerines go in to their trip to Old Trafford knowing a win will almost certainly see them survive, but also that they could conceivably stay up with a defeat should Birmingham and Wigan lose by worse margins.
Blackpool were heavy favourites to be relegated at the start of the season but have confounded critics with their performances.
And Holloway, who has made headlines with his quirky ways, has said that relegation will not threaten the club’s future.
“We have been very clever with our budget,” he told reporters.
“We have contracts to protect the club that other clubs don’t. More fool them.
“There is no danger of not being in existence. We will not go out of business.
“What I will have are some very tough business decisions to make because we might lose this group of players.
“I can’t do much about that. We are not in the same ball park as some of these other teams and what they can pay. That is just the way it is.”
However, if they are relegated none of this will matter to Holloway, who explained in no uncertain terms just how painful relegation would be to him.
“It will be the end of the world,” he said.
“It will definitely feel like that. You can’t be a football manager, or a player, or have anything to do with a club and be happy if you go down.
“All you can do is let the dust settle and go on.”
Blackpool were leading United by two goals in the reverse fixture and had a great shout for a penalty which was denied, before going on to lose the match.
For Holloway, that match makes him both optimistic and pessimistic of his side’s chances of causing a great surprise.
He added: “One of my analysts was looking at the table the other day.
“I said: ‘Good God. What are you doing? You are going to go mental.’
“My dad was an amateur player. He would say ‘our name is on the cup’. Sometimes it is.
“This weekend, we have to do something no-one else has managed this season: beat the champions on their own ground.
“I take great motivation from the way we played against them earlier this season. For 70 minutes we were absolutely magnificent.
“Then they brought on Ryan Giggs and Javier Hernandez and we ran out of steam.
“It scares me just saying that.
“But this is an opportunity for us to achieve the best thing we could ever have dreamed of. Keeping a club like ours at this level.”