'Become the team I believe we can be' - Holloway rallies Swindon

Ian Holloway joined an elite club of English managers to take charge of 1,000 games

Ian Holloway does not want to take all of the credit for any improvements that have come into Swindon since he took over nine months ago.

On the eve of another new campaign, the veteran manager believes his biggest achievement at the club is simple - helping empower the players.

"There isn't a lot I've done except make them responsible, for themselves and each other and then care about what they're doing," Holloway told BBC Points West.

"There's a lot of power in that if you can empower someone to understand they can make a difference. Particularly then they all start doing it and then you've actually got something that feels a lot better than it was."

Swindon were one point above the relegation zone and in free-fall when the 62-year-old came into the club last October. By the end of the season they finished 12th, eight points off the top six with the third best goalscoring rate.

The Robins won 16 and drew 11 of Holloway's 37 league matches in charge - their average points of 1.59 per game would have put them on 73 and in the play-offs if stretched across the whole season.

Yet Holloway is aware that, going into their fifth consecutive campaign in League Two, Swindon are nowhere near the level fans expect, especially for a club with this size and history.

"I'm very realistic that we are where we are and we've got to try and grow and become the team that I believe we can do. If we do that the crowd will come back, the club will grow and it's exciting," Holloway said.

"The people haven't had what they want for 15, 16 years. They've seen some great times, [Glenn] Hoddle, [Ossie] Ardiles, [Paolo] Di Canio, some wonderful football. They still idolise Mr [Don] Rogers, as they should do, John Trollope they love, and it's the community feel that you've got.

"I'm just grateful to every day and to have the chance to come and effect people and actually do something. [That] somebody wants you to do it is quite a big thing for me which is a great feeling."

Holloway joined an elite club of 26 English managers to surpass 1,000 games in English football last season.

His first managerial role was with hometown club Bristol Rovers in 1996, initially while he was still playing, and he has also taken charge of QPR, Blackpool, Crystal Palace, Millwall, Grimsby, Leicester and Plymouth, across all top four division of the English game.

"How difficult it would be if this was my first season because of the lack of time, lack of support, lack of everything that you get. Time is not your friend if you're a football manager," Holloway said.

"A week can be a long week if you win on Saturday, lose on Tuesday and then you're absolutely rubbish on the following Saturday - that makes you something the dog's left behind, someone has got to pick it up in a bag and throw it."

It is the introduction Holloway got to football at Rovers however, where he played more than 100 games, that he feels set him up for his career.

"I don't think any of this would have happened without - when I was nine - choosing Rovers. They helped me learn about life, the senior pros; they helped me be a pro, taught me how to be a real one, to communicate with everyone else in a way that is honest."

'Embody the shirt every second of every match'

Holloway took over at Swindon at a time of chaos and free-fall last October

Such was the chaos at Swindon before Holloway arrived he is already their longest serving manager since Ben Garner's 11-month stint ended in 2021, with five more managers in between.

Tensions between fans and the club ownership are still fraught but when Swindon open their League Two account away at Walsall on Saturday he is hopeful that with the right attitude there is plenty more to come from the players.

"What I want is a club where you wear the shirt as if you were a supporter of that badge - all those years, all that love, all that pain, all that heartache because that's what football is," Holloway said.

"These lads will know what wearing this shirt means to me and to the people who support it, and they're going to try and embody that every single second of every single match and I believe we'll have a chance to be a lot better than we have been."