Ian Holloway sheds light on feud with 'disrespectful' Gary Lineker - 'He was horrible to me'

Barely an inch below his right eye, was sporting the scar from surgery to remove a cancerous spot. But in a surprising volley from the pulpit, it would appear Match of the Day anchor has got under Ollie’s skin - and the wound hasn’t healed.

Lineker is nearing the end of his 26-year stint as sultan of a Saturday night institution, but Holloway is convinced the former England captain has never forgiven him for presiding over his beloved City’s relegation to the third tier back in 2008.

And in his new scattergun memoir, which sprays machine-gun fire across a raft of topics from football to ghosts, UFOs and dog poo, the Swindon Town manager lets rip in all directions.

“Here’s a cat among the pigeons. Gary’s not a nice man in my experience and maybe it was because of my time at Leicester,” says Holloway. "All I know is he was horrible to me and, in my opinion, dismissive and disrespectful.

“While I was at Blackpool, I was invited on Match of the Day but it was obvious Lineker didn’t want me there. He didn’t speak to me once and didn’t even say hello.

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“At the end, I went over and shook his hand and said, ‘Hello - maybe you don’t want to speak to me because of my time at Leicester, but hello Gary, how are you?’ He said, ‘Oh, oh, Ian, it wasn’t like that.’ I said, ‘Yes you were, mate. I knew you were.’

"A few years later I saw Alan Shearer at Wembley and he said, ‘I loved that time when you forced Gary to shake your hand.’ So he could see it, too.”

Holloway insists TV coverage of football demonises referees and in his book he is surprisingly supportive of VAR in principle where most of us would happily throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Again, Lineker is in his firing line. Holding court at the County Ground, he says: “Referees get one split-second to make a decision - only one look at it - but all you hear is people saying how s*** they were from watching Match of the Day.

“I’m sorry, but Gary Lineker and his little crew are making them look even more s*** because they can look at every incident from every angle. If referees had access to all the camera angles that Lineker and his friends have in a studio, they might get more decisions right.

“Nobody has any faith in referees because everyone has watched Match of the Day and Lineker and his pundits would slaughter every ref every Saturday night.

“Do you remember Brian Clough tearing a strip off John Motson on Focus and telling him Jimmy Hill (Lineker’s predecessor as Match of the Day anchor) and the experts were lecturing us too much instead of showing actual football? And here we are, 40 years later, doing exactly the same thing.”

Holloway, now a proud member of English football’s 1,000-game club as a manager, also takes to task for failing to heed striker ’s “stay humble” message.

He was deeply unimpressed by teenager Myles Lewis-Skelly mimicking the Norwegian titan’s yoga meditation goal celebration.

“I doubt if Erling had any clue the reaction his advice would get after City’s 2-2 draw with Arsenal in the 2024/25 season,” said Ollie. "To say it gave Arsenal the hump is an understatement, but what I didn’t like was the way Arsenal behaved in the return match at the Emirates.

“Why was Lewis-Skelly taking the mickey by copying Haaland’s goal celebration? Until you’ve won something, son, I’d advise you just get on with playing football because I wouldn’t have been happy if I was his manager.

“And what is Gabriel doing in Haaland’s face after they scored the first goal? The referee should have booked Gabriel for ungentlemanly conduct.

“When I was growing up, senior pros would never have allowed that Lewis-Skelly celebration to happen because if you did, you’d better be able to back it up with a few winner’s medals in your locker first.

“I think I’m right in saying Lewis-Skelly - who is a fantastic prospect, no argument - has won nothing yet.”

Respect is a key pillar of Holloway’s culture. He was horrified when a posse of his gloating Swindon players surrounded crestfallen Bradford defender Jack Shepherd after the 10-man Bantams defender’s stoppage-time own goal handed the Robins a dramatic 5-4 win last month.

But at 62, he is enjoying a new lease of life in Wiltshire after turning his latest club into a ministry of fun and leading Swindon from rock-bottom of the Football League to a top-half finish.

“This place was feeling a little bit sorry for itself, but we’ve climbed the table and we’ve had a laugh doing it,” he said.

“Football is about enjoyment so we’ve had some fun and I can’t thank the players enough. I’ve only been here six months but we found some consistency and now they’ve extended my contract another three years - happy days.”

Ian Holloway: (Reach Sport, £12.99 hardback) is on sale now.

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