John Hollins

Did You Know?

• Hollins was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to football in the 1982 Birthday Honours.
• He made an anti-smoking television commercial in 1982 as part of a Government campaign called Look After Yourself.
• His son, Chris, was the main sports presenter on BBC Breakfast between 2005 and 2012.

Playing career

Hollins was born in Guildford, Surrey, into a footballing family; his father, grandfather and three brothers were all professional footballers, and one brother, Dave, played for Wales. He joined Chelsea as a youth and made his debut against Swindon Town in September 1963 at age 17. A hard-running midfielder usually wearing the number 4 shirt, he became a regular and later club captain. In his first spell at Chelsea he played 592 games and scored 69 goals, appearing in 400 of 420 league matches over a decade and setting a club record of 167 consecutive appearances.

He played in the 1965 League Cup final first leg (a 3–2 aggregate win over Leicester City) and the 1967 FA Cup final loss to Tottenham. In the 1970 FA Cup final against Leeds United, he supplied the cross for Ian Hutchinson's late headed equaliser at Wembley; Chelsea won the replay 2–1 at Old Trafford. The following year Chelsea won the Cup Winners' Cup in Athens against Real Madrid after a replay, though Hollins missed the second match due to injury.

He was Chelsea's player of the year two years running and earned his only England cap against Spain on 24 May 1967. His most prolific goalscoring season was 1971–72, with 17 goals. Chelsea reached another League Cup final in 1972, losing to Stoke City, but declined thereafter; Hollins stayed until relegation to the Second Division at the end of 1974–75, when he was sold to Queens Park Rangers. He signed for QPR in June 1975 for £80,000, reuniting with former Chelsea manager Dave Sexton.

Over four seasons he played 183 matches; in his first season QPR finished second in the First Division, one point behind Liverpool.

Managerial career

Hollins was immediately appointed coach at Chelsea and became first-team manager a year later after John Neal's retirement. In 1985–86 Chelsea built a strong title challenge, going top in February, but finished sixth after taking nine points from their final 11 games. That season Chelsea won the inaugural Full Members Cup, beating Manchester City 5–4 at Wembley after leading 5–1. Hollins was sacked in March 1988 with the club on a four-month league winless run that ended in relegation via the first two-leg play-offs against Middlesbrough.

After leaving Chelsea in February 1989 he came out of retirement to sign for Irish club Cobh Ramblers, playing one league game before returning to England. He set up a sports promotion and agency company, then joined QPR's coaching staff in 1993 and served as caretaker manager between Stewart Houston's dismissal and Ray Harford's appointment in 1997–98. He later managed Swansea City, Rochdale and served as caretaker-manager of Stockport County, then managed Stockport's Chinese affiliate Stockport Tiger Star before becoming a pundit for BBC Radio 5 Live.

At Swansea he guided the club to the Division Three title in 1999–2000 but was sacked after they failed to sustain themselves in Division Two. He steered Rochdale into the play-offs in 2001–02 but was sacked by fax that summer after prevaricating over a new contract. He spent a short time as assistant manager at Raith Rovers in 2004 under Claude Anelka, resigning after disagreements over tactics and team selection. On 23 November 2005 he became manager of Conference National side Crawley Town, remaining through a financial crisis that saw a ten-point deduction for going into administration, and left on 30 October 2006 after a defeat to Lewes in the FA Cup final qualifying round. In 2007 he re-applied for the Swansea City manager's job but did not get it; the position went to Roberto Martínez.