"He is the man" - Prediction made on Ian Holloway's Swindon Town future | OneFootball

The 61-year-old has made a world of difference since being appointed at Town back in October

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Swindon Town have been an upwardly mobile side under the stewardship of Ian Holloway this season, with the former QPR boss working wonders since being appointed at the County Ground.

The 61-year-old was appointed as the Robins’ boss back in October following the sacking of Mark Kennedy, with Town languishing right at the bottom of the EFL after a poor start to the season.

Since then, results have picked up for the fourth tier side, who now find themselves comfortably in mid-table as we head towards the run-in, with the threat of relegation firmly extinguished after a strong run of results.

With that in mind, we asked Football League World’s Swindon fan pundit Ciaran Daniel about Holloway’s future at the football club, and how he can see things panning out for the man in the dugout over the next three years.

Ian Holloway, Swindon Town prediction made as Robins’ boss’ future considered

Since taking over in five months ago, Holloway has overseen a remarkable run of results which has seen Town lose just six times out of the 23 League Two matches he has been in charge for, with nine wins and eight draws in that time.

That is a far cry from the relegation-threatened club he took over last year, who had just two wins from their opening 13 league matches, and looked set for a long, hard season in an EFL basement battle.

With the former Plymouth Argyle boss seeing results take a turn for the better, Daniel is confident that he won’t be going anywhere, anytime soon, but has questioned whether the day-to-day strife of being in the dugout is what Holloway would want over the next few years.

When asked about his club’s manager situation over the next three years, the Town fan said: “I could see Holloway being involved with the football club in three years time, whether that is as manager or as director of football and sitting back as he looks to go into retirement.

“I can see him being involved for quite a while. He lives local to Swindon so it is the most ideal job for him. Obviously, he is 60-odd now and he doesn’t want to be moving around, he has said that himself, and he said when this job came up it was absolutely perfect.

“Three years is a long time in football, and I think next season will be interesting. He will obviously be here next year, and I think he is the man - if anyone is - to get us promoted.

“So I think he will definitely be here for a year, the next two years after that… if he gets us promoted I could see him going back and sitting in a director of football role, because he wants to be involved day-to-day but he also won’t want the pressure of being a manager.

“I think he would offer him that, which would safeguard him in some ways as well. If he is the manager, a couple of bad results and he could be sacked, and he probably doesn’t want that to happen and would maybe want to be involved at the club for a long time.

“So I could maybe see him being manager for the next one or two years, and maybe in the third year going and sitting as a director of football, or maybe being involved with the club in another capacity.”

Swindon Town promotion charge expected under Ian Holloway

Such has been Holloway’s success at the County Ground that Town fans will have plenty of hopes heading into the 25/26 campaign, with their recent form reason to be excited for what the following season could bring.

A return of 1.52 points per game during his time in charge has all the makings of a play-off or promotion chasing side if things stayed as they are going forward, with Daniel among the masses who are optimistic about what the future brings at his club.

He continued: “If the results carry on the way they are going I can’t see him wanting to leave anytime soon. That is what we needed, we needed a manager that is going to be here and while and provide that continuity, because we have changed manager so many times in the last few years.

“This season we changed the manager to get Holloway in, last season I think we changed managers twice. So every season we seem to go through two managers on average over the past three years.

“It is now time to have a manager for a whole season, and I think next season will be the season that will get us promoted. Holloway has proven he can do it, even with a squad that was bottom of the league at one point, so he doesn’t need really big budgets that you have seen at Wrexham, Notts County or MK Dons.

“He just needs to get players in who he believes could take us up, and he is very much a man that will use a full squad, he just needs to be able to get the players in that he wants, and then I think we are in for a good year next year.

“I think he is going to be involved for the next two years, maybe three years, but this could very well be his last job in football, because if he stays here three years he will be looking at retiring after.”

As Daniel has eluded to, Swindon have been a side that have chopped and changed managers at will over the past few years, with the turbulence of matters off the pitch constantly effecting what is happening on it.

Holloway is the sixth different person to try to lead the team from the dugout since the start of the 22/23 season if you include the caretaker spells of Gavin Gunning, and with the success that he has already had in the post, the Town fan is already planning how to commemorate his time in charge.

He added: “To be honest, if he stayed here three years I would be getting a statue made of him, because I think that would make him our longest-serving manager in who knows how long.

“So if he manages to be Swindon manager for another three years, that is an achievement in itself, because no one survives he for too long. Even Paolo Di Canio, when it was going really well, didn’t survive too long.”