Blackpool boss Ian Holloway was in no doubt that Paul Jewell is the man to turn Town around after Saturday’s 2-2 draw at Portman Road. In a wide-ranging and typically entertaining post-match press conference, the Tangerines chief also defended Jewell against last week’s allegations of sexism.
Holloway said: "I think he’s a fantastic manager, always has been, always will be, and I think he’s got a fantastic owner, who is very similar to mine. They don’t want to be seen to be caught up in this football nonsense. He realises the size of this club.
"Paul Jewell is the man to put Ipswich right, absolutely, all day long. I had a word with him this morning to make sure he was keeping his pecker up because it does get you down sometimes. I came down and had a cup of tea with him.”
The Bristolian hit out at the sexism accusations made in the wake of Jewell’s criticism of assistant Amy Fearn at Birmingham on Wednesday: "Regarding that nonsense the other night, I could not say in any stronger terms that it’s nonsense.
"The fella isn’t like that at all. I know him, he’s a fiercely competitive. We had a big chat about that beforehand.
"He’s a fantastic fella, who when I was on a course with him once, one of the other fellas on the course, I won’t say who, [Jewell] said if you speak to that lady like that again, I’m going to have to… because we’d all had a couple of drinks.
"The fella carried on and did it and he wrestled him off his chair, and he meant it. He made him apologise.
"Jewelly wouldn’t do that, not deliberately, not in a million years and it’s all getting a bit nonsensical, if you ask me.”
Holloway is well aware that football has changed and feels further changes need to be made: "It used to be a man’s game, it isn’t now, it belongs to everybody in the world, women as well. Let’s get it right, [officials] are human, they will make mistakes.
"Whatever gender they are, it doesn’t matter, give them the information to get the decisions right. Give them the information we’re judging them on and they’ll get it right.
"Instead of the fourth official blabbering at me all the time and me saying ‘Did you see that, why haven’t we got a penalty?’ sit him in the dug-out and let him have a five-second delay [to watch the video] and be able to say, ‘That is a penalty’. They’ll get it right. Make the ones who have retired sit in there.”
Having jokingly expressed a desire to have Sepp Blatter’s FIFA job one day - "I’d love to that, I’d be cushdy for the rest of my life, have my finger in every pie!” — Holloway ruminated on Town’s current position and life in the Premier League: "At the end of the day you might not be quite as famous here as you used to be. You’ve got some wonderful statues, some wonderful people to revere, Sir Bobby Robson himself.
"But life ain’t all like that. Wherever you are now, you have to deal with that and your players have to deal with that and your supporters have to deal with that.
"We’re little Blackpool, this year I’m under a bit of pressure from my lot to get them back to that wonderful land [the Premier League].
"But is it really wonderful when all those bigwigs get bigger all the times and smack the little ones down, you never get a right decision and they get richer and richer all the time? Is it really that wonderful? But we need the money to survive.
"For me, part of the world’s gone crazy. But today, let’s be honest, it was a great game of football. We were put to the sword almost, went two goals down, and then we managed to come back with some fantastic players off the bench. That’s what you need.”
Holloway had particular praise for Elliot Grandin, who scored one and created the other after coming on, having almost left the club last week for personal reasons: "He's split up with his wife and his young boy's over there [in France]. He wants to go home and over the last two days it looked like he might be off.
"But the French team that wanted him couldn't come up with the money we were asking. He came to me today and said he felt they should come up with the money and if they don’t it’s not right and that he’s more than happy to keep playing for me. I thought he was absolutely fantastic and speaks volumes for him as a person.
"Sometimes we write things and say things about footballers and don’t realise that they are actually human, that their families can mean an awful lot to them. I just thank him for today, I thought he was absolutely fantastic.”
He believed another of those substitutes, Gary Taylor-Fletcher, ought to have been given a penalty: "Absolutely stonewall! Fletch would not fall over, not when the ball’s actually bobbled our way for the first time in the whole game and he’s clean through and he’s going to slot that in. Someone tripped him up. No way would he have done that.
"I went and sat with the Ipswich fans because [the fourth official] was telling me to calm down. We had a bit of banter, they shouted ‘offside, offside, offside’ so many times that I thought his arm was almost voice-controlled on that line! The Ipswich fans are fantastic. How many of them are there compared to our lot?
"I’m sick and fed up of it, week-in, week-out we seem to get the dregs [of the decisions]. But, let’s get back to it, Ipswich deserved something. The way it’s going, that might just turn it round for them and who’s to say where they’re going to finish.”
The one-time Bristol Rovers, QPR, Plymouth and Leicester manager says he has no plans to make a renewed move for summer target Jason Scotland: "He’s in their team now and they’d be mad to let him go so I probably won’t waste my time ringing up about him. The wages he’s on we can’t afford anyway at the moment.”
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