It’s always nice to hear Ian Holloway express his views openly and honestly. He’s a man of his word, and will probably stick to his guns and resign if the Premier League punish him for selecting a weakened team against Aston Villa.

So let’s hope for Blackpool’s and for football’s sake that the authorities back off. Holloway has every right to pick whatever team he wants. He’s the manager and they’re his players and it’s a worrying sign if an outside body is allowed to dictate who can and can’t play.

 

Any argument that fielding a weaker side gave the opposition an unfair advantage over everybody else would need to look at how well the promoted side performed at Villa.

They lost to a team with aspirations to qualify for Europe in the last minute to a scrappy goal after twice coming back to level, playing some neat football in the process.

And despite making so many changes, they didn’t appear to be disjointed and competed with the same fearless attitude they usually do. It was their naivety to concede so quickly after scoring what cost them, and that’s something their first-choice eleven have been guilty of doing as well.

It’s not like Holloway is going to make wholesale changes in every game and players like Charlie Adam need a break. If there is to be any criticism, then perhaps ten changes are too much but some of the team selections at other clubs are totally perplexing.  

Football needs characters like Holloway and he should be encouraged not castigated for making his own decisions. If the League throws the book at him, effectively stating their intent to interfere with team selection, then they are the ones who should be reprimanded for compromising the integrity of the game.