Ian Holloway insists he has no intention of walking out on Blackpool to manage another club.
The Seasiders have been on a remarkable journey under Holloway, winning promotion to the Barclays Premier League for the first time via the Championship play-offs last May and then doing enough this season to be above the relegation zone with three games left to play, albeit on goal difference alone.
It has earned the 48-year-old many admirers and reports have suggested he could be a potential summer target for West Ham. Holloway has vowed never to repeat the mistake he made by leaving Plymouth in 2007 for an ill-fated spell at Leicester. "I had a contract at Plymouth, I walked out on it and I will never do that again," he said.
"I've got a contract here for this year and next year and I'm delighted and very proud to be a very small part of a magnificent football club. I saw it again the other evening, the statue we have outside now of Jimmy Armfield - this is an amazing club with an amazing history, and I like to feel that I have added to that."
Holloway insists his future at Bloomfield Road will be determined by Blackpool chairman Karl Oyston. "I've got a great relationship with my chairman, who will choose when I'm not here anymore," Holloway said. "I wouldn't have signed my contract for the length that I did if I wasn't totally intent on seeing it through."
Asked what would happen if he were to be headhunted by another club, Holloway said: "It would be nothing to do with me - my chairman would have to say 'these people want you, I don't want you anymore and you can go.'
"If he doesn't want me to go then I would be happy to sit with him and discuss the length of a contract. Football isn't how it used to be, but this football club is and that is what I love about it. Every day I've been at this football club I've tried to treasure it and polish the badge, and I haven't finished polishing yet.
"I was polishing Plymouth and I decided to leave that. I never explained why and I hate to say it, but I was wrong. I'm sorry for that and I'm sorry to Leicester for letting them down. I'm certainly never, ever going to bite the hand that feeds me. I make mistakes once and learn from them, and that is what I have done."
Oyston has already made it clear he wants to keep Holloway on as manager whether Blackpool stay up or not, and he feels that should the club fail to beat the drop, they will be in a good position to push for promotion again.
"I think we've got a really good, positive manager, who has an eye for talent and can get the best out of people," Oyston told the Blackpool Gazette.
Source: PA
