The 47-year-old claimed the summer after winning a stunning promotion to the Premier League via the play-offs was the worst time he has experienced in his career as he struggled to bring in signings for the new campaign. Blackpool have since enjoyed an impressive start to the season, which has seen them defy the critics who had them relegated before a ball was kicked to take 10 points from their opening nine games ahead of Monday night's visit of West Brom. A host of the players who have played pivotal parts in that start, though, have been linked with more lucrative moves away from Bloomfield Road in January. Captain Charlie Adam, whose dispute with the club over unpaid bonuses he says he is owed is set to be decided by a Premier League arbitration court next week, is their most sought-after asset, while the likes of key trio David Vaughan, Stephen Crainey and Matt Gilks are all free to negotiate moves elsewhere from January as their contacts expire next summer. Holloway, though, knows nothing can compare to the difficulties he faced less than six months ago. "I don't think anything will ever be as hard as last summer and you'd have thought we'd have had the best time ever," said Holloway. "It was the worst time I've ever known and I don't want to ever face that again. "The realisation of what other people are paying was a huge shock to us. The realisation of what people will want to come to Blackpool knowing that 'oh they're going to be the laughing stock, they're going to be the whipping boys, they won't even get 10 points for the whole season'. "Other people were thinking that so the amount of money they might have wanted was exaggerated. I just thought the chairman's head was going to come right off. "But we all managed to end up bringing in some really good players who'll keep improving and the club will then improve. "Because this club is more important than me, the players, the chairman, anybody." Despite the difficulties, it appears Holloway would rather have it this way than be handed limitless funds by wealthy new owners, claiming many coming into the game know nothing about football. "I want Blackpool to thrive, I want Blackpool and its history to keep getting stronger and better," he added. "And that's the only job you can do in this game. And you do it by signing players for a little bit of money, making them play so they're worth a lot of money and then selling them on. "Unless someone takes over your club with millions and billions of pounds and then you'll probably be out of a job if you don't win every week anyway. Because they're so uneducated about how football works that they expect you to win because they've given you a big wedge. It doesn't work that way."
