Play-off winning ex-Blackpool boss Ian Holloway hoping to get a foot through the door

But the 60-year-old former Bloomfield Road chief admits that it's proving difficult to find a way back in.

The Wembley winner, who guided both the Seasiders and Crystal Palace to the Premier League via the play-offs, has now been out of work for two-and-a-half years.

The two-time QPR coach, who lifted the Hoops out of the EFL's basement tier, feels as though he's been overlooked since his exit from Grimsby Town during the pandemic.

He said: “We’ve done it for so long for a reason, because we’re alright at it. It’s tough. Most of the time it’s the right person in the right place, sometimes it doesn’t work.

“It’s a bit like players, sometimes they go somewhere and don’t hit it off but they go somewhere else and they’re brilliant.

"You look at Charlie Adam at Rangers and it didn’t happen for him but for us he was a star and was wanted elsewhere."

Despite clocking up nearly 1,000 league games in the dugout, and more than 350 victories, all roads continuously lead to cul-de-sacs as owners plump for up-and-comers rather than experience.

“Unfortunately the young ones these days, it looks great but when it goes wrong they haven’t got any experience to pull on,” continued Holloway.

“You look at Patrick Vieira, who was really unlucky in a way, he looked like he was great in his first season but at the end of the day it’s about keeping the squad moving and turning over.

“It’s a strange old life. You’re trying to organise chaos and don’t even forget that. Look at Chelsea, they’ve been chaotic.

"They get a new owner who throws his money around and they get worse. How can that be when you spend billions of pounds? But that’s football.”

However, the perils and peculiarities of today’s game, coupled by his frustrations of finding another opportunity, simply remind him just how good he had it during May 2009 and November 2012.

He concluded: “It just reminds me how brilliant the community is up there. For me, that’s what made my team do well. It was the love and support the fans gave us, the songs they would sing, this is the best trip, it was just superb.”