Pat Holland

Patrick "Patsy" Holland (born 13 September 1950 in Poplar, London) is an English former footballer who played for West Ham United.

Holland, a midfielder, made 296 appearances for the east London club between 1969 and 1981, including the FA Cup Final in 1975 and the European Cup Winners Cup Final in 1976, where he scored one of West Ham's goals as they went down 4–2 to Anderlecht.

Holland sustained a knee injury in a game against Notts County on 17 January 1981, after which he played reserve team football but never returned to the Hammers first team.

He then joined Leyton Orient as player-coach and later had spells at Queens Park Rangers as reserve team coach, and Orient as youth team coach. In 1988, he became youth and reserve team coach at Tottenham Hotspur. In 1995, he became manager of Leyton Orient, who had just been relegated to Division Three. Despite being heavily backed by the new chairman, Holland presided over what remains the club's lowest-ever league finish in 1995-96, before being sacked in the wake of an awful start to the 1996-97 season.

Holland subsequently coached at Millwall, eventually becoming assistant to Willie Donachie in 2006. Donachie was sacked by Millwall Football Club on Monday 8 October 2007 after a disastrous start to the 2007/08 season, with Millwall at the bottom of the League One table. Holland stayed as Millwall Chief Scout until the beginning of the 2008/09 season when he took up the same position at Milton Keynes Dons.

In July 2009, Holland left his position in Milton Keynes following the departure of manager Roberto Di Matteo to West Bromwich Albion, and subsequent appointment of Paul Ince.

On 22 August 2012, Holland was appointed as the coach of Arsenal's under-18 team.^[2] However, Holland left his post 7 weeks later, citing personal reasons.

References

• Hogg, Tony (2005). Who's Who of West Ham United. Profile Sports Media. p. 100. ISBN 1-903135-50-8.