Holloway blasts Villa, Houllier

Blackpool boss Ian Holloway has launched a scathing attack on Aston Villa, declaring the club ‘not good enough’ for Charlie Adam.

Holloway, speaking after the Tangerines’ 3-2 loss at West Bromwich Albion on Saturday, bristled when asked about Adam, who has been the target of two rejected transfer bids from Villa Park.

Villa manager Gerard Houllier has spoken openly of his interest in snaring the Blackpool captain, who has 18 months remaining on his contract at Bloomfield Road.

But Holloway has ridiculed Houllier’s attempts to poach Adam, saying it would be a career mistake for the 25-year-old to move to the West Midlands club.

“You’ve got every right to ask me the question, but Mr Houllier should not talk about someone else’s player when he hasn’t put up enough money to buy him,” Holloway told Sky Sports.

“Will I honestly sell him (Adam) to Aston Villa? The answer is no because I am managing his career.”

“I’ve told him where I think he’s good enough to go and again today I think he’s hit the best pass I’ve ever seen in my life.”

“If there’s anybody in the Premier League who can hit a pass like that, how much are they worth?”

“So don’t insult me by talking about my players.”

“Don’t talk about my player and I got the raving hump about it because it’s not etiquette and it’s wrong.”

Holloway was full of praise for West Brom after Saturday’s seesawing encounter, which saw Blackpool take the early lead on David Vaughan’s goal but fall behind 2-1 on strikes to Peter Odemwingie and James Morrison.

Gary Taylor-Fletcher restored parity in the 80th minute but Odemwingie sealed the match three minutes from time with his second brace of the season.

“(It was) two good teams having a go at each other and it could have been 6-5 but unfortunately we’ve come out on the wrong end of it,” Holloway said.

“Again my lads keep going and keep doing things which please me but we weren’t able to capitalise on the great start we made and the nerves that were flying about for their team.”

“But well done to them (West Brom) for climbing back in it and eventually going onto to win it.”

Baggies boss Roberto Di Matteo was delighted with the performance of his charges on Saturday, who rebounded from Vaughan’s 11th-minute strike to end a run of five consecutive losses.

“We have never questioned the spirit of the team,” he said.

“Every game we have we create chances and sometimes we don’t convert them and you need some luck sometimes and I think we deserved that because we really wanted this win and the desire came through in the end.”

“We had to climb a mountain again and we showed we are capable of doing that.”