Kidd praises Blackpool boss

Manchester City assistant manager Brain Kidd believes Ian Holloway should be the manager of the season ahead of Blackpool’s visit to Eastlands on Saturday.

Holloway has led the Seasiders to eighth after be written off as relegation fodder at the start of the season following their promotion from the Championship.

“If Ollie keeps them in Premier League, he’s got to be manager of the season,” said Kidd.

“I think they only had nine players at the start of the season. The owner and the staff have been very good and the players have been brilliant.

They’ve been tremendous after everybody wrote them off.

“We had a severe examination at Bloomfield Road where we managed to win. It was a hard-fought victory that day and they’ve gone on from strength to strength.”

Kidd was speaking in the absence of manager Roberto Mancini, whom he said had “one or two business things to clear up,” adding to rumours a deal was being finalised for Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko.

And while Kidd played down the situation concerning Dzeko, he did not rule out that Mancini could bring in fresh faces in January.

“At the moment it’s just speculation. The window hasn’t opened. No buy, no sell. I don’t think it’s right to speak about players at other clubs.

“We’ll explore every option and every avenue. We need to look at the right players and the positions.”

“If he (Mancini) feels we can improve the squad and there’s a player available we’ll explore that. We know we’re not the finished article.”

Kidd also praised the way the squad have rallied around Italian forward Mario Balotelli, who has been suffering from home sickness.

“The players have been very good with Mario. There’s an empathy and they can understand that it’s not easy,” he added.

“Mario’s worked hard in training and the boss knows him very well. He got a hat-trick the other day and you can see the response of the lads – every man went up to him and was genuinely pleased for him.

“He’s certainly a talented lad. Technically, he’s a very talented boy.”