John Hollins playing for QPR in 1975
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Personal information | |||
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Full name | John William Hollins | ||
Date of birth | 16 July 1946 | ||
Place of birth | Guildford, Surrey, England | ||
Height | 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) | ||
Playing position | full back, midfielder | ||
Youth career | |||
1961–1963 | Chelsea | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
1963–1975 | Chelsea | 436 | (47) |
1975–1979 | Queens Park Rangers | 151 | (6) |
1979–1983 | Arsenal | 127 | (9) |
1983–1984 | Chelsea | 29 | (1) |
1989 | Cobh Ramblers | 1 | (0) |
Total | 744 | (63) | |
National team | |||
1967 | England | 1 | (0) |
Teams managed | |||
1985–1988 | Chelsea | ||
1997 | Queens Park Rangers (caretaker) | ||
1998–2001 | Swansea City | ||
2001–2002 | Rochdale | ||
2003 | (caretaker) | ||
2004 | Stockport Tiger Star | ||
2005–2006 | Crawley Town | ||
2008 | Weymouth | ||
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
John William Hollins MBE (born 16 July 1946) is an English retired footballer and manager. He was initially a midfielder who, later in his career, became an effective full back. Hollins, throughout his footballing career, featured for clubs such as Chelsea, Queens Park Rangers, Swansea City and Arsenal F.C..
Born in Guildford, Surrey, Hollins was born into a footballing family – his father, grandfather and three brothers were all professional footballers as well. One of those siblings, Dave, played international football for Wales.
He joined Chelsea as a youth player and made his debut for the Blues against Swindon Town in September 1963 aged only 17. A talented and hard-running midfielder, usually wearing the number 4 shirt, he was known for his dedicated attitude to the game and went on to become a regular and eventually club captain. Hollins played 592 games, and scored 69 goals in his first spell at Chelsea, and was part of the successful Chelsea sides of the mid-1960s and early 1970s, at one point making 167 consecutive appearances, a club record.
Hollins played in both legs of the 3–2 aggregate victory over Leicester City in League Cup final in 1965 and the loss to Tottenham in the FA Cup final two years later. In 1970, he played a significant part in Chelsea's hard-fought FA Cup final win over Leeds United, supplying the cross for Ian Hutchinson's late headed equaliser at Wembley. Chelsea eventually won 2–1 in the replay at Old Trafford. They won the Cup Winners' Cup in Athens against Real Madrid a year later, again after a replay, but Hollins missed the second match due to an injury. He was Chelsea's player of the year two years running. While at Chelsea, he also won a solitary England cap, against Spain, on 24 May 1967.