Former Bristol City manager Dean Holden has spoken about how Covid prevented him from implementing his coaching strategies at the club, the impact of injuries and his belief he had the Robins on the right track.
Following four years as assistant to Lee Johnson at Ashton Gate, Holden was handed the role of caretaker head coach in July 2020 following the former's sacking. He immediately turned around City's form by ending a nine-game run without a victory and lost just once in their final five matches of the season.
Holden was then offered the role on a 12-month rolling contract where they started the following campaign on fire, winning their opening four consecutive matches. His tenure lasted until February when Steve Lansdown decided to seek a replacement following a run of six successive defeats.
City were 13th at the time of Holden's sacking and seven points adrift of the playoffs. He doesn't make excuses for the poor run of form but believes City were still very much on for a successful season having been hamstrung by an awful injury record.
That included Andi Weimann who suffered an ACL injury in October, Alfie Mawson who underwent knee surgery following a bright start to his Robins career on loan from Fulham and Nathan Baker who missed a large chunk of the season with a hamstring injury. Jay Dasilva also missed five months of action.
Speaking on The Total Football Analysis Podcast, Holden shed light on this time as the main man in the dugout at City. As his second managerial position following his 15 games with Oldham five years prior, Holden also spoke about the challenges of managing the club at the height of Covid.
He said: "It's about keeping the ship rolling and navigating the bumps in the road along the way. Which I think leads to a successful season which I think we were on by the way at Bristol City but who am I to say after losing my job?
"We were 13th in the Championship, seven points off the playoffs and actually we were in joint-seventh on points. We'd lost five games on the spin and as is the case these days, five days on the spin leads to (sacking).
"Someone sent me a fascinating fact. It's not excuses it's just facts but every matchday squad, I think 35 league games or whatever it was... every match squad I had an average of eight first-team injuries. That was an average and it peaked at 17 players.
"Clearly there was a conditioning issue from the season before. It was a very short turnaround though with Covid and I think a lot of teams had issues. I had total belief behind the scenes in the way that we worked.
"It's about the process for me, not about the result on a Saturday. You get the processes right and stick to your principles, keep your environment as high-performance as possible."
Holden also spoke of his intention to bring in external staff members who could help benefit the team on a psychological level. He wanted to use and channel his own experience which helped him following the passing of his daughter in 2012.
"It was really hard because our performance director was with the EFL to drive forward all the protocols with Covid," he added. "This was the time when people generally thought they were going to die, right in the heart of it.
"We were following it and I found out since that maybe some other clubs weren't following the rules stringently. Aside from travelling on two coaches to an away game and everybody sitting in the wrong room in an isolated hotel, (there was) none of the bonding.
"I wanted to bring yoga instructors in, I wanted to bring psychotherapists in, meditation experts, (motivational speaker) Wim Hof - all the stuff I've done which has kept me on an even keel obviously with the tragedy I went through with my daughter, I truly believe in it.
"It's science whether people believe in it is down to them but it does work and I really wanted to create this slightly different environment around football. Lansdown was in Guernsey with Covid and I wasn't able to generate... I'm a connector.
"I like to get to know people and mix with people, not necessarily with the owner but show understanding, care and support and I wasn't able to do that because it was all zoom but we had to accept that."
Holden, who is looking for work after leaving Stoke City following the sacking of Michael O'Neil earlier in the season, admitted he spoke to Lansdown around six months after his time at City came to an end and insinuated he could have been a victim of his own early success.
He said: "I knew speaking to players in the 18 months since I lost my job and nicely for me, a lot of them have gone on social media and said some good things about the way we worked and that for me, cements my beliefs that... you know we were seven points out of the playoffs, 13th in the Championship.
"The owner Steve spoke to me about six months after the sacking, a lot of which will stay private but he did say I'd almost had too good a start which I was quite staggered at really, I mean how can you have too good a start?
"We came out of the traps and were flying. We were playing fantastic but through the Christmas period, it took its toll with injuries and stuff.
"People were coming to me and saying you were being too honest in interviews with injuries. I was just trying to say those guys will be back eventually we keep the train moving.
"I wouldn't have changed much. Although I did do a two-page dossier chronologically from the day I got the job to the day I lost my job in terms of staff I brought in, players, tactics - every single thing I went through there was so many mistakes - I was surprised I didn't get sacked earlier!
"But crucially there's so much belief that I took from that time where I knew we were on track, know we would have been fine and knew we could have progressed."
Holden has been linked with various managerial vacancies including Blackpool and most recently Exeter as he looks to step back into the dugout.
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