Category: Karl Oyston

Three days to go – one in and still no manager

Saturday’s win over Wolves might have picked us up slightly but there’s a worrying deadline looming.

With no manager at the helm it seems that KO isn’t able to sort out any new players while at the same time making no progress with a manager. It appeared that we could have come out of the situation smelling of roses when Nigel Atkins became available however there’s been no news of talks.

It’s all gone a little quiet on the manager front. Player wise the only new face in is Matt Derbyshire who could make an impact upfront, however his hardly better than any of our current crop of strikers.

It looks like it’s all going to end up being a rush for the deadline on Thursday night with no manager in charge, all very worrying.

The only good point? Tom Ince and Matt Phillips are still with us!

New Blackpool Manager – Part 2

So we find ourselves looking for a new manager again, only a couple of months after Ollie left. The truth for Appleton leaving still isn’t clear, the extra money and contract length can’t have been the only reason for him leaving.

The team seems pretty much in freefall at the moment with the Cup game against Fulham a welcome rest on Tuesday night.

The hunt for a new manager started with Phil Parkinson turning down discussions, the Bradford boss has a League Cup semi final second leg match with Villa to look forward to. Paul Ince doesn’t look like a candidate, this time round as much as last time round. Also there seems little hope for Steve Thompson, if he was to become manager then he would have been confirmed by now?

Sean O’Driscoll was also in the frame until an offer came in from Bristol City, despite the club being in debt and sitting bottom of the league he jumped at the chance and was named manager at Ashton Gate this morning.

The front runner at the time of writing is Peter Houston the current Dundee United manager. His current contract runs out at the end of the season according to the press.

However, it’s only talks and he’s not heard the offer of a one-year-rolling contract which you feel is going to be the only option for any new manager at Blackpool. I can’t see anyone being in place for Tuesday night, things aren’t great at the moment!

Appleton to gamble with transfers?

The turn of the year marked the start of the transfer window which will be Michael Appleton’s first at the club. He brought in Wes Thomas on loan which proved a good signing with 3 goals in 7 appearances, however his time has ended with Thomas returning to Bournemouth. There is a possibility he could return on a further loan.

Another striker looking for a move is DJ Campbell who is no stranger to us, he’s recently bagged 10 in 17 at Ipswich who have made an offer to the QPR man. However with QPR in all sorts of trouble Harry Redknapp might see DJ fitting in at Loftus Road.

At the moment the two above are the only two names that spring to mind. It will be interesting to see what Appleton’s transfer strategy is like. Ollie in the past admitted that he used agent’s videos and once his wife picked out a transfer target from watching a video clip. Ollie’s transfer activity could be seen as similar to playing online casino games, putting out lots of bets on many players and hoping “one or two come good”. The evidence seen by our huge squad.

As for Appleton’s approach it’s hard to tell from his previous managerial job at Portsmouth, under difficult circumstances he had to bring in a new team this summer. Ten arrived at once.

  • Kieran Djilali – 21-year-old winger, most recently at AFC Wimbledon – 1 match played – Recently released
  • Mustapha Dumbuya – 25-year-old right-back, left Doncaster in summer – 21 matches played
  • Jon Harley – 32-year-old former Chelsea left-back, left Notts County in summer – 23 matches played – 1 goal
  • Brian Howard – 29-year-old midfielder most recently at Reading. Will be Pompey captain – 23 matches played
  • Izale McLeod – 27-year-old striker who left Barnet this summer – 23 matches played – 10 goals
  • Lee Williamson – 30-year-old midfielder, formerly of Sheffield United – 18 matches played
  • Simon Eastwood – 23-year-old goalkeeper who played in the Plymouth defeat – 6 matches played
  • Jack Compton – 23-year-old midfielder who left Falkirk in the summer – 7 matches played
  • Luke Rodgers – 30-year-old former Lillestrom striker – 6 matches played – 2 goals – Loaned out to Shrewsbury
  • Liam Walker – 24-year-old midfielder who played for Spanish side San Roque last season – 5 matches played.

He also brought in four loan players at once.

  • Mikkel Andersen – 23-year-old keeper (Reading) – 18 matches played
  • Conor Clifford – 20-year-old midfielder (Chelsea) – 2 matches played – 1 goal
  • Paul Connolly – 28-year-old defender (Leeds United) – 4 matches played
  • Kevin Long – 22-year-old defender (Burnley) – 5 matches played

So a bit of a mixed bag but of couple of good signing in McLeod, Howard, Harley and Dumbuya, also Wes Thomas who scored 3 in 6 on loan earlier this year.  However some questionable purchases e.g. Luke Rodgers who had played abroad and since been loaned out.

We’ll have to wait and see what happens in the next month and what the strategy is, but be sure that KO will have some say on the matter. It’s possible that there will be minimal movement until the futures of Alex Baptiste and Tom Ince are sorted. Once resolved that could spark activity.

End of the glory years as Holloway departs?

Being a Seasider over the last few years has been pretty good, promotions, great players, entertaining football, improved facilities (just). The original work put in by Simon Grayson to get us to the Championship was continued by Ian Holloway taking us to the top flight. A great season in the top flight followed but ended in disappointment.

Ollie left for Crystal Palace yesterday which could mark the end of the era of success. In his column with the Mirror he mentioned that his wage at Blackpool was low for a Championship manager considering his performance over the past three years. It was also interesting to hear him explain that the football ambition of the powers that be at Palace were a big draw, a dig at the lack of passion that KO shows?

Ollie goes with my well wishes but has somewhat left us in a bit of a state. The confidence has gone from the players, our form has almost hit rock bottom with it hard to see where our next win comes from.

As for the new manager its most likely Steve Thompson will be appointed, he’s put his cap into the ring already and you can see it being an easy and cheap decision for KO to take. Worryingly, what manager would want to come in, they wont get paid amazingly, it would be a 12 month rolling contract, little money to spent and a huge squad to try to keep happy, oh and expectations of promotion this season, those expectations are starting to change.

Karl Oyston Steps down

Well, Karl Oyston has stepped down as chairman something he said he was going to do in the last few weeks. They’ll be lots of blogs, comments, articles etc about why he’s gone, what this means for the club.  For me it’s important to remember what he has done. As much as he frustrated us with policies over the years things have improved at the club.

He took over on the 3rd April 1999, we lost to Walsall 2-0 that afternoon. The season after we were relegated but ever since then it’s been a upturn in fortunes.

  • Football League Trophy winners 2002, 2004
  • 2000—01 (Division 3 to Division 2);
  • 2006—07 (League One to The Championship);
  • 2009—2010 (The Championship to the Premier League)
  • New Stadium with 3 sides – a fourth almost complete.
  • Avoided administration (29 clubs have gone into admin since 1999)
  • Avoided the problems of the ITV Digital collapse.
  • Kept the club in a good financial health compared to many
  • Six managers – Nigel Worthington, Steve McMahon, Colin Hendry, Simon Grayson, Tony Parkes and Ian Holloway. E.g. not trigger happy and apart from Hendry all good appointments.
  • Managed to grow teams over the years without paying out vast amounts of cash to football agents.

Not a bad list of achievements, considering other clubs such as Derby, Hull, Cardiff, Chester and Leeds have had irresponsible chairmen we’ve been very fortunate to have Karl in charge.

So, big thanks to Karl and I wait with anticipation our next Chairman.

Another match off?

It’s 2:17 in the morning and I can’t sleep. I’m not sure if thats due to me sleeping half of today or the excitement that a Blackpool home game may be going ahead tomorrow after two matches being called off.

After the two matches fell foul of the cold weather we seem to have borrowed some sheets to cover the pitch, the webcam caught the sheets in action, there wasn’t a big announcement about them on the website unlike Fleetwood Town who ranted on about them paying 15k for the covers.

So why have we only go them in time for the Ipswich match? Keano

roy keane

I’m sure Oyston wouldn’t want to occur the wrath of Roy. But it’s currently -3 outside and those sheets don’t look that thick!

Goodbye Tony Parkes

So Tony Parkes spell as Blackpool manager has come to an end with him being unable to agree terms with Karl Oyston. It’s a shame that Oyston’s penny pinching has meant he’s had to left the club. He did really well to pick up half a team, rebuild mid season and secure safety with a game to go.

tony-parkes

It now leaves us with no manager but with interviews this week it looks like we’ll be getting a new manager sooner rather than later. Names in the hat so far are nothing special Gary Brabin, Alan Knill, Ian Holloway to name a few… it’s going to be an interesting couple of days.

Blackpool – 23-12-2008 – Present – Games 23 Won – 6 Lost – 8 Drawn – 9

Time for a Manager

It seems it’s time to get a manager in after yesterday’s 2-0 defeat to Watford. Tony Parkes named the same team that went down midweek to Derby 4-1. For me Ormerod should have started ahead of O’Donavan with Gary Talyor-Fletcher moving to the right wing and Paul Rachubka replacing Gilks who’s conceded 10 goals in four starts.

picture-4

Parkes spell in charge has seen us pick up 9 points from a possible 33, thats from two wins and 3 draws. Unfortunately were not going to get a new manager as Oyston will leave it as long as possible not to get a manager in as it saves him a wage. We’re currently 5 points clear of Norwich who come to Bloomfield Road in March. It’s going to be tight.

Blackpool FC Ticket rises

Over the past two weeks there has been loads of post about the Blackpool FC ticket rises on AVFTT, Vital and the Seasiders mailing list. The main point is that the 30% rise in a season ticket for some is a bit too much for the pocket to take. With the Bank of England today announcing that the cost of living is set to continue to rise the increase in prices has upset many.

Fans have reacted very angrily, some will boycott, some may only go the select games and one on the Seasiders mailing list is considering going to watch Manchester City. It’s such a pity to see after a great season fans being treat like crap.

It’s not surprising really that we have been treated like this, it may be a way of reducing the number of fans at the match thus to not have the problem of selling out in every match

One picture sums it up, it was posted on the Seasiders mailing list.

oyston out gravestone