For the first time this season, I'm unsure

[BFC_BFC_BFC]

I respect your views and opinions. I don‘t agree with them all but I’m not surprised by any of your comments. I still say that Appleton wasn’t all bad and I was just trying to provide some balance into the discussion. Like some of the other regular contributors on here it Is black and white and you find it impossible to give Appleton credit for anything whilst he was at Blackpool. Let me say again, I didn’t think Appleton was a good appointment to replace Critch and based on recent results I can fully understand why he was sacked, my main issue was timing, which was in the middle of a transfer window and just one week after a great win against Forest. I think Blackpool were already into the recruitment process of replacing Appleton before the Watford game and Appleton may have been aware of this from the many contacts he has in the game, which may explain his demeanour at Watford. In fact I would go as far to say that Appleton would have been sacked even if we had won at Watford and performed very well.
I do think the weight of the captaincy affected Ekpiteta’s performances and since Appleton gave the captaincy to Madine both of these players recent performances have improved. I probably need to add this to Appleton’s Top 10 list of achievements.
Appleton before he joined Blackpool was a well respected Manager at Lincoln & Oxford and Coach at WBA & Leicester. He has great references and can count on support from Alex Ferguson, Roy Hodgson, Craig Shakespeare and Dan Ashworth. He has strong connections with lots of Clubs including many Premier League clubs and a good reputation for developing young talented players which is why we have seen the likes of Patino, Fiorini, Rogers, Poveda, Williams and Theo coming on loan from Premier League Clubs this season. Appleton likes to play an attacking style of football using the whole width of the pitch and focussing on individual skill and moving the ball quickly. We perhaps didn’t get to see the best of Appleton as he never had the opportunity to play his strongest team and integrate the 4 very good players who had joined in the Jan window into his starting X1. I am sure Appleton will soon get another job in football.

All those connections and such a great reputation, yet his record, as an actual manager, in the Championship is as dogshit as they come.

That’s the bottom line…

 

[Wizaard]

Wiz. What are you on about?
Bifster explained it in words of one syllable and its not like its not been done before.
You don't put injured players in the squad but if you think you will want them you leave a space.
If they don't get fit you bring someone else in.
The ones that aren't included will be fringe players anyway.
It happened with Gary and CJ last season.

The situation I forecast has already happened. We leave a space for Keshi to come back in and he instantly breaks. To leave that space, we would have left out a fit, albeit fringe player.

 

[Ball on Fire]

All those connections and such a great reputation, yet his record, as an actual manager, in the Championship is as dogshit as they come.

Yes I agree Appleton’s 1 point a game average in the Championship before he became Blackpool Manager was a concern. However these situations can quickly change and the BFC Board were obviously impressed as they gave Appleton a 4 year contract, Karl Oyston, first time time around, only gave Appleton a 12 month rolling contract. I remind you that Critch was a complete unknown and was appointed with no Club management experience and having never worked at League 1 or indeed Championship level. We have now appointed Mick McCarthy in mid Jan who has been out of work for 15 months after being sacked by Championship club Cardiff City following 8 consecutive defeats, you couldn’t make it up.

 

[BFC_BFC_BFC]

Yes I agree Appleton’s 1 point a game average in the Championship before he became Blackpool Manager was a concern. However these situations can quickly change and the BFC Board were obviously impressed as they gave Appleton a 4 year contract, Karl Oyston, first time time around, only gave Appleton a 12 month rolling contract. I remind you that Critch was a complete unknown and was appointed with no Club management experience and having never worked at League 1 or indeed Championship level. We have now appointed Mick McCarthy in mid Jan who has been out of work for 15 months after being sacked by Championship club Cardiff City following 8 consecutive defeats, you couldn’t make it up.

Im not entirely sure what your point is?

Appleton was a shit manager for us …

McCarthy’s success or failure will be judged on his results surely, just like Critchley’s time with us should be judged on his results….

Excuses are just excuses and Appleton seemed to have more than most.

 

[Ormergod]

Mick was just asked on Radio Lancs whether it was a no brainer to go and sign Nelson when he became available and Mick answered that that deal was "already ongoing before I arrived here".

 

[Thatseasider]

I respect your views and opinions. I don‘t agree with them all but I’m not surprised by any of your comments. I still say that Appleton wasn’t all bad and I was just trying to provide some balance into the discussion. Like some of the other regular contributors on here it Is black and white and you find it impossible to give Appleton credit for anything whilst he was at Blackpool. Let me say again, I didn’t think Appleton was a good appointment to replace Critch and based on recent results I can fully understand why he was sacked, my main issue was timing, which was in the middle of a transfer window and just one week after a great win against Forest. I think Blackpool were already into the recruitment process of replacing Appleton before the Watford game and Appleton may have been aware of this from the many contacts he has in the game, which may explain his demeanour at Watford. In fact I would go as far to say that Appleton would have been sacked even if we had won at Watford and performed very well.
I do think the weight of the captaincy affected Ekpiteta’s performances and since Appleton gave the captaincy to Madine both of these players recent performances have improved. I probably need to add this to Appleton’s Top 10 list of achievements.
Appleton before he joined Blackpool was a well respected Manager at Lincoln & Oxford and Coach at WBA & Leicester. He has great references and can count on support from Alex Ferguson, Roy Hodgson, Craig Shakespeare and Dan Ashworth. He has strong connections with lots of Clubs including many Premier League clubs and a good reputation for developing young talented players which is why we have seen the likes of Patino, Fiorini, Rogers, Poveda, Williams and Theo coming on loan from Premier League Clubs this season. Appleton likes to play an attacking style of football using the whole width of the pitch and focussing on individual skill and moving the ball quickly. We perhaps didn’t get to see the best of Appleton as he never had the opportunity to play his strongest team and integrate the 4 very good players who had joined in the Jan window into his starting X1. I am sure Appleton will soon get another job in football.

Yes and likewise if you think he deserves credit for something then fair play.

As my longer lost alluded to though, what is it? Because he did nothing to tangibly add value to the club. More over he’s likely done a fair bit of damage. (Granted he shouldn’t have been there in the first place)

 

[Ball on Fire]

Mick was just asked on Radio Lancs whether it was a no brainer to go and sign Nelson when he became available and Mick answered that that deal was "already ongoing before I arrived here".

OMG that is a real surprise. I was expecting McCarthy to hit the ground running and two of the Jan signings (Goode & Nelson) would have both been down to his knowledge and contacts but neither apparently were. McCarthy has been out of the game for 15 months and despite watching a few Pool defensive videos he still may not be fully up to speed. Now that O’Donnell has gone, we may have to cut McCarthy some slack and not expect too much in the first few games.

 

[voyeur]

Yes I agree Appleton’s 1 point a game average in the Championship before he became Blackpool Manager was a concern. However these situations can quickly change and the BFC Board were obviously impressed as they gave Appleton a 4 year contract, Karl Oyston, first time time around, only gave Appleton a 12 month rolling contract. I remind you that Critch was a complete unknown and was appointed with no Club management experience and having never worked at League 1 or indeed Championship level. We have now appointed Mick McCarthy in mid Jan who has been out of work for 15 months after being sacked by Championship club Cardiff City following 8 consecutive defeats, you couldn’t make it up.

Sadler obviously needs to consider carefully how the manager selection process is conducted. It was a pretty major misjudgment. Sadler was adamant he'd interviewed brilliantly and, if that was the case, it means that a great interview isn't the main reason to go for someone. There's no completely fail safe method but there factors that were ignored for some reason. I don't think it required a rocket scientist to see that it was a very risky appointment. A poor appointment, clear reasons to avoid him.

 

[Ball on Fire]

Im not entirely sure what your point is?

Appleton was a shit manager for us …

McCarthy’s success or failure will be judged on his results surely, just like Critchley’s time with us should be judged on his results….

Excuses are just excuses and Appleton seemed to have more than most.

My point (sorry I have reused your pun) is that all management appointments are a risk.

Critch was a very risky appointment at Blackpool and he was a big success. Critch enjoyed tremendous support from the Blackpool fans who loved his fist pumps and badge kissing and this love in continued right up to the day Critch decided to go to Villa. Critch has now got an even bigger Championship job on his hands at QPR, the natives are getting restless and unless results quickly improve Critch could well soon face the same situation with the QPR fans that Appleton regularly faced at Blackpool.

All Managers ultimately get judged on results but when they are sacked it doesn’t mean everything they did during their time at the Club was crap. Credit where credit is due I say.

You mentioned excuses, everything I have suggested as an Appleton achievement has been shot down with an excuse that it wasn‘t really down to Appleton. It’s just the same as the Appleton fans saying the results so far this season were down to very poor recruitment in the summer, the long list of injured players, the high number of suspensions (7 red cards) and a general lack of Championship quality in the squad, all of which I have some sympathy with. McCarthy now has the strongest Blackpool squad at his disposal that we have had this season so there can be no excuses if he doesn’t deliver.

 

[Ball on Fire]

Sadler obviously needs to consider carefully how the manager selection process is conducted. It was a pretty major misjudgment. Sadler was adamant he'd interviewed brilliantly and, if that was the case, it means that a great interview isn't the main reason to go for someone. There's no completely fail safe method but there factors that were ignored for some reason. I don't think it required a rocket scientist to see that it was a very risky appointment. A poor appointment, clear reasons to avoid him.

I heard Appleton has applied to be a Hedge Fund Manager and he is hoping Sadler does the interview.

 

[Insider]

The situation I forecast has already happened. We leave a space for Keshi to come back in and he instantly breaks. To leave that space, we would have left out a fit, albeit fringe player.

I honestly still don't think you get it.
Come Friday MM will name his squad for Middlesbrough including travelling spare outfield player and 3rd goalkeeper. 20 players. So he'll give that squad list to the EFL. If he wants Bez in his squad then he'll name him. He wont name ANY player that's not FIT to be selected. In fact there's no obligation on to name any more than 20 players which is more or less what he's said.
The worst thing to happen would be Keshi didn't get injured in training gets on the pitch and gets injured after 5mins but you can't do anything about that.
Come Tuesday Gabriel is match fit, McCarthy wants him on the bench so he's added to the squad and so.

 

[BFC_BFC_BFC]

My point (sorry I have reused your pun) is that all management appointments are a risk.

Critch was a very risky appointment at Blackpool and he was a big success. Critch enjoyed tremendous support from the Blackpool fans who loved his fist pumps and badge kissing and this love in continued right up to the day Critch decided to go to Villa. Critch has now got an even bigger Championship job on his hands at QPR, the natives are getting restless and unless results quickly improve Critch could well soon face the same situation with the QPR fans that Appleton regularly faced at Blackpool.

All Managers ultimately get judged on results but when they are sacked it doesn’t mean everything they did during their time at the Club was crap. Credit where credit is due I say.

You mentioned excuses, everything I have suggested as an Appleton achievement has been shot down with an excuse that it wasn‘t really down to Appleton. It’s just the same as the Appleton fans saying the results so far this season were down to very poor recruitment in the summer, the long list of injured players, the high number of suspensions (7 red cards) and a general lack of Championship quality in the squad, all of which I have some sympathy with. McCarthy now has the strongest Blackpool squad at his disposal that we have had this season so there can be no excuses if he doesn’t deliver.

Ah right.. I thought ‘your point’ or your ‘ten points’ was an attempt to “offer some balance and highlight the numerous good things about Appleton”?

If your point is to simply suggest that all managerial appointments come with some risk, then that’s not really very contentious is it? I agree

Critchley wasn’t really that risky an appointment was it? We were in League 1, he was a highly qualified coach and if it didn’t work out we could get someone else in….I think appointing him straight into a Championship job might have been a big risk, but we didn’t.

Appleton has been an out and out failure at this level. His record in L1 isn’t necessarily ‘all that’ either… When push comes to shove, that’s all there is…. All managers have to deal with imperfect recruitment, injuries, personality issues etc etc… Good managers win games and poor managers don’t…

Most of the points you made were ‘shot down’ because they were complete nonsense. Nothing to do with excuses, they were just poor examples that deserved to be given short shrift…. (The fact that your examples were so poor, only serves to reinforce just how bad he was really).

I don’t think Mick McCarthy is the sort of bloke to make excuses. And nor was Critch…

And that’s the difference really …

 

[Wizaard]

I honestly still don't think you get it.
Come Friday MM will name his squad for Middlesbrough including travelling spare outfield player and 3rd goalkeeper. 20 players. So he'll give that squad list to the EFL. If he wants Bez in his squad then he'll name him. He wont name ANY player that's not FIT to be selected. In fact there's no obligation on to name any more than 20 players which is more or less what he's said.
The worst thing to happen would be Keshi didn't get injured in training gets on the pitch and gets injured after 5mins but you can't do anything about that.
Come Tuesday Gabriel is match fit, McCarthy wants him on the bench so he's added to the squad and so.

I'm talking about the 25 names to the EFL that we have to stick within between now and the end of the season. Isn't there a deadline to name that in full?

 

[Insider]

I'm talking about the 25 names to the EFL that we have to stick within between now and the end of the season. Isn't there a deadline to name that in full?

Absolutely no obligation to name 25.

 

[Wizaard]

Ah right.. I thought ‘your point’ or your ‘ten points’ was an attempt to “offer some balance and highlight the numerous good things about Appleton”?

If your point is to simply suggest that all managerial appointments come with some risk, then that’s not really very contentious is it? I agree

Critchley wasn’t really that risky an appointment was it? We were in League 1, he was a highly qualified coach and if it didn’t work out we could get someone else in….I think appointing him straight into a Championship job might have been a big risk, but we didn’t.

Appleton has been an out and out failure at this level. His record in L1 isn’t necessarily ‘all that’ either… When push comes to shove, that’s all there is…. All managers have to deal with imperfect recruitment, injuries, personality issues etc etc… Good managers win games and poor managers don’t…

Most of the points you made were ‘shot down’ because they were complete nonsense. Nothing to do with excuses, they were just poor examples that deserved to be given short shrift…. (The fact that your examples were so poor, only serves to reinforce just how bad he was really).

I don’t think Mick McCarthy is the sort of bloke to make excuses. And nor was Critch…

And that’s the difference really …

Good point about excuse making.

We had one of the worst records for players getting covid but never called a game off. Just get on with it and make the best of what you've got

By contrast, Appleton was constantly downplaying expectations by talking about injury lists, over achieving etc etc.

 

[Wizaard]

Absolutely no obligation to name 25.

I thought there was. Fair enough.

 

[BFC_BFC_BFC]

Good point about excuse making.

We had one of the worst records for players getting covid but never called a game off. Just get on with it and make the best of what you've got

By contrast, Appleton was constantly downplaying expectations by talking about injury lists, over achieving etc etc.

It started the minute he walked through the door… Sure sign of a loser …

“Before, we start, I’d just like to say to everyone, that when it all goes wrong, it won’t be my fault “

 

[Ball on Fire]

Ah right.. I thought ‘your point’ or your ‘ten points’ was an attempt to “offer some balance and highlight the numerous good things about Appleton”?

If your point is to simply suggest that all managerial appointments come with some risk, then that’s not really very contentious is it? I agree

Critchley wasn’t really that risky an appointment was it? We were in League 1, he was a highly qualified coach and if it didn’t work out we could get someone else in….I think appointing him straight into a Championship job might have been a big risk, but we didn’t.

Appleton has been an out and out failure at this level. His record in L1 isn’t necessarily ‘all that’ either… When push comes to shove, that’s all there is…. All managers have to deal with imperfect recruitment, injuries, personality issues etc etc… Good managers win games and poor managers don’t…

Most of the points you made were ‘shot down’ because they were complete nonsense. Nothing to do with excuses, they were just poor examples that deserved to be given short shrift…. (The fact that your examples were so poor, only serves to reinforce just how bad he was really).

I don’t think Mick McCarthy is the sort of bloke to make excuses. And nor was Critch.

Yes I am still trying to get some balance into the discussion regarding Appleton‘s 7 months at the Club, I appreciate your head is not for turning but thx to your contributions, I have been able to increase my original Top 10 achievements to 12 now.

I don‘t remember Appleton making excuses, he just seemed to get his head down and work hard to try and turn the situation around. When he was sacked he took it on the chin, left with a great deal of dignity and proved to be a class act.

I love reading your posts on here, you come over as AVFTT’s very own Mystiic Meg full of inside knowledge, judgements and predictions but rarely say anything to back it up. It makes me wonder whether you are part of the BFC coaching set up or inner circle of the Club as you seem to know so much about Critch, Appleton and now McCarthy. One thing you have definitely got wrong was the reason for Bowler‘s non appearance at Peterborough.

I hear what you say about replacing Critch part way through the season but I don’t like the constant high turnover of Managers and don’t believe it benefits the Club, the players or the supporters. I much prefer management stability and continuity especially in the Championship, which represents a tough enough challenge for a Club like Blackpool with very limited resources. Either way I think McCarthy will be gone at the end of this season and that will be 4 Blackpool Managers in 12 months.

Another meaningless statement which I didn’t understand was your comment “ his record in Div 1 isn’t necessarily all that either “ regarding Appleton’s management record in Div 1, so I looked up the facts - Appleton has managed more than 300 games in Div 1 with Lincoln and Oxford, his overall win rate is 41% and his Div 1 points per game averages 1.5 which is Play off form.

My opinion hasn’t changed, I would not have appointed Appleton as Blackpool Manager in the first place, if I was going to sack him it would have been during the break in Nov or Dec, I wouldn’t have given Appleton the Jan transfer window unless he was going to be in post for the rest of this season and I wouldn’t have appointed McCarthy in mid Jan for the most important 19 games of this season. However as always I will be 100% behind our Manager whoever it is and I hope McCarthy proves to be a huge success.

 

[BFC_BFC_BFC]

Yes I am still trying to get some balance into the discussion regarding Appleton‘s 7 months at the Club, I appreciate your head is not for turning but thx to your contributions, I have been able to increase my original Top 10 achievements to 12 now.

I don‘t remember Appleton making excuses, he just seemed to get his head down and work hard to try and turn the situation around. When he was sacked he took it on the chin, left with a great deal of dignity and proved to be a class act.

I love reading your posts on here, you come over as AVFTT’s very own Mystiic Meg full of inside knowledge, judgements and predictions but rarely say anything to back it up. It makes me wonder whether you are part of the BFC coaching set up or inner circle of the Club as you seem to know so much about Critch, Appleton and now McCarthy. One thing you have definitely got wrong was the reason for Bowler‘s non appearance at Peterborough.

I hear what you say about replacing Critch part way through the season but I don’t like the constant high turnover of Managers and don’t believe it benefits the Club, the players or the supporters. I much prefer management stability and continuity especially in the Championship, which represents a tough enough challenge for a Club like Blackpool with very limited resources. Either way I think McCarthy will be gone at the end of this season and that will be 3 Blackpool Managers in 12 months.

Another meaningless statement which I didn’t understand was your comment “ his record in Div 1 isn’t necessarily all that either “ regarding Appleton’s management record in Div 1, so I looked up the facts - Appleton has managed more than 300 games in Div 1 with Lincoln and Oxford, his overall win rate is 41% and his Div 1 points per game averages 1.5 which is Play off form.

My opinion hasn’t changed, I would not have appointed Appleton as Blackpool Manager in the first place, if I was going to sack him it would have been during the break in Nov or Dec, I wouldn’t have given Appleton the Jan transfer window unless he was going to be in post for the rest of this season and I wouldn’t have appointed McCarthy in mid Jan for the most important 19 games of this season. However as always I will be 100% behind our Manager whoever it is and I hope McCarthy proves to be a huge success.

Appleton opened his reign at Blackpool with one massive excuse... "This Team over-achieved last season"... That statement along with numerous pre and post match get out clauses "You only have to look at their budget" , "We lack the quality" etc.. etc.. set the tone for the Appleton reign.

Thanks... I'm not sure I've said anything specific about Bowler and the Peterborough game.... I wouldn't be too sure of yourself on that particular matter though.

I'm sure we all prefer Management stability, but the reality is that the average term for a Manager / Head Coach is around 2..5 years and in our case, losing decent coaches is very much a part of our reality.... It's something you just have to build into your planning / strategy.

Appleton hasn't managed anywhere near 300 L1 games... He's managed just over half that number.... More than half of his games with Oxford were at L2 level.

His record shows a clear pattern from League to League (L2 1.6 ppg ave, L1 1.38 ppg ave, Chship 1.01 ppg ave). This suggest that he loses competence significantly with each upward step and that essentially L1 is where he plateaus, with an average season of around 63 points... At Championship level he's a Relegation Manager as it's above his level of competence.

I'm glad you've cleared up what you would and wouldn't have done, but I don't have a particular opinion on that TBH. I don't think Appleton was good enough to be appointed manager of Blackpool, I think he proved his incompetence during his time with us and I'm very glad he's gone.

 

[Hooleys]

If we have enough to stay up

I'm bitterly disappointed that we didn't bring a couple more in this window

Granted the squad looks a hell of a lot stronger than it did when we started the season and at least we have options now, options that we didn't have during one of the most unique seasons we have had to face

All those games squeezed in due to the World Cup really put us on the back foot due to the lack of squad depth.

The Summer Window was horrendous did the club not realise it was a full on 2 games a week for 2 months

The appointment of Mick McCarthy given our squad and the players we signed in January before he came in baffles me a little

McCarthy certainly wouldn't have been my first choice to take over, thats not being disrespectful towards him as he's a experienced campaigner at this level

However I'm not sure we have the players for his proven style of play

We don't really have the wingbacks for 3 centre halves and I'm not sure we have the right sort of wingers for a 442 either. I don't believe we have a long throw specialist (this is something that Mick has had and relied on at previous clubs) and I don't think we have the big physical athletic central midfield types either

And we still don't have a decent alternative to Madine

It's going to be interesting to see how we set up and what the manager wants to do as we have a lot of technical smaller players in our squad

Fingers crossed we will get out of this but this last week in the market is disappointing

The whole thing shows a distinct lack of planning from the board I'm afraid

Utmp ....

If both were fit you could have Lyons left wingback somewhere he has played before and Gabriel on the right, this could work???

However we have for a few seasons now had a scattergun approach regarding signings and signed far too many players even now we have 5 too many for a club our size. I’ve long believed less players (say 12/13) but better quality and better paid backed up with s cross of youth and lesser priced players to make up the squad and a fixed style with players bought for a specific role in the team.

We currently have a team that now probably suits 5 at the back (eventually) too weak to plsy a two in midfield, no striker that is good enough to play on their own and score enough goals, too many wingers for the new system. Appleton should of gone before the window started for me!

None more so than Critchley who bloated the squad before the end of the season.

Also we’ve risked buying/signing too many fragile/injury prone players.

Not sure if it’s managers or recruitment teams but a more structured approach to squad snd signings with a clear identity is required .

Bowler and Yates are our most likely match winners and surely need to be shoe horned in but does that suit the new manager and formation? Time will tell.

I actually wasn’t sure on McCarthy either but I think he’ll do ok but would of been better having the full window to work with.

 

[Sooty59]

Phil you really reel them in & you are good at it. All we are unsure about is will we stay up or not.