Its a bit late in the day for all this

To me, the revolution is happening a year early. We've ended up with a massive amount of players under contract and a manager who doesn't really seem to want a lot of them.

In conclusion.

Fuck Critch.

In all seriousness, the choice was to

a) find a continuity candidate who would appreciate the squad we've got and carry on in the same vein.

b) find someone who would play a more expansive style but accept that would require a decent investment.

We seem on the surface to be choosing to follow neither path.

I dunno, it's still relatively early but I'm (perhaps more than slightly) slightly concerned at the way we're doing business at the moment. Things don't seem quite joined up is probably the best way to put it.
 
td53 said:
To me, the revolution is happening a year early. We've ended up with a massive amount of players under contract and a manager who doesn't really seem to want a lot of them.

In conclusion.

Fuck Critch.

In all seriousness, the choice was to

a) find a continuity candidate who would appreciate the squad we've got and carry on in the same vein.

b) find someone who would play a more expansive style but accept that would require a decent investment.

We seem on the surface to be choosing to follow neither path.

I dunno, it's still relatively early but I'm (perhaps more than slightly) slightly concerned at the way we're doing business at the moment. Things don't seem quite joined up is probably the best way to put it.
Click to expand...
Yep bang on that

But surely all this was discussed at the interview stage, budgets players etc

It all looks a bit of a mess currently
 
Philbfctrois said:
Yep bang on that

But surely all this was discussed at the interview stage, budgets players etc

It all looks a bit of a mess currently
Click to expand...
It certainly doesn't seem to add up to Mansford's 'we know exactly what a Blackpool player is' thing when it appears the new boss isn't too impressed with a lot of them and they're casting around trying to ditch players we signed last year. Does 'a Blackpool player' press or not? That's a fairly fundamental question.

I dunno. I like Appleton despite initially thinking 'what the fuck?' about his appointment but it doesn't feel like the business is targeted.

If the ambition is to stand still for a bit, then ok, that's not really what I want but I can get it, but then why then appoint Appleton who obviously doesn't compromise and take prisoners. It's not like the lad is an unknown quality...

Who knows. Hopefully things make sense by September - the last two years have been poor starts and to be fair, this year we've got points on the board already... though I'd rather we didn't make a habit of hamstringing ourselves for the first few games of every season.
 
Philbfctrois said:
Of course I wanted cheaper season tickets and match day tickets as we have thousands of empty seats, I think the pricing policy is garbage considering we don't sell out

I want the ground to be full of Pool fans

The football club needs more players does it not?

And how is me wanted more players and cheaper tickets even linked?

What a bizarre post
Click to expand...
You've got one poster saying Sadler hasn't got much money and is just a Blackpool lad doing the right thing offering a small budget.

Then the next saying the new training complex is costing him £40 mill. So he is loaded after all?

Which one is it?
 
td53 said:
It certainly doesn't seem to add up to Mansford's 'we know exactly what a Blackpool player is' thing when it appears the new boss isn't too impressed with a lot of them and they're casting around trying to ditch players we signed last year. Does 'a Blackpool player' press or not? That's a fairly fundamental question.

I dunno. I like Appleton despite initially thinking 'what the fuck?' about his appointment but it doesn't feel like the business is targeted.

If the ambition is to stand still for a bit, then ok, that's not really what I want but I can get it, but then why then appoint Appleton who obviously doesn't compromise and take prisoners. It's not like the lad is an unknown quality...

Who knows. Hopefully things make sense by September - the last two years have been poor starts and to be fair, this year we've got points on the board already... though I'd rather we didn't make a habit of hamstringing ourselves for the first few games of every season.
Click to expand...
Can I ask, what it is you like about Appleton?

It's just I'm trying really hard to like him (and I mean really hard) but I'm struggling.

Just looking at it from a footballing simpletons point of view... The zero compromise on the system and a lack of apparent willingness to transition over time seems a bit stupid to me.
 
td53 said:
To me, the revolution is happening a year early. We've ended up with a massive amount of players under contract and a manager who doesn't really seem to want a lot of them.

In conclusion.

Fuck Critch.

In all seriousness, the choice was to

a) find a continuity candidate who would appreciate the squad we've got and carry on in the same vein.

b) find someone who would play a more expansive style but accept that would require a decent investment.

We seem on the surface to be choosing to follow neither path.

I dunno, it's still relatively early but I'm (perhaps more than slightly) slightly concerned at the way we're doing business at the moment. Things don't seem quite joined up is probably the best way to put it.
Click to expand...
Agree with this entirely.
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
Can I ask, what it is you like about Appleton?

It's just I'm trying really hard to like him (and I mean really hard) but I'm struggling.

Just looking at it from a footballing simpletons point of view... The zero compromise on the system and a lack of apparent willingness to transition over time seems a bit stupid to me.
Click to expand...
That he wants to play football. That's it basically. I like that he is willing to play a number of creative players and I suppose I also like that he's not seemingly given to playing to tbe gallery.

I share that concern you have, but I dunno, having hired him, the board have to answer for that cos it's like buying a horse and trying to milk it then blaming it for not being a cow.

He is what he is. They surely knew that.
 
We seem to going for players we have no chance of getting the lad from Rotherham being an example, we are not getting him for 2 mill according to their manager, we need a mobile forward for sure, cover at right back and one more midfielder, there is not a chance in hell of Husband leaving and nor should there be. On the plus side we are looking to spend on transfers and I do believe we will come good. We do always look lightweight in this division of monster teams. We have had two really enjoyable seasons and there was always going to be a bit of a dip especially with NC leaving in the way he did.
 
Lurching from one manager to another that has a completely different idea as to how the game should be played and who should be playing it, is a recipe for disaster.
It's not the clubs fault that Critchley quit but I thought there was meant to be an inbuilt contingency plan to deal with this.
The club was supposed to be creating an identity and a style of play that would mean a new head coach could come in and evolve and tweak things.
What we have is a total scrapping of the last two years and a desperate scramble to sign players that can operate in the new system!!
It isnt a smooth transition!!
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
He’s not looking like much of a head coach if I’m being honest…

He’s coming across as one of them bad workmen who blame their tools.

So much for the idea of continuity…. He’s pretty much eradicated the squad in a single window 😂
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Maybe he can only coach very talented youngsters he gets on loan? Doesn't fancy his chances improving more average players? Olly was a good coach in that respect. Southern doing Cruyff turns 😂 and Critch fancied his chances too. Do we need a better App? Just another tech problem 🤷‍♂️
 
td53 said:
It certainly doesn't seem to add up to Mansford's 'we know exactly what a Blackpool player is' thing when it appears the new boss isn't too impressed with a lot of them and they're casting around trying to ditch players we signed last year. Does 'a Blackpool player' press or not? That's a fairly fundamental question.

I dunno. I like Appleton despite initially thinking 'what the fuck?' about his appointment but it doesn't feel like the business is targeted.

If the ambition is to stand still for a bit, then ok, that's not really what I want but I can get it, but then why then appoint Appleton who obviously doesn't compromise and take prisoners. It's not like the lad is an unknown quality...

Who knows. Hopefully things make sense by September - the last two years have been poor starts and to be fair, this year we've got points on the board already... though I'd rather we didn't make a habit of hamstringing ourselves for the first few games of every season.
Click to expand...
You see this is why ‘Bullshit Ben’ gets banded around because so far I’ve listened him tell us we want a Manager who plays “the Blackpool way” (I still have no idea what this is)… tell us about the new Head Coach being a certain type of figure (to then go and appoint someone not fitting into what he said)… then tell us recruitment doesn’t matter who the Head Coach is to then go and sign players that are quite clearly down to the Head Coach (despite him telling us they know what a Blackpool player looks like) and him acting like the Ground Safety Officer at Southport.

He might be doing lots of great stuff in the background but his ability to talk complete and utter bollocks in a style not dissimilar to David Brent should be a cause for concern & even more so at the seemingly thin skin we’ve encountered from the upper echelons in the past couple of weeks regarding Manager appointments and player recruitment.

Don’t forget guys… we don’t need another right back as cover because Callum Connolly scored a goal!!

It’s a big 3 weeks this now. The pressure is on the recruitment team.
 
td53 said:
That he wants to play football. That's it basically. I like that he is willing to play a number of creative players and I suppose I also like that he's not seemingly given to playing to tbe gallery.

I share that concern you have, but I dunno, having hired him, the board have to answer for that cos it's like buying a horse and trying to milk it then blaming it for not being a cow.

He is what he is. They surely knew that.
Click to expand...
I don't know...

I think it's great wanting to play football and let's hope we do (at some point) start to play football.

Unfortunately I think that is going to come at a huge cost and I'm not convinced we've got that side of the equation fully covered. Maybe we have, but the messaging doesn't seem to suggest so.

Right now I'm struggling to see how all the Jigsaw pieces fit together....
 
Adams Kebab said:
You see this is why ‘Bullshit Ben’ gets banded around because so far I’ve listened him tell us we want a Manager who plays “the Blackpool way” (I still have no idea what this is)… tell us about the new Head Coach being a certain type of figure (to then go and appoint someone not fitting into what he said)… then tell us recruitment doesn’t matter who the Head Coach is to then go and sign players that are quite clearly down to the Head Coach (despite him telling us they know what a Blackpool player looks like) and him acting like the Ground Safety Officer at Southport.

He might be doing lots of great stuff in the background but his ability to talk complete and utter bollocks in a style not dissimilar to David Brent should be a cause for concern & even more so at the seemingly thin skin we’ve encountered from the upper echelons in the past couple of weeks regarding Manager appointments and player recruitment.

Don’t forget guys… we don’t need another right back as cover because Callum Connolly scored a goal!!

It’s a big 3 weeks this now. The pressure is on the recruitment team.
Click to expand...
I don't like the BB tagline, but I do find the rest of it all a bit confusing...
 
td53 said:
It certainly doesn't seem to add up to Mansford's 'we know exactly what a Blackpool player is' thing when it appears the new boss isn't too impressed with a lot of them and they're casting around trying to ditch players we signed last year. Does 'a Blackpool player' press or not? That's a fairly fundamental question.

I dunno. I like Appleton despite initially thinking 'what the fuck?' about his appointment but it doesn't feel like the business is targeted.

If the ambition is to stand still for a bit, then ok, that's not really what I want but I can get it, but then why then appoint Appleton who obviously doesn't compromise and take prisoners. It's not like the lad is an unknown quality...

Who knows. Hopefully things make sense by September - the last two years have been poor starts and to be fair, this year we've got points on the board already... though I'd rather we didn't make a habit of hamstringing ourselves for the first few games of every season.
Click to expand...
Can some football guru explain to me why not pressing is even an option? It seems to me that even if you are seven stone soaking wet you can put off the defender and hurry them into poor decisions. They hustled us into the worst display of passing I've seen from a Pool eleven in many a year. On the other hand, sitting way off them as we did with the Stoke Robocops last week just seems to invite problems, particularly if you only play one midfield holder?
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
Can I ask, what it is you like about Appleton?

It's just I'm trying really hard to like him (and I mean really hard) but I'm struggling.

Just looking at it from a footballing simpletons point of view... The zero compromise on the system and a lack of apparent willingness to transition over time seems a bit stupid to me.
Click to expand...
Playing youth prospects for starters.
Attracting top end Prem youth loans.
Realising that the team is not good enough to survive in Championship or provide entertaining football
 
Philbfctrois said:
Of course I wanted cheaper season tickets and match day tickets as we have thousands of empty seats, I think the pricing policy is garbage considering we don't sell out
Click to expand...
See you there tonight then. It's only £10.
Oh I forgot you live miles away but that's another problem so do many other Blackpool fans and they are far less dedicated than you. I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of people from my class at school, that watched Blackpool as school boys, that still live in Blackpool.
Anyway it's a warm summers evening, the Club has adopted your pricing policy, so it's bound to be sell out. I wonder why there will only be about 3,000 there?
The town of Blackpool, with the mix of people that live there, quite simply isn't a football supporting town any more, I'm sad to say.
 
Philbfctrois said:
He's borrowing 40mil to spend on a new training ground and East stand
Click to expand...

Financial fair play rules limit clubs to spend a maximum of €5m more than they earn during a three-year period

The only way around that is to loan money to the club with intentions of paying that back

It is an intercompany loan from another Sadler business.
 
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Mark_GT said:
Can some football guru explain to me why not pressing is even an option? It seems to me that even if you are seven stone soaking wet you can put off the defender and hurry them into poor decisions. They hustled us into the worst display of passing I've seen from a Pool eleven in many a year. On the other hand, sitting way off them as we did with the Stoke Robocops last week just seems to invite problems, particularly if you only play one midfield holder?
Click to expand...
Theory would be that if you press as a team too much, you get knackered and pulled out of shape, especially if the team you are trying to press against are any good.

So instead, you would be better served sitting in and holding a shape.

When we played pass along the back last year, we were trying to tempt the opponents to press high and by stringing it along the back 4 and DCMs we're hoping to pull 4, 5 or even 6 of their players out of shape and then spring on them.

You can negate that in theory by just not pressing.

Thats my best attempt.
 
td53 said:
Theory would be that if you press as a team too much, you get knackered and pulled out of shape, especially if the team you are trying to press against are any good.

So instead, you would be better served sitting in and holding a shape.

When we played pass along the back last year, we were trying to tempt the opponents to press high and by stringing it along the back 4 and DCMs we're hoping to pull 4, 5 or even 6 of their players out of shape and then spring on them.

You can negate that in theory by just not pressing.

Thats my best attempt.
Click to expand...
Out of interest, when did "The Press" become "The Press"?

I mean, it's entirely possible (in fact probable) that I've been happily living in a "The Press" free parallel universe for the majority of my life and then suddenly popped through a wormhole and out into the world of "The Press".. Where did it come from and when? I mean one minute....nothing.....the next "The Press" has completely consumed everyone's lives.
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
I don't know...

I think it's great wanting to play football and let's hope we do (at some point) start to play football.

Unfortunately I think that is going to come at a huge cost and I'm not convinced we've got that side of the equation fully covered. Maybe we have, but the messaging doesn't seem to suggest so.

Right now I'm struggling to see how all the Jigsaw pieces fit together....
Click to expand...
Critchball did my head in sometimes but yeah, I also totally accept that it was a terrific achievement to have us comfortable. I felt like there was space to develop what we had and make it a bit more risk taking at times and a little bit less cagey.

Perhaps that's what the board felt but they equally should understand the big difference between a compact 442 with lots of pressing and a 433 with emphasis on technical ability. It's really quite different and the system Critch had developed was a product of the players limitations as much as their strengths.
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
Out of interest, when did "The Press" become "The Press"?

I mean, it's entirely possible (in fact probable) that I've been happily living in a "The Press" free parallel universe for the majority of my life and then suddenly popped through a wormhole and out into the world of "The Press".. Where did it come from and when? I mean one minute....nothing.....the next "The Press" has completely consumed everyone's lives.
Click to expand...
I've asked this on the podcast - when I was a kid it was just 'closing down' and you'd say 'thing about Liverpool is, they close you down really well' then someone invented 'the press' and I think people got well excited about it around about the time Klopp turned up in England...
 
Philbfctrois said:
First window Critchley had he decimated the previous squad he also brought in several of his own players and then got shut of them

It's always the case that a new man would want his own players in
Click to expand...
Critchley took over a struggling league one squad that needed significant change. He left us with a side comfortable in the Championship close to the top of what our budget can realistically achieve. Far less surgery required.

He also left us in the lurch with no warning. We had to recruit a new head coach pretty quickly and I think the intelligent thing to do was to add a few quality players to what we had and move a few on. Evolve. But we don't know how it will work out. We could end up better off or worse off, time will tell. I wouldn't confidently predict either way. Its not an easy situation for any oc ghem to be in, Appketon, Mansford, Sadler and the players. We are better off than we have been for a good while and should appreciate that at least I think. Cut them all some slack.
 
voyeur said:
Critchley took over a struggling league one squad that needed significant change. He left us with a side comfortable in the Championship close to the top of what our budget can realistically achieve. Far less surgery required.

He also left us in the lurch with no warning. We had to recruit a new head coach pretty quickly and I think the intelligent thing to do was to add a few quality players to what we had and move a few on. Evolve. But we don't know how it will work out. We could end up better off or worse off, time will tell. I wouldn't confidently predict either way. Its not an easy situation for any oc ghem to be in, Appketon, Mansford, Sadler and the players. We are better off than we have been for a good while and should appreciate that at least I think. Cut them all some slack.
Click to expand...
👍
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
Out of interest, when did "The Press" become "The Press"?

I mean, it's entirely possible (in fact probable) that I've been happily living in a "The Press" free parallel universe for the majority of my life and then suddenly popped through a wormhole and out into the world of "The Press".. Where did it come from and when? I mean one minute....nothing.....the next "The Press" has completely consumed everyone's lives.
Click to expand...
Back in the day I saw a BBC interview with Ian Rush when he was at Liverpool - not an after-match piece I would add. He said that the ethos at Liverpool under Paisley was that when they lost the ball in attack, he and the other forwards were expected to be the first line of defence. Is that not the press?
 
1966_and_all_that said:
You have no grounds for your assertion, though I salute your optimism.
Click to expand...
Appleton is still figuring out his best 11 and is quite obviously looking for a central midfielder and striker. Keogh going is probably down to the player, so that will probably mean we will look to replace him with an experienced centre back. There is still time to make the summer window a success but with every passing day my doubts grow. I've said from the off, the manager cannot afford a poor start, way too many are already sharpening their knives.
 
td53 said:
Critchball did my head in sometimes but yeah, I also totally accept that it was a terrific achievement to have us comfortable. I felt like there was space to develop what we had and make it a bit more risk taking at times and a little bit less cagey.

Perhaps that's what the board felt but they equally should understand the big difference between a compact 442 with lots of pressing and a 433 with emphasis on technical ability. It's really quite different and the system Critch had developed was a product of the players limitations as much as their strengths.
Click to expand...
The idea that we had adopted an interim system seemed to make perfect sense... In my naivety, I had assumed that the plan remained to transition over time towards a more expansive system as we managed to develop the squad...I had no issue with Critchley.. He found a way to win games and deliver a successful season with limited resources and for me, that's what good Managers / Coaches do 'find a way to win'. Based on the recent Matt Scrafton interview with SS & BM, it transpired that we had not only adopted the Critchley (pragmatic 442) as a temporary measure whilst we transitioned from A to B, but that we were also now recruiting players to fit that system (a system that we never had any intention of playing)...

Next we recruit a New Bloke who comes with the promise of expansive and entertaining football (exactly what we were supposed to be aiming for), but we then discover that we weren't actually aiming for that at all, because somewhere between Critch starting and leaving, we'd somehow decided to base our recruitment policy on a system that we didn't want to play.

Hence the overhaul of the squad, the recruitment process and whatever else... 'Complete Upheaval' for want of a better expression, at the first change of Head Coach, which is what the whole idea of the Recruitment Process was supposed to avoid.

Maybe it's better that we deal with it now, but if this new all in on 433 experiment doesn't work... Where do we go?
 
NewburyOne said:
Agree with thatAppleton is still figuring out his best 11 and is quite obviously looking for a central midfielder and striker. Keogh going is probably down to the player, so that will probably mean we will look to replace him with an experienced centre back. There is still time to make the summer window a success but with every passing day my doubts grow. I've said from the off, the manager cannot afford a poor start, way too many are already sharpening their knives.
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Agree with your analysis Newbury but the idea that fans should be sharpening their knives is ridiculous. You may be right though.
 
Last manager left suddenly. This season starts early. Both significant challenges. Weeks of transfer window left. CB and ES were made good offers by BFC, chose not to come here. It's what it is. Recruitment process is never straight-forward anyway Chill.
 
navel said:
Last manager left suddenly. This season starts early. Both significant challenges. Weeks of transfer window left. CB and ES were made good offers by BFC, chose not to come here. It's what it is. Recruitment process is never straight-forward anyway Chill.
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Aren't you the SLO?
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
Can I ask, what it is you like about Appleton?

It's just I'm trying really hard to like him (and I mean really hard) but I'm struggling.

Just looking at it from a footballing simpletons point of view... The zero compromise on the system and a lack of apparent willingness to transition over time seems a bit stupid to me.
Click to expand...
I like his team for tonight!
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
Out of interest, when did "The Press" become "The Press"?

I mean, it's entirely possible (in fact probable) that I've been happily living in a "The Press" free parallel universe for the majority of my life and then suddenly popped through a wormhole and out into the world of "The Press".. Where did it come from and when? I mean one minute....nothing.....the next "The Press" has completely consumed everyone's lives.
Click to expand...
It’s not consuming our front players lives under Appleton, that’s for sure!
 
SeasideKurt said:
We're going to see Maxwell, Keogh, Lavery and probably Garbutt or Husband go and that'll be the spine of our squad. Bit worrying all of this 1M here, 1 M there. Are they talking to agents ffs? Get a heads up first about what the player is thinking and then go to the club. That's surely standard procedure. Feels a bit amateur hour currently.
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I think you can add Yates,Hamilton & Matty Virtue to the list (despite what I said after Rangers & Everton Friendlies.to the list.
CJ & Yates go down in Blackpool folk lore for their respective contributions to our promotion from Div 1, but time to finally accept, they are not up to the Chzmpionship.
🚌🍊🧡
 
tangysider said:
New coach would want to assess the squad before bringing in new players so the timing looks OK to me
A lot of our players, were bought / free transfers in L1 and maybe for some the Championship is a step too far.
If we turn a profit on them though the outgoings were hardly disastrous signings
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46 videos from last season should be more than enough
 
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