It’s been a while now since I
last blogged as I’m usually on Twitter these days catching up on what’s
happening at BFC. I can’t believe what has gone on since we ended last season
fighting for our championship life. All the players who took us to the
premiership and beyond that have now gone. The chairman has managed to unleash
an unprecedented amount of bad publicity in the way he has gone about running
the club. He’s has even made headlines in the German press as well as a lot of the
big hitters over here. I don’t propose to cover old ground by highlighting how
he goes about things but suffice to say he has managed to excel anything that’s
gone on before.
After a few shots in the dark
and one U-turn he eventually installed
Jose Riga as the new manager
10 weeks ago. This is the guy who previously managed Standard Liege and the
latter part of last season at Charlton Athletic. His brief there was to keep
them in the championship, which he did, but despite that the owners there
sacked him (that’s football owners for you). His appointment here was seen as a
positive move by Oyston who announced it as the “Riga Revolution”. Oyston’s
idea was to offer existing players contracts less attractive than they were
previously on, so that the majority of them went elsewhere. This left us only
with 8 contracted players on the books (this is what made the headlines) and as
such the club was unable to honour most of the pre-season friendlies. In the
midst of all this Oyston also managed to alienate Riga by dragging his feet
over employing his backroom staff. This led to the manager and his staff
refusing to sign their contracts, which because of a Riga media blackout we’re
still not sure whether they’ve put pen to paper yet? Rumours during this time
indicated that Riga was on the verge of leaving the club and his “Revolution”
before it had even started. Even Oyston’s ally Glenn Bowley, chairman of the
Blackpool Supporters Club, described the going-ons as a shambles. It even got
to the stage where the club’s president Valeri Belekon wrote an open letter to the
Oyston’s criticizing the way funds have been diverted away from the club
instead of being invested in it. Protests by the fans have been increasing and
a new body called the Blackpool Supporters Trust has been formed to try and
gain shares within the club, so that the fans are better represented than at
present.
Karl “don’t rush me” Oyston
has tried to dismiss the criticism by saying he will not change the way he runs
the club. He believes by leaving the signing of new players to the last minute it
strengthens his negotiating hand when discussing contracts. All well and good,
but this has left Riga with very little time in which to work with his squad.
Activity has been frantic in the last 2 weeks with a whole host a new players
arriving. Some including Ishmael Miller postponed giving an early decision
because of the uncertainty surrounding Riga’s appointment. It was only after
Riga assured him he was staying he signed.
So, tomorrow we are away at
Nottingham Forest with a side who barely know each other hoping we’re not at
the end of an almighty drubbing. Hopefully Miller can cause them a few problems
being an ex-Forest player, but equally Andy Reid might do the same to us,
especially considering how hopelessly unfit he was when he played for us and
the stick he got because of it. In the past we have always done well against
Forest, but all the players who performed well against them are no longer here,
so it’s anyone’s guess how we’ll go on? We’ve about 3 or 4 players already
injured and I can see this increasing due to the lack of match practice the
players have had. Good to see Peter Clarke back for a second spell at
Bloomfield Rd and wish him the best of luck.
The bookies have made us
odds-on favourites to be relegated, which will happen if the chairman makes the
manager’s job all the more difficult by not backing him when he needs it.
Hopefully we can defy the odds and make the bookies eat their words.
The test starts tomorrow. Don’t
lose the faith, because owners can come and go, but the fans are there for
life.
