New season, old problems?

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.