........The
reason I've not written on here for quite a long time is simple. This
season has been the biggest non-event I can ever recall as far as
Blackpool Football Club is concerned. Normally I would be on here
giving my views on the goings-on of the club, manager & players
with an enthusiasm associated with the Ian Holloway era. Now I can't
even tell you the names of the players, their positions or what they
look like and this is coming from someone who was born in the town
and who has followed the Seasiders since he was 7 years old. It has
taken a lot for me to stop going to Bloomfield Rd, but I made a
conscious decision at the beginning of the season to boycott
everything associated with Oyston Football Club. I, like many other
supporters, have taken this stance because we feel by attending home
matches we are condoning & financially propping up this
despicable family. Yes, we know Owen Oyston bought the club & put
his money into saving it from administration, but he's certainly not
out of pocket from doing so. The one saving grace as far as he is
concerned is that he does have a personality, albeit a tarnished one.
He was always the showman, not frightened of taking risks and putting
forward grandiose ideas about how he intended to build a new stadium
with a removable playing area, which could be turned into a Rock
concert venue. I remember him going through a signing of the
contracts ceremony on the Bloomfield Rd pitch all those years ago,
waving the signed contract aloft like a latter day Neville
Chamberlain. Like Chamberlain the contract wasn't worth the paper it
was printed on, nothing materialized.
Today, as
you know, we have his unspectacular son masquerading as chairman.
Unlike his father Oyston Junior has no personality whatsoever. This
is the man who rode on the success of past managers culminating in
Ian Holloway's successful tenure when he managed to get us into the
premiership and turn a bunch of ordinary players into a fighting
outfit. Oyston Jnr showed the lack of foresight & proactive
leadership needed to compete in the premiership and to keep us there.
His parsimonious approach to everything football was plain to see and
yet he had the audacity to claim some responsibility for getting us
there, then saying his famous “we're the envy of the Football
League” quote. At least Ian Holloway left us a legacy to be proud
of, whereas this excuse for a human being as left us with broken
promises, threadbare teams and clueless managers.
I won't
list the managers who have been and gone (too many to mention) but
suffice to say there has not been many memorable ones.
The
strange situation I find myself in this season is one of mixed
loyalties. I want to see the 'Pool win and definitely not get
relegated ( which is looking decidedly ominous )but equally I think
if we do managed to stay up the misery will just continue and the
situation will not improve. Who would have thought a couple of
seasons ago that our League 1 survival rests with Fleetwood Town, how
ironic is that. I don't know whether to feel sorry for Neil McDonald
or to think he deserves all he gets for taking on the job knowing
full well the owners are at war with the majority of the fans, myself
included.
I can see
Blackpool Football Club ceasing to exist in the next year or so if we
continue with the present owners. They have made enough money to swan
off to wherever they want to even if the club folds, but the town
could lose a valuable asset. Let's hope we can unshackle ourselves
from the owners of the modern day Titanic before we sink forever.
