A summary of recent events.

 

There's one thing about being a Blackpool fan is that nothing surprises you. Who would have thought looking back to November 2021 seeing Neil Critchley signing a new 4 year contract and talking about his plans for the future, including building upon what he had already started that  he would depart from his Bloomfield Rd office quicker than Simon Grayson did when he went to Leeds Utd. 

At least the latter was going to his boyhood club as the new manager, unlike Critchley leaving as manager and going to be an assistant manager at Aston Villa, a move which shocked everyone. 

Let's have a look at how Neil Critchley's managerial career started. He was picked as the replacement for Simon Grayson who's second stint at Bloomfield Rd never really took off. Simon Sadler took a gamble in appointing him as manager in March 2020 despite not managing previously apart from a couple of stand-in games at Liverpool in the absence of Jurgen Klopp and being in charge of the Under 18s there. He came with good coaching qualifications including UEFA's elite badge. His first part of being in charge at Blackpool was disrupted by Covid, which ruined any chance of his team plans progressing. Then in season 2020/21 despite not having the best of starts he achieved the unthinkable by winning promotion via the play-offs to the Championship finishing third behind Hull City & Peterborough Utd, a good 12 months ahead of the target set by Simon Sadler. Critchley became a crowd favourite from the off with his honest, down to earth approach. He quickly built up a rapport with the fans especially with the North Stand with his fist pumping ritual at the end of a winning performance, 

which made his departure all the more surprising to them.

It appears the move to Villa was instigated by the departure there of Steven Gerrards's assistant Mike Beale's who became manager of QPR last week. Gerrard wasted no time whatsoever in getting in a replacement by going to Critchley's home to persuade him to join him. I still think it's a detrimental move for him. Admittedly he's joining a Premiership club, but Gerrard is already under pressure to produce the goods there especially with some big signings on the way. If it doesn't go to plan both he and Gerrard will be shown the door. Critchley obviously thinks it's a gamble worth taking, but only time will tell?

Looking back on his last season with us it was a real mixed bag of results. We started off as we finished, awful. Losing game after game not being able to hang onto a lead, playing some awful negative football even when losing. Then we started to string some good results together and managed to accrue enough points to establish our Championship status for another season. But games to remember for all the wrong reasons were the defeats against Forest 1-4, PNE 0-1, WBA 1-2 (last kick of the game), Derby 0-2 and worst of all that disastrous 0-5 defeat by Peterboro. OK, you could say we beat Birmingham 6-1 but did we honestly thrash them? I thought they gifted us most of the goals, they were so bad I was convinced Lee Bowyer would be sacked straight after the game. 

My thoughts about where we came up short was the lack of having a settled side. Yes I know some of the team changes were forced onto us by injuries, which considering the high number involved caused me to think why so many? What was happening in training or perhaps the lack of training that caused so many injuries to so many different players? Did not having a settled side or the right formation cause a lack of confidence with some of the players? After all we signed more players at the start of the season than we usually did, but many were either not used, sent out on loan or were never seen again and some just didn't justify their place. What happened to our promising youth players? Some came on as late subs & despite playing well never got another chance. 

I liked Critchley as a person and stuck up for him when I thought he needed it, but I did think at times he got his tactics wrong. I found our play was far too negative especially when we were a goal ahead or worst still when were losing. I lost count of the times we were in the last third of the opponent's half only for the ball to be knocked all the way back to our defence who would then start passing the ball about aimlessly. All that did was to allow the opponents to reform & gain possession and to be honest our defence didn't look that confident doing it. We lacked the ability to shoot on goal accurately, our free kicks, corners, crosses & set pieces generally were schoolboy level. I could never understand why we took quick free-kicks only for it to go backwards instead of taking the opponents by surprise by attacking their defence. What happened to players turning with the ball instead of passing it backwards to someone in a worse position & under pressure than themselves?

Like most of us I don't know at this time who will be our next manager, but my choice would be for someone with previous managerial experience, someone who is attack minded & who can get the best out of the players.

My last appeal to Neil Critchley is to explain to the fans why you chose to leave the club because the way in which you departed so quickly without explanation has left a bitter taste behind with many of the fans.