Change is overdue.

It's a while since I posted anything but in a way it's no surprise. The start of the new season commences on Saturday, with Blackpool away to Colchester but to say I'm excited would be a complete lie.

The dilemma I find myself in is similar to many die hard fans of Blackpool FC. We passionately want the team to do well but equally our loyalties have been stretched beyond repair by the antics of the owners. I, like many others have stopped attending Bloomfield Rd because we feel by doing so we are propping up individuals who we do not trust and who are hell bent on pushing the self-destruct button on our club. Never before have I felt so annoyed, frustrated and embarrassed by what is happening. I do not condone pitch invasions but I can understand why some fans thought it necessary to do it. It's an act of civil disobedience aimed at publicising the problems within the club to a wider audience and to that aim it has succeeded. Other fans see it as just a few troublemakers creating more problems for an already doomed club in the way of fines and possible points deductions if the disruptions continue. To me protests take many forms and only come about when communication channels are no longer accessible. I am pleased the Gazette, the once mouthpiece of the owners, has joined the growing band of people worried about the present situation and raised our concerns through Will Watt in their paper. But to prove how vindictive the owners can be over any form of criticism, that particular mouthpiece has now been gagged. The one bright star on the horizon is Blackpool Supporters Trust's offer to buy the club. I am glad
Owen Oyston has replied to their proposals and at least some dialogue has been opened, but whether anything comes of it is something we will have to wait and see. Whatever the outcome the one thing which needs to change in the interim is the permanent removal of Karl Oyston as chairman. His running of the club has been disastrous and the main reason we are in the state we currently find ourselves in. The reason the club is financially sound is NOT down to the stewardship of the disgraced chairman but to the fact that we made it to the premiership with Ian Holloway. Karl Oyston alone has managed to ostracise more fans than anyone else and will continue to do so if he is allowed to continue. The start of any new season is always an exciting time for the fans, but for the majority of Blackpool fans any excitement has been dampened by events on and off the field in recent years. Enough is enough, change is overdue.

Football matters....

Well, since I was last on here there’s been plenty to talk about in the football world. My beloved Blackpool Football Club are still holding up all the other clubs in the championship despite a rare win against Millwall last Saturday. Poor old

Ollie, he never seems to do well against teams he’s managed before. I remember when he was with us, his nemesis were Leicester City, could never get anything out of them. It looks like his days at the Den could be numbered too if results continue to go against him. It’s hard to believe they are now in the bottom three with us considering the start they had, when at one time they were unbeaten at the top of the league. I like the bloke very much, but I believe he will never replicate the success he had with us with any other team. Why? Well, when he came to us he had been out of work for about 12 months and after failing to resume his managerial career elsewhere he persuaded Karl Oyston to take him on, this despite Oyston’s well documented desire to employ Alan Knill for the job because of the success he was having at Bury (and the fact he was possibly easier to manipulate). Ian was brimming over with enthusiasm and raring to go. The rest is history. He came here at the right time for himself and the club. Alas since then it’s been downhill. Ian has been a victim of his own success and is in danger like us of slipping down the divisions. I always thought it grossly unfair for some fans to criticize him for leaving; after all he stayed with us for over 3 three years (a lifetime in footballing terms) and especially after what he achieved. We’ve had numerous replacements since the heady days of the premiership, all of which have found it impossible to do what Ian achieved.

This brings me onto the current problems at the club. Yet again chairman Karl Oyston seems to be at the hub of what fans think is wrong with the club. I personally do not know either Owen or Karl Oyston or any other members of their families, but I do know some of their actions have been unacceptable with Oyston Junior the biggest culprit. He was involved in a confrontation with a fan online and had to issue an apology when his derogatory comments went viral. It eventually came to the attention of the football authorities, who are currently investigating the matter. Embarrassing when you come to think he is a member of the Football League committee overseeing football protocol, but worst still his comments brought further unwanted publicity to the club.

At present the owners have started legal proceedings against the former chairman of the Blackpool Supporter’s Trust (BST) and against

one particular fan for £150,000 for printing online what the owners believe to be inaccurate and defamatory allegations about the club’s financial affairs. These actions are hardly going to improve the relationship between the fans and owners and tellingly the original unofficial voice of the fans the Blackpool Supporters Association (BSA) have now distanced themselves from the chairman. What the owners have to appreciate is, the club is only as strong as its fan base and if relegation becomes a reality, which is a likely possibility, that fan base will reduce even further, which in turn will affect revenue.

OK, the owners could quite rightly say the club is presently financially sound (mainly due to our brief premiership tenure & subsequent parachute payments) but for this to continue the owners will need to re-think their policy of running the club the way they do. They should forget about venting their combined spleens on suing individual fans and concentrate more on getting fans on their side by showing they really care about our club.

The Ched Evans affair is still rumbling along with some clubs appearing to want to sign him, including his original club Sheffield Utd, only for them to drop their interest once they realise the majority of the public disagree. Evans was found guilty of rape and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment & put on the Sex Offender’s Register indefinitely. He was released recently on licence after serving half of his sentence. He has always maintained his innocence despite the conviction. I always thought to qualify for parole the offender had to admit to the crime before he could be considered for release? His continuing denial has also had consequences for his victim.  Her anonymity was compromised and as a result she has had to move address several times because of the abuse she received. Like most of us I didn’t attend the trial nor hear the evidence the jury heard, so we should accept their verdict and subsequent sentence. I understand Evans admitted to having sex with his victim following her having sex with his friend. I also understand the victim was in a vulnerable state and unable to protect herself in the way she could if she was less vulnerable. Too much alcohol by anyone is not compatible with common sense or with the ability to make a sound judgement and as such should be avoided. Nevertheless, to have sex with anyone who isn’t fully in control of their actions is both stupid and irresponsible. Apparently his victim was left in the Rhyl Hotel after the incident to recover on her own. Something else Evans should not be proud of or the fact by carrying out this act in the first place he was cheating on his girlfriend. Perhaps it’s time some of these high profile privileged footballers, some of whom are paid more than they deserve to take a step back and realise they are not above the law. I don’t think the victim’s situation was helped in anyway by Steve Bruce’s interpretation of the case findings, which to say the least was naïve and misguided. Perhaps he was looking at trying to recruit Evans himself as a means to help him avoid getting Hull relegated and him the sack. Evans now finds himself like many other ex-offenders in trying to find employment on release from prison. He now realises it’s not easy, but his success in resuming employment would be helped if he genuinely showed remorse for his irresponsible actions, have the website taken down promoting his cause and publicly offer his victim an apology. That way at least will allow everyone a chance to get on with their lives and try to put the whole sordid affair behind them. If he feels unable to do that he’ll find the public just as unforgiving.

Karl Oyston must be replaced.

In all the years I’ve been supporting the ‘Pool (which is a hell of a long time) I have never known it to be this bad, whereby the chairman has openly gone behind the manager’s back to seek a replacement for him and then has the audacity to question Jose Riga’s professionalism! How the hell can he talk about another’s professionalism, when it’s the last thing he has shown since he’s been in charge of the club? Karl Oyston has managed to turn even the most loyal club supporters against him. So far as we know it, he has approached Owen Coyle for the 3^rd time, Gary Rowatt, a Spanish guy and we’ve heard today Mark Robbins. All apart from the latter (watch this space) have quite rightly turned him down. When is it going to dawn on him people do not want to work for him, especially if they are being asked to take over from someone who is already in the job.

Jose Riga is also very popular with us fans, simply because we know what a hard job he’s taken on in a very short time and despite having no support from a clueless chairman. The fans gave Jose a rapturous reception last Saturday against Wolves. The cries of “Oyston out” and “Riga,Riga,Riga” rang out throughout the game and he was given a standing ovation at the end. Even Kenny Jacket the Wolves manager commented that the fans were applauding Jose Riga after a 0-0 draw.

As I said earlier, it’s a bad time at the moment; we’ve played 6 games and only managed 1 point and are currently lying second from the bottom (an improvement on the week before, when we were bottom) with a game against Watford coming up tomorrow night. Yet the support for Riga remains constant, that to me says it all and puts what Oyston is trying to do in perspective. I dislike the man immensely, which when you consider he didn’t bother me in the past says a lot.

I am also annoyed at the lack of interest shown by the Owen Oyston over the current state of affairs. He is after all the major shareholder (and owner) and yet we have heard nothing from him at all. Does he condone his son’s actions? Is he actually telling his son what to do? If the answer is Yes to either of these questions then I’m afraid the club is going nowhere. I have joined the Blackpool Supporters Trust in the hope that we can exert more pressure on the Oystons to improve things. I think the major stumbling block of moving forward and repairing the damage done to the image of BFC is for Karl Oyston to be removed as chairman. Until that happens things are only going to get worse. 

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.

What a shambles of a season and who are we getting next?

Normally I hate the end of the football season, but I make this one the exception. If last season was a bad dream this one has been an absolute nightmare.

Ok, Paul Ince managed to stop us getting relegated after the Ollie debacle, but thankfully his rule finally came to an end via a KO text. This followed a shambolic course of ill-discipline starting with him getting a 5 match stadium ban and players being sent off for fun. The club’s reputation was unravelling in front of our eyes. His style of management was always questionable and yet if we hadn’t got off to the best start we’ve ever had we might have been relegated. Ok, most of us knew we were bound to come unstuck because although we were winning, the way in which we did it was very lucky. Our play was awful to watch, relying too much on defensive rather than attacking football and we scraped wins by the odd goal, nothing spectacular, just boring stuff. Resentment started to grow when despite son Tom turning in mediocre performances he was never dropped and only very rarely substituted.

So when he finally went, Oyston was left with the problem of who to turn to as a replacement. Normally he would have installed Thommo as a stop-gap solution, but he decided it was time for Thommo to go as well. It was obvious he didn’t want to go through the embarrassment of advertising the job again, especially after being previously turned down by all and sundry. So it came about that Barry Ferguson was put temporary charge until the end of the season to keep us in the championship. Although his CV will confirm he did it, how he did it was more by luck more than judgement. He looked increasingly like the proverbial “fish out of water”, when defeat after defeat plummeted us down the league towards the drop zone. I didn’t fancy our chances against Charlton even at Bloomfield Rd, so the unexpected win at Wigan gave us the lifeline we were looking for. Matt Gilks’s penalty save was priceless and paved the way for a rare 2-0 win. Funnily enough we actually did the double over promotion seeking Wigan, firstly 1-0 at our place & 2-0 at theirs. We avoided the drop by 2 points in the end, but it was squeaky bum time all the way.

So now the search is underway to get a new manager installed within the next 5 to 10 days, according to Oyston. I hope for once his time scale is right and not another drawn out farce. Who he gets is another fear the fans have. Obviously his past reputation will be a big stumbling block for whoever he approaches. He has managed to frighten off many experienced managers in the past with his stringent attitude towards how the club should be run. It seems every player who comes here has to take a pay cut or failing that he resorts to signing loanees. With Matt Williams due to leave the club and take up the role of Chief Executive at Shrewsbury Town, Oyston will be without his right hand man in any negotiations with prospective managers. All we can do is hope Oyston has finally realised his way of doing things has got to change, otherwise we might not manage to stay in the championship beyond next season.