Time to make friends with a northern club?

Even before they were promoted Holloway mentioned how Premier League football would be beneficial not only for the football club, but for the town itself. Having holidayed there twice, I’ve witnessed myself how some parts of the town needed a facelift.

For us fans, there is now the unique opportunity of come across the unique sights, smells, sounds of Blackpool and watch a football match in what will be the smallest ground to cater for Premiership football. And if you’re lucky you’ll witness some of the craziest shenanigans that come with the stag night/bachelor parties. It certainly promises to be an adventure.

For our club itself, there is a huge opportunity to gain some much needed positive PR up north (west-ish). Much has been said how woeful we are when we visit the northern clubs. Much of this is pure exaggeration. A team that has issues with playing in a certain area cannot brush aside a side 6-1. Moreover 3 of our defeats came after we threw away the minimum of a goal advantage. This I think is unlikely to happen in the forthcoming season.

Could it be a case of where the matter takes over the mind instead of it being the other way around? I then saw myself watching Reginald D Hunter’s performance at the Apollo via youtube. Fast-forward to the bit where starts talking about Americans loving catchphrases. He uses the famous one used for Batman to make this point.

To conquer fear you must become fear…

As the act progresses, he questions the validity of such a catchphrase in certain cases. You have to watch the rest of it to hear the sheer absurdity of it. But the concept behind the catchphrase could be relevant for us couldn’t it?

To conquer northern clubs, you must become a northern player/club?

Or think like one. This is where our new friend Blackpool can help us and be helped. Holloway will not have a huge transfer kitty and will rely on loan signings. We have arguably the best youth academy now in England. Some of these players perhaps are not ready to play in the league for us.

Kyle Bartley has suggested that he was happy to go back to Sheff Utd just so that he could get more games. So instead of going there, wouldn’t it be better if he went to Blackpool instead? Not only does he get to test himself against higher class opposition, he also knows he will have to show more competitiveness.

We talk about the great era of Adams, Keown, Dixon etc. Something that we don’t hear much is that 4 of our defenders that played in the George Graham era had spells in the north. Winterburn never played a game for Birmingham but began his career there. Dixon started off at Burnley and had a couple of years at Stoke. Steve Bould was another who donned the colours of Stoke. Keown played for the blue half of Merseyside for 4 years.

It isn’t just young defenders who stand to benefit. Can you imagine for example the technically gifted Vela being demanded to roll his sleeves up and get stuck in? Community service for footballers but on the pitch. They’d be much stronger for the experience.The other reason why a loan spell at Blackpool would be good is because Holloway also uses a 4-3-3 formation like us. Then again so does Roberto Martinez at Wigan. Two northern clubs that will strive to play attractive football in a formation that we use ourselves.

Just a few thoughts…