Are we shit now then? A long view...

I've seen 4 really successful Blackpool sides in my life. I'm just slightly too young to have seen the transition from Graham Carr to Billy Ayre, so, as I remember the play off victory, I've excluded that side as I don't recall that much how it was formed and I'm simply not qualified to talk about what Gary Bowyer did as I was basically ignoring it. 

Don't ask me.... Cos I don't know

Usually a managerial change comes when the side's at a low ebb. It's either demotivated, lacking in confidence, it's simply lacking in quality or worst of all, it's shit AND lacking motivation. 

When Fat Sam succeeded Billy Ayre, the side was lacking in quality, the end of Dave Bamber's talismanic career was upon us, injuries had taken their toll and the likes of Eyres, Sinclair, Groves, Garner had all moved on. We were a very raw side with class player replaced on a shoestring and King Billy's achievements in keeping us up are equal to his achievements in getting us there in the first place. 

When McMahon succeeded Nigel Worthington, the side was suffering from both. A succession of uninspiring budget signings left us looking completely toothless and the football was turgid. We didn't know how we'd beat teams and the players really didn't either. 

When Larry mk1 replaced Hendry, the side was shorn of all the good that McMahon did, replaced by largely baffling signings and kids that were frankly not up to it (or at least asked to carry too much weight) and a leaden and often incomprehensible style of play prevailed. 

In all of the above cases, it took a serious amount of time to get it right.

Remember him tabbing it in the dugout? Look at the phone! The phone! 

Fat Sam's first season was turgid and physical, even featuring Dave Bamber at centre half. We did improve on the previous year thanks to some decent signings and we looked solid but we never looked like promotion candidates. In the second year, we played a direct, exciting and aggressive form of football which was far more attacking than people who weren't there might care to think given Fat Sam's reputation for defensive pragmatism. It was, (until it very sadly wasn't) a very well oiled machine with Ellis, Preece, Quinn, Watson all dangerous, Morrison dominant and Marvin Bryan, Marvin Bryan, running down the wing. Until we brought in Eric Nixon (fuck off you cunt,) the mixture of youth and experience made us look absolute quality and certainties for promotion. A complete transformation from 2 seasons earlier, where staying up was little short of a miracle. 

Steve McMahon spotted instantly that the side he'd inherited was heading for the drop. Unfortunately his answer of 'signing his old mates' in Mike Newell, Kevin Richardson, Gary Ablett and friends didn't stop the rot and the year after, as 80000 pool fans who were there will testify, we also lost 7-0 to Tony Cottee's Barnet. By the end of the year however, we were gathered in Cardiff, to witness a demolition of Leyton Orient and a Pool side with Brett finishing the sort of sweeping, high class move we'd become capable of. A side in which the skills of Simpson, the pace of Bullock, the presence of Murphy and the string pulling of Wellens made it a joy to watch. Trophies followed and that side was a player or two away from threatening the play offs and the championship for a couple of seasons. 

When you were young and your heart was an open book...

Larry had an instant hit with a 4-1 win against Scunthorpe but it took much longer to play that way regularly. He kept us up, but the next season saw much grumbling about the new man, really, until we went on the unstoppable run at the end of the season. Larry had transformed the side by now and the turnover of players had been massive. It's insightful to look and see how many of his initial signings didn't really make the grade. 

The only exception to this rule was Holloway's team, which came more or less ready made. Obviously, Ollie added a little of his own and transformed the way the team played and thought about itself. Unlike the other three names above, the side wasn't subject to a complete overhaul. Many Pool fans believe that Tony Parkes' eye for a player and contacts is as much a factor as anything else in the once in a lifetime confluence of talent, character and shared purpose that forged the Premier League winning team. 

Oven ready? 

What of this? It tells us that Critchley faces a challenge and that history dictates that success might not come quickly. It tells us that our successful managers over the last 30 years who've faced a similar challenge have taken time to work out what they want and get it right. 

There's an argument that the squad was as bare as anything we've seen in the above cases with such a reliance on loans in key positions leaving barely a squad to work with. There's a counter argument that Critchley might have worked harder to retain some of the quality in the squad from the previous season and chosen a slightly more evolutionary path than a revolutionary one. For my money, I think there's truth in both points, Critch has been dealt a tough hand and needs to rebuild, but perhaps he's also discarded a couple of bricks a bit quicker than I would have done. Who is to say. 

The wider point remains though. This is yr 1. Pep didn't win the league in Yr 1, Klopp didn't win the league in Yr 1. Expecting us to run through the league and knock everyone over is naive. Football very, very rarely works like that. Alex Ferguson cliche etc. 

Critchley has had backing and that puts him in an advantageous position compared to many of our former bosses, but Fat Sam was lucky in that his reign coincided with Owen's one splurge of PR related benevolence, motivated by stadium plans and overcoming the damage of the rape charges that were soon to be a conviction. Larry was fortunate to meet with the first wave of the Belokon investment and was able to add proven quality to a side that had been previously reliant on Jamie Burns. Even with money, things take time. 

Lets not even mention the last time a fancy coach came in and had a 'revolution.' It's better for us all to just forget that. 

I'm seeing... nothing.

None of this proves that Critchley will or won't be successful. It just shows that in almost any case, it takes time and sometimes (as witnessed under MacMahon, who arguably had the biggest rebuilding job and the least support to do it) it goes backwards before going forwards. Whilst that side never graced the heights of latter successes, there were spells in games where our football was breathtaking and as good as anything I've ever seen. The idea of that being the way we played 18 months earlier was frankly laughable. Indeed, on the evidence of watching Mike Newell and James Thomas half heartedly jog about after long balls on our way down to Div 4, the idea of it being the way we played even when Macca had been in post for a couple of months seemed equally far fetched. 

Macca out!

It's worth thinking about who did well last year. Every single side that was promoted or reached the play offs has had the same boss in place the season before. Gareth Ainsworth was the longest serving manager in the division, Outside of John Coleman, Mark Robins and Paul Warne were next, followed by Karl Robinson and Joey Barton. 

Of course, this is self fulfilling (as a manager performing well is more likely to keep his job) but it does show that stability is a factor in success. 

The performance yesterday was really poor. Critchley has certainly got pressure on him, all managers do and the squad has holes. We're crying out for a dominant centre half. Screaming for it. It's so obvious that we might as well change our name to Blackpool 'who've had a big turnover of players but must surely still be in the market for a leader at the back' FC. It was all to easy for them to put us under pressure, simply by hitting their forwards at the heart of our defence. On the other hand, we've also got a collection of talent, the like of which puts most of our past squads in the shade, certainly at this level. There is definitely a cake. We do still need a bit of icing, maybe some sprinkles. 

It also has to be said the squad has some answers. We didn't retain the ball high enough up the pitch and Yates looks like he's struggling to do what he did with Swindon as he's playing in a different position to that which he looked fantastic in last year. We've got Gary Madine, who isn't to all tastes, but compared to many strikers we've had at this level is a ludicrously qualified player to be physical presence up front. If Madine and Yates both play, then we're definitely a striker light overall as one knock and we're back to only one of them playing. 

The midfield looked all a bit samey and lacked the bite to knock Gillingham off their stride. We've got Matty Virtue, who won't go on and captain England or anything but has a strong tackle, grafts, and crucially, likes a shot and gets in the box. We've played some lovely football and even yesterday had some attractive spells, but we aren't making enough of the chances we've got. Virtue combines a bit of Phil Clarkson with a bit of Spearing. Keshi, Ward and Robson are doing a lot of work, Virtue could free two of them up a bit to play. We'll be fine when we're up against another side that wants to match the way we play, but can we force the game? Virtue isn't the perfect answer but he's a good estimate at least. 

We didn't look like we could unlock the defence, but we've got Kaikai who is absurdly talented, as good as anything in the league, Kemp who has done nothing wrong at all in his appearances and Sarkic who comes with a good reputation for skill and providing goals for others who has vanished a bit after a knock. It's not like we're having to bring on Matty Blinkhorn or Dave Lancaster. We've got a lot of players whose next move will definitely not be to non-league, who would get in other sides in the division. 

It's not the end of the world this. It's the way football works. We all want to know where we'll finish, we want to know that we'll be successful but there's no way of guaranteeing it. Each week, we're back to square one. We lose to teams we should beat, we beat teams we didn't expect to. The rough is the friction that makes the smooth. If it really was as easy as making some signings and doing a bit of coaching, then success wouldn't be as hard to come by and consequently as sweet. We can analyse stats and graphics, we can do micro analysis of every step the players take, but so is everyone else. What we need is fairly straightforward. 

I said we'd miss him...

Predicting joy or gloom is harder than it looks. If it wasn't, we'd all be raking it in at the bookies and frankly, it would be boring. Adversity forges character and it's through the response to it, we'll find out who in this new era has it. Who will come out snarling and fighting and who will hide? Will Critch take ruthless decisions? Has he got someone up his sleeve he's waiting to sign? We just don't know. We're gonna find out. That's why we're all here. It's a fucker of a division to get out of... COME ON POOL! 

utmp

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