da supremo：
da dobrowin：
After what has seemed a long, long summer of sport (were the Euros really only a few months ago?) our favourite time of year is nearly upon us. In just a few days’ time, Blackpool kick off their season away at Millwall with an unusually high level of expectation on the terraces.
After last year’s play-off disappointment, there were fears our squad could suffer a long hangover, or be torn apart – Or both. But neither has happened and there is a definite optimism coming from Bloomfield Road. Whether this optimism is reasonable only time will tell, but there are a few genuine reasons to expect Blackpool to be challenging at the very top of the table. We have two of the hottest properties in the division in Matty Phillips and Tom Ince and if we manage to keep hold of them, which it looks as if we could, then no defence will look forward to facing us. We have a style of play that has served us and other teams very well in this league, and a manager whose passion has seen us perform well above our capabilities. And keeping hold of Holloway is far and away the best news we could have hoped for over the summer.
In some ways, it has been a summer like no other. We have created a development squad with it’s own manager, with his own credentials, who we had actually heard of. We have opened a classy hotel within the stadium with gym facilities for the players. And we have been linked with young players from PSG, Lille and Athletico Madrid rather than Mansfield or Barnet. Yet in other ways, it has been a case of same old same old, with fans moaning about the chairman’s lack of investment, missing out on targets and late arrivals.
But it has really been a first for us this summer, with no real overhaul in the squad. We have kept hold of our best players thus far and the only departures have been fringe players with Keith Southern being the only player to leave who may have featured. So, looking at how we did last year, it feels sensible to say that with a few tweaks here and there, we could progress a bit further and aim for an automatic spot.
We are one quality striker away from getting really excited about this season. But then, how many teams are saying the same thing? It appears to be the only position in which we are lacking and with us creating so many chances, we could really do with someone who is going to start most games and put them away regularly. Hopefully this will be addressed in the next few days, or at least before the window closes.
It seems silly to say we have a tough start – away to Millwall and Leicester and home to Leeds and Ipswich – when in fact, this might well be the toughest year in the Championship. Of the 3 teams relegated from the Premier League, I can’t see any of them performing well enough to run away with the league, and without a team at the top taking points away from everyone else, it will make the league even tighter. Then at the other end, the three teams who have joined the league are big clubs. Charlton, Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield will all be expecting a top half finish.
If we are to succeed this year, we need to use our squad as best we can. Thankfully, we have built a squad with real quality in depth, which will hopefully stand us in good stead come May.
What will be nice this year is having a few local games. After last season’s nearest neighbours being Barnsley some 90 odd miles away, we now have Blackburn, Bolton and even Huddersfield who are closer. Getting shot of West Ham, Southampton, Reading and Portsmouth was also a bonus. So overall, there should be a few more happy travellers from the seaside, and hopefully the players will perform better on the road this year after disappointing last season.
So, we have a great squad with some star players, and a great manager with some star quality, and another year in arguably the toughest league in the world. Unfortunately, this could well be our last chance with this squad and this manager. I can’t see us keeping Holloway out of the Premier League for another year, but this could well work in our favour and inspire the players to get into one of those 2 automatic spots.
All in all, as usual, it’s damn near impossible to predict how things will go this year, but I’ll throw a guess out there.
Top 2: Blackpool, Leicester.
Relegation: Bristol City, Barnsley, Palace
Play-offs: Anyone’s guess…?
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