What a mess

Shambles from top to bottom

Pressure is on the wrong person though

Ben Mansford is the problem
If mansford did his job and they got rid of the chief scout and let the manager manage. Mansford has brought in lots of revenue streams, I think he is playing CM20. Stick to what he good at.
 
Or was it Linton Brown that brought in the revenue streams? Isn't he the chief commercial officer?
 
Or was it Linton Brown that brought in the revenue streams? Isn't he the chief commercial officer?
It’s a mystery, maybe the club could explain what going on, I won’t hold my breath though. I hasten add SS is breath of fresh air.
 
Why does there always have to be someone who has to be identified as being the problem?

The thread on Mansford on here previously didn't really nail down anything he had done wrong in particular, it was just based on nothing more than some people not liking him.
He is the CEO, everything stops with him.
 
He is the CEO, everything stops with him.
Or maybe people just keep complaining because everything isn't exactly how they want it, so it moves up the chain; we started with the players, and worked upwards.

Give it another few months and if we aren't spanking teams off the park, it'll be SS who is in the firing line.
 
There’s too many involved who have “contacts “. I’d been interested to know who chose Calderwood, a no nonsense Jock who says it like it is. Unless someone stumbled upon him
 
We’re making a simple job hard imo Phil. Get a decent manager and let him do his job at this level ffs..

Instead we’re trying to be all ** fancy with Head Coaches and CEO’s trying to fulfil their fantasies.

It started going wrong the moment the board room changes occurred. We then screwed up by not hanging on with Grayson and rushing a decision without a properly considered alternative...

Now after signing loads more players for the Head Coach and seemingly throwing them at him to make a team out of, we’re trying to rectify the decision to recruit him by bringing in someone to do his job for him.

God knows of this will work, but you are exactly right, the giddiness needs to stop... Fuck off the head in the clouds bullshit and get the basics right.
 
Just remind me what position Ben Mansford is playing.

The strikers are the problem. Couldn't hit a Barn Door.
If the chief scout and the ceo have brought them in and excluded the manager, what does that say. The CEO wanted a coach and not a manager.
 
We’re making a simple job hard imo Phil. Get a decent manager and let him do his job at this level ffs..

Instead we’re trying to be all ** fancy with Head Coaches and CEO’s trying to fulfil their fantasies.

It started going wrong the moment the board room changes occurred. We then screwed up by not hanging on with Grayson and rushing a decision without a properly considered alternative...

Now after signing loads more players for the Head Coach and seemingly throwing them at him to make a team out of, we’re trying to rectify the decision to recruit him by bringing in someone to do his job for him.

God knows of this will work, but you are exactly right, the giddiness needs to stop... Fuck off the head in the clouds bullshit and get the basics right.

Apart from the Grayson bit the rest sounds about right. Cani just add, no one is having a pop at SS here, he said when he bought the club he must be mad and had no idea what he was doing. He is the real deal, just inexperienced and the one thing he needed to do was get experience around him and he hasn’t done that and must surely be regretting it. So who would have been a good football man to have had on the board?
 
We’re making a simple job hard imo Phil. Get a decent manager and let him do his job at this level ffs..

Instead we’re trying to be all ** fancy with Head Coaches and CEO’s trying to fulfil their fantasies.

It started going wrong the moment the board room changes occurred. We then screwed up by not hanging on with Grayson and rushing a decision without a properly considered alternative...

Now after signing loads more players for the Head Coach and seemingly throwing them at him to make a team out of, we’re trying to rectify the decision to recruit him by bringing in someone to do his job for him.

God knows of this will work, but you are exactly right, the giddiness needs to stop... Fuck off the head in the clouds bullshit and get the basics right.
100%
 
I don't know enough about Mansford, what he does well or badly, to offer an opinion on whether he is the problem or not.
I'm pretty sure he doesn't take training or determine the tactics and at the moment the players we have should be capable of producing more. That is a fact and that's not, directly at least, down to him.
As for recruitment If you go back through the interviews you can see that Critchley has been aware of more than a few of these players prior to them joining Blackpool.
Off the top of my head at the very least I would put Williams, Ballard, Woodburn, Sarkic in that category. So to say he has NO involvement in recruitment isn't completely true.
I think we've all decided Critchley is a well qualified apprentice and has been given the job because of his potential. Apprentices need a mentor and now Critch has got one let's give him a chance.
To end on a positive I went to Burton last season and it was an absolutely dismal game of football. Under Critchley the football has been a lot better. I know I'd accept a dismal 1-0 victory today with 10% possession but I've got to live in hope that things will actually start to improve on the pitch.
The players showed they do care and have some fire in their belly in those last 15 minutes at Wimbledon.
Hopefully I won't be back at 5.00pm to eat my words (again).
Solid back 4 today and 6 others doing whatever they want .
 
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The players have to take some of the blame, they have proved they can do it with the performances against Everton pre season of note and a couple of the early league games. Since then they have been gash and just haven’t managed to raise their game. The manager can only do so much in training and speaches, but once they step over the white line there’s no accounting for seeing your most experienced defender get sent off after 56 seconds.
 
The players have to take some of the blame, they have proved they can do it with the performances against Everton pre season of note and a couple of the early league games. Since then they have been gash and just haven’t managed to raise their game. The manager can only do so much in training and speaches, but once they step over the white line there’s no accounting for seeing your most experienced defender get sent off after 56 seconds.
You veered into Colin Hendry territory there. Be careful. 😉
 
What should we be slaughtering him for?

Comparing anyone under the new regime to Karl is laughable.
Spot on BF 👍🏼 If it wasn’t for the mess the scum had left behind Ben Mansford might have been able to do the job he was brought in to do with 100% of his time. As it is , with court cases etc, he’s had to waste time sorting that crap as well 🙄
 
Insy, you make some fair points.... I’d say two things...

On recruitment... There’s recruiting players and then there’s recruiting a team. I’ve gone on about this before, but under Holloway we saw players being brought in who had very specific attributes that contributed to the team... It’s not just about throwing a load of half decent players together and expecting it to work.

On Calderwood... I absolutely agree Critchley needs a mentor. That should have been blatantly obvious from day 1. SS is presumably reliant on his appointed reps to recognise the footballing requirements.... To appoint an inexperienced coach without a mentor (league experienced no 2) to assist, was naive and best..... Ot kind of suggest we’re not really thinking things through...

So now we have the Club seeming to react to more fan criticism and a run of poor results by bringing in the experience we needed from the get go. In doing so, it has the appearance of undermining the gaffer and may well upset the apple cart further...

Like I said in another post, hopefully we will learn on the job....👍

I just feel for Sadler... he’s had no luck so far and I can’t help but think in trying to do his best for the Club he’s not yet got the best people around him.....
 
We have some highly qualified people with great experience at the club, Mansford is one of those. Whilst I'm the first to want results immediately we do need to be realistic, it will take time for the pieces to come together. We have to remember we have pretty much changed the whole structure of a business in a little over a year, a year which has been massively disrupted by C19. The amount of sponsorship, improvements to the stadium, Squires Gate, etc is remarkable. Add to that all the things going on that we are unaware of like the new training ground, East stand, C19 planning and the likes of BM have an awful lot on their plate. The biggest failing in my view, was being unable to appoint our first choice manager.
 
Insy, you make some fair points.... I’d say two things...

On recruitment... There’s recruiting players and then there’s recruiting a team. I’ve gone on about this before, but under Holloway we saw players being brought in who had very specific attributes that contributed to the team... It’s not just about throwing a load of half decent players together and expecting it to work.

On Calderwood... I absolutely agree Critchley needs a mentor. That should have been blatantly obvious from day 1. SS is presumably reliant on his appointed reps to recognise the footballing requirements.... To appoint an inexperienced coach without a mentor (league experienced no 2) to assist, was naive and best..... Ot kind of suggest we’re not really thinking things through...

So now we have the Club seeming to react to more fan criticism and a run of poor results by bringing in the experience we needed from the get go. In doing so, it has the appearance of undermining the gaffer and may well upset the apple cart further...

Like I said in another post, hopefully we will learn on the job....👍

I just feel for Sadler... he’s had no luck so far and I can’t help but think in trying to do his best for the Club he’s not yet got the best people around him.....
Correct

Its been a cluster fcuk since we went down this route with the club set up

I honestly think Mansford is having Sadlers pants down

Look at the majority of the player signings and the management companies that represent them, looks like we are using just a couple of companies to get our players from

Its hardly scouting

I think bringing Calderwood in now completely undermines Critchley as I'm pretty certain this isn't a Critchley decision and Calderwood and Critchley don't have any noticeable experience in working together

Critchley really has been set up for failure
 
I actually feel for Critchley in all this

The board have been extremely gullible in the appointment of Critchley and haven't given him the real support he needs

The first thing (at second interview stage or whenever it was that the board had this idea of being a league 1 Liverpool with a foreign set up ) the board should have done was say to Critchley you need an experienced back room team

You surround an inexperienced manager or head coach with people who have done it before and can help

You also do everything you can to keep your better players that were already at the club, then you sort out the spine of the team

Centre defence, centre midfield and a proven centre forward

In what other industry would you let a novice with no proven experience manage a multi million pound project?

Cluster fcuk of arrogance and naivety and Mansford is the CEO

He makes the decisions from top to bottom

Its no wonder he doesn't do interviews and was so nervous at the opening of the Armfield club when he spoke

He's a fraud i bet he was shitting himself
 
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I feel sorry for SS, he appoints people to do the job and no can only oversee it via Zoom- no off the record chats at the Club with passing office staff, players, whoever. Must be hard to get a proper feeling of where the Club is.

Right, BM. He's employed him and the HoR to oversee the football day to day. BM hired an inexp coach primarily because he has/had visions of being something he's not namely a DoF type on the board. The inexp of NC allows him to do this and the fact that potential targets turned him down in the summer when money wouldn't have been the objection tells a story. His free copy of EA Sports DoF 2021 must have taken some bashing and maybe taking Dorchester Town to the Europa league cup final has gone to his head. This is how it seems to me and I of course could be wrong😒
 
I feel sorry for SS, he appoints people to do the job and no can only oversee it via Zoom- no off the record chats at the Club with passing office staff, players, whoever. Must be hard to get a proper feeling of where the Club is.

Right, BM. He's employed him and the HoR to oversee the football day to day. BM hired an inexp coach primarily because he has/had visions of being something he's not namely a DoF type on the board. The inexp of NC allows him to do this and the fact that potential targets turned him down in the summer when money wouldn't have been the objection tells a story. His free copy of EA Sports DoF 2021 must have taken some bashing and maybe taking Dorchester Town to the Europa league cup final has gone to his head. This is how it seems to me and I of course could be wrong😒
Yep its also how it seems to me
 
The Calderwood appointment looks at first glance to make sense...Then you look at his record. Poor as a manager so now he’s a coach who can’t manage and we now have a head coach who can’t manage and two assistant head coaches who can’t manage either.

it’s a worry
 
The Calderwood appointment looks at first glance to make sense...Then you look at his record. Poor as a manager so now he’s a coach who can’t manage and we now have a head coach who can’t manage and two assistant head coaches who can’t manage either.

it’s a worry
On the face of it I'm not overly bothered about his recent record at Cambridge

Its more the timing of this and why it's been done now
 
I actually feel for Critchley in all this

The board have been extremely gullible in the appointment of Critchley and haven't given him the real support he needs

The first thing (at second interview stage or whenever it was that the board had this idea of being a league 1 Liverpool with a foreign set up ) the board should have done was say to Critchley you need an experienced back room team

You surround an inexperienced manager or head coach with people who have done it before and can help

You also do everything you can to keep your better players that were already at the club, then you sort out the spine of the team

Centre defence, centre midfield and a proven centre forward

In what other industry would you let a novice with no proven experience manage a multi million pound project?

Cluster fcuk of arrogance and naivety and Mansford is the CEO

He makes the decisions from top to bottom

Its no wonder he doesn't do interviews and was so nervous at the opening of the Armfield club when he spoke

He's a fraud i bet he was shitting himself
I agree with the majority of this and have said before that our recruitment was done arse about face. It is always recommended you build from the back and get the spine sorted out. Our pre season was an unmitigated disaster and I would love to know who thought playing everyone for half a game was a good policy. We played less than half the games pre season that we should have. Think of the advantage Hull and Charlton had when they completed last season and also had a pre season...Wigan would have been the same but the EFL vultures stole all their decent players. Look where Hull and Charlton are in the table and look where "unlucky" Blackpool are.
 
there are lots of rash statements being made on here with very little knowledge of what goes on behind the scenes making mansford out to some sort of pantomime villan. The problem is were not winning games simple as that weve made a huge amount of signings most of them look good players what weve not got is the blend on the pitch thats working that could take another couple of transfer windows with players coming and going at some point the manager will be judged on results but i feel that quite a while off yet.I think we need to take a step back sometimes and look at the positives in a time of crisis for football and life in general simon sadler has invested huge amounts of money on and off the field and should be applauded what he cant make happen is success on the pitch he can only try and get it right it must be as frustrating for him as any of us.
 
I agree with the majority of this and have said before that our recruitment was done arse about face. It is always recommended you build from the back and get the spine sorted out. Our pre season was an unmitigated disaster and I would love to know who thought playing everyone for half a game was a good policy. We played less than half the games pre season that we should have. Think of the advantage Hull and Charlton had when they completed last season and also had a pre season...Wigan would have been the same but the EFL vultures stole all their decent players. Look where Hull and Charlton are in the table and look where "unlucky" Blackpool are.
Correct mate

Pre season is about properly building a squad and working on player fitness and team cohesion and tactics

Fancy friendlies against Liverpool and Everton shouldn't even be on the programme at this stage

Everton gave people false hope and results in pre season games really aren't important
 
Correct mate

Pre season is about properly building a squad and working on player fitness and team cohesion and tactics

Fancy friendlies against Liverpool and Everton shouldn't even be on the programme at this stage

Everton gave people false hope and results in pre season games really aren't important
Yes spot on
 
It's a shame there are so many fans more concerned about being proved right and telling everyone else I told you so than actually focusing on the club and all pulling in the same direction.
 
Let's just give it a whirl. Calderwood as a manager is irrelevant, he's not the manager and he's got an ok track record if not in his recent work - he's done a job as an assistant at a high level. If he's a bit old skool and that melds with Critch and his fancy ways then it might work and make all the difference. It might make no difference at all or it might make things even worse.

It's the only realistic change they could make at this point.
 
The key word there is “seems”......... you, me and nobody else on this board actually know what is going on behind the scenes. The amount of criticism though is unbelievable without having all the facts to hand 🙄
The facts are right infront of us all ..

Inexperienced head coach, near the bottom of the league, no goalscorer, week spine, knee jerk reactions, poor planning, awful signings, crap tactics and no leadership from the top

What else is there
 
It's a shame there are so many fans more concerned about being proved right and telling everyone else I told you so than actually focusing on the club and all pulling in the same direction.
You can only pull together if everyone is on the same page. Up to now they have not been.

At least now we have someone in influence who actually has some experience, which is what I , and others were crying out for all summer.

The reasons CC has been brought in are two fold, one is obvious the other less so.
 
You can only pull together if everyone is on the same page. Up to now they have not been.

At least now we have someone in influence who actually has some experience, which is what I , and others were crying out for all summer.

The reasons CC has been brought in are two fold, one is obvious the other less so.

Can't help thinking what Critch thinks of this
 
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