Days away from the start of the season, teams up and down the country will be eager to kick off the campaign in the best possible fashion. Blackpool are no different, and given the relatively small turnover of players, should be well positioned to make a strong start. However, one wonders just how key early points on the board are. Does a flying start equate to success?
With that in mind, I've carried out some research from the last five seasons into how teams winning automatic promotion - Blackpool's lofty target - have begun the Championship season. For the purposes of this exercise, I have read 'start of the season' to mean the opening 10 fixtures. Here are the findings:
Throughout last season I analysed the relative difficulty of Blackpool's fixtures based on a system devised by the brains over at Experimental 3-6-1 - the season visualiser. For the most part the visualiser held up pretty well and was a good way of tracking progress during the course of the campaign.
I'm pleased to announce that the visualiser will once more be a regular feature on the blog this season, with thanks due again to Ben Mayhew (@experimental361) for providing the raw data which allows me to manipulate the figures into various charts and graphs.
With the dust long since settled on the disappointment of Wembley, the new campaign and a fresh assault on promotion to the Premier League is less than a week away. The feel to the playing side going into the opening day is notably different from recent seasons and optimism reigns - cup defeat to Morecambe aside. Many supporters are beginning to believe in the prospect of a first automatic promotion since 1985. That expectation may be premature, yet having come so close last time round, a few tweaks here and there and a smoothing of the rough edges could see that long-held ambition fulfilled.
Blackpool took a lead in the first leg of their play-off semi-final with Birmingham City. It was nothing less than the Seasiders deserved following an excellent display at Bloomfield Road, although they may be frustrated that they were unable to make more of their dominance on the day. Here are my observations from the match:
With Blackpool set to embark on yet another play-off campaign - the club's seventh in the last 21 years - it seems fitting to re-visit past adventures in the so-called end of season lottery. The first retrospective will focus on the 2000/2001 season when Blackpool won promotion from League Two after an eventful season.
Keen followers of the blog - I'm led to believe there are one or two of you out there - may have noticed a distinct lack of activity in recent weeks. My last post was a response to the publication of the club's most recent set of annual accounts, where I outlined 10 questions that should be answered by the Oyston family.
My inactivity since then has been for a variety of reasons. Posting about the football side has been limited by time, missing the odd game here and there, and to be honest more than a little apathy in the aftermath of the financial revelations. Results had done little to inspire either, with just one win in the last six including some very poor performances.
Away from the football, I had been reluctant to post more about the financial situation. There was still plenty more to say, but there was a feeling emerging that off-the-field disruption was starting to affect performances and results. How true that is remains unclear - players are after all highly-paid professionals who should be able to put paper talk to the back of their minds once crossing the white line. However, I was willing to let this case lie until our season is over, one way or the other.
Until now we had only heard brief snippets from Karl Oyston in reply to the stories that arose in the national and local press. Yet this Monday, the BBC broadcast an interview with the Blackpool chairman as part of their regional Late Kick Off programme, hosted by Tony Livesey. An extended version of this interview was then broadcast by Radio Lancashire on Tuesday evening.
Needless to say I was far from impressed with comments made by Karl Oyston, and therefore I would like to respond to his response. Quotes displayed are accurate transcriptions from that interview, which can still be listened to until next Tuesday (3rd April).
...but probably won't be. At least not satisfactorily.
Since the club's 2010/11 accounts were published last week it has been a topic that has dominated debate in the usual outlets, and even making national headlines with a double page spread in the Mail on Sunday (and later coverage in the Guardian). Last year this blog sought to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the 2009/10 accounts, although in truth that wasn't entirely successful.
Rather than take a similar approach by dissecting the numbers in detail - much of which is already now publicly available anyway - we'll take a look at the fallout from the figures and the questions arising. It's unlikely Blackpool fans will get the answers they want to these questions, but if the club's owners are determined to build bridges and make amends for this PR disaster, then as much disclosure as possible based on these 10 questions would certainly help.
