FM11: Blackpool - A New Era

[hedger_14]

Burnley Sign DJ Campbell​

The transfer window was wide open as Danny Spence completed his ?1M move to Blackpool while they quickly snatched up 18 year old striker, Glenn Flynn on a free transfer after he had been released also by Arsenal. Jonathan Woodgate also set his retirement date for the end of this season after not getting much gametime last season. There were questions regarding the future of 32 year old striker, DJ Campbell after having only played in 17 league matches over the past two seasons and only managed 12 goals in the 4 seasons since joining for ?1.2M in 2010. In the end, it was Burnley who snatched him up for a deal worth ?500k, much better than the ?90k that Ipswich were offering to pay. Strikers, Jordi Alvarez and Rodrigo's futures with the club is in doubt after Liverpool took an interest in signing Rodrigo but Hedger described the ?1.2M bid from Liverpool as disgraceful, after scoring 7 goals since joining Blackpool for ?900k in January. Jordi Alvarez has also attracted bids from Man City and Lyon but Blackpool say they will not accept anything below ?5M for the 18 year old striker. Blackpool do have 32 year old, Zlatan Ibrahimovic in their sights though and a bid of ?1M had been placed, but AC Milan turned it down. Hedger stated this, "Ibrahimovic is a great player. He may be 32 but I think he still has 2 or 3 good seasons left in him. I would love to add him to our squad but we're waiting to see whether Rodrigo and Jordi Alvarez end up leaving. We have 2 superb strikers in Chris [Wood] and David [Goodwillie], and Rodrigo has shown his qualities and with Nelson Oliveira joining at the end of the month, we won't want to sign too many players for the same role. It would be a waste of wages. I will only consider serious offers for Rodrigo and Jordi though."

 

[hedger_14]

Blackpool Complete Downing Signing​

After a ?8.75M deal for Aston Villa winger, Ashley Young was turned down, Blackpool were forced to look to new alternatives for the left wing role, and it was Stewart Downing who was Hedger's next target. An original bid of ?8.75M over 48 months was turned down but the second bid of ?9.25M over that period was accepted by Fulham, allowing Blackpool to enter contract talks with the English winger. Downing accepted the contract offer and will join up with Blackpool instantly. After Man City gave up going after Rodrigo, Hedger did not look to get any new blood up front, but where he would go next was unknown as the Blackpool squad looks strong all-round now, with no real weak links. They may be looking to bolster the central midfield though with a number of targets in mind.

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Steven N'Zonzi rejects Inter to Join Blackpool​

Steven N'Zonzi was a target for Blackpool after having signed Stewart Downing and a pretty cheap target with a release clause of ?4.6M meaning Blackburn would have to accept any offer equal to, or above that price. Inter, Atletico Madrid and Blackpool all made offers for the central midfielder but in the end, N'Zonzi decided to stay in England and join with Blackpool, after a very successful couple of seasons at Blackburn, playing in nearly every match since joining the club and was very strong, both scoring and creating goals. This signing would create huge competition for the midfield spot in Blackpool with the likes of Charlie Adam, Ludovic Sylvestre, Mark Noble, Kevin-Prince Boateng and now Steven N'Zonzi. Would there be any new signings for Blackpool though, having already spent ?14.75M this transfer window. Bebe meanwhile moved on loan to Wigan for the season for a fee of ?210k with a future fee of ?5M if Wigan wish to make the deal permanent.

 

[JBlues08]

on finishing 3rd! Ian Holloway would have been very proud if he sees that league table.

A good couple of signings you made there. How much do you have for the transfer budget?

 

[hedger_14]

Um, atm, it's 18.5M and I've got 23.5M in the bank. Like I said though, that will probably be it for this transfer window. I would have had to pay Ibrahimovic like 9M pounds a year to sign him while N'Zonzi is my highest paid player with 2.8M a year after I had managed to get rid of the highest earner clause from Wood's and Adam's contract by getting them to sign new contracts before signing N'Zonzi (Well before I had planned to buy Young) so I didn't have to pay them a heap more, especially as Young wanted like 5M a year which he still rejected.

And btw from now on, I'll only be doing monthly updates so I can get through it faster. Otherwise I'm not really going to get through a whole lot.

 

[hedger_14]

Mark Noble Completes Birmingham Transfer​

Following the signing of Boateng and N'Zonzi, central midfielder Mark Noble was listed as surplus to requirements at Bloomfield Road with 4 better central midfielders and Elliot Grandin who could fill in in the central midfield if needed and Birmingham who had finished 12th in the Premier League last season looked to snatch him up and a ?1.4M bid was placed for the former West Ham midfielder. Despite the asking price of ?2M, Blackpool accepted the offer and Mark Noble having felt he had been frozen out at Bloomfield Road, accepted their contract offer, relieved to move clubs. He had played in 47 league matches in his 3 seasons at Blackpool but hadn't really made an impact with only 3 goals and 6 assists. He would be now hoping to revive his career at his new club.

 

[hedger_14]

Blackpool August Update​

16th August - Birmingham v Blackpool - Premier Division

We were much the better side in this game despite the stats showing a pretty even game, but we just couldn't find the net and we were staring down defeat before I decided to go all out and in the 90th minute, Stewart Downing swung in a cross for Rodrigo who headed it home from close range to secure a draw in our opening match. Downing, Rodrigo and Adam were the stand out performers for the team in this match as our midfield looks much stronger. We were also denied strong claims for a penalty, which ended up proving to be the difference between a draw and taking the 3 points.

23rd August - Blackpool v Arsenal - Premier Division

I wasn't sure going into this clash after our draw against Birmingham but we moved the ball around well in midfield and despite conceding an early penalty which Vidal converted, we fought back very strong with goals for Rodrigo, N'Zonzi and Fatic to take a 3-1 lead going into the break and despite Nasri's late goal, we held on for a memorable win. Rodrigo was outstanding with a goal and 2 assists taking the MOTM award, while our midfield had another strong game, N'Zonzi in particular. Our central midfield actually looks thin now after Ludovic Sylvestre was injured in pre-season and out for and would be out for the game with Tottenham while Boateng was injured prior to this match and he'd probably miss our next 2 games. Jeffren is our only other injury at this point in time.

Champions League

The Champions League draw had finally come and he pulled out a horrible group, drawing Real Madrid who had won the Champions League once and came runner up twice in the last 4 seasons. We also drew out Benfica, and the strongest team that was seeded 4th, Feyenoord, probably the group of death this season.


League Cup

Our league cup draw wasn't much easier having to go up against Tottenham away from home in the third round towards the end of next month. We're expected to reach the quarter final so that's not promising.


Next Month

We have an extremely tough fixture list next month with matches against Tottenham and Man City in the Premier League, then Real Madrid in the Champions Cup, Man Utd away from home, Tottenham in the league cup, Everton in the Premier League and finally Feyenoord in the Champions Cup. If we manage a few wins this month, I'll be extremely pleased.

 

[hedger_14]

tweaking hell. I just spent nearly an hour writing up the next update and then I accidently go to delete something but hadn't selected the text so I went back a page and lost everything. ffs

 

[JBlues08]

fried chickening hell. I just spent nearly an hour writing up the next update and then I accidently go to delete something but hadn't selected the text so I went back a page and lost everything. ffs

Yikes! You need to be more careful next time.

Still looking forward for more updates.

 

[hedger_14]

Blackpool September Update​

1st September - Tottenham v Blackpool - Premier Division

It was always going to be a struggle going away to Tottenham but we played reasonably well and after Downing swung in a cross for Rodrigo to slide in and open the scoring, Cathcart and the defence held strong to deny Tottenham anyway back into it, Cathcart picking up the MOTM award, to continue our fine form at the start of the season.

13th September - Blackpool v Man City - Premier Division

Still undefeated in the league, confidence was sky high and the quality of finishing proved the difference as Cathcart headed Adam's corner past the outstretched hand of Alvarez in the 35th minute before Downing finally found the scoresheet in the 73rd minute after a fine start to his career and he would have been relieved to have got off the mark at his new club after having set up a few goals early on. We then held on for a 2-0 win, Cathcart picking up the MOTM award for the second time in a row.

17th September - Blackpool v Real Madrid - Champions Cup

We didn't really expect much going into this match but when after a promising start to the match for both teams ended up with Phil Jones scoring off a corner, we had big hope for pulling off one of the upsets of the season, McFadden coming into the starting XI and setting up the goal. McFadden then showed he should be there with a remarkable goal in the 61st minute and victory seemed to be ours before Ian Evatt put the ball into his own net just under 10 minutes later and just as it had seemed like we had held on for an unbelievable win, Rakitic equalised to deny us all 3 points, but at least we had something to show for our efforts. A great performance and I can't fault any players apart from maybe Evatt who scored an own goal. Phil Jones took the MOTM award, very solid at the back and adding a goal.

20th September - Man Utd v Blackpool - Premier Division

Coming off our huge match mid-week, I didn't expect a whole lot at Old Trafford but when we gave up 2 soft goals to Wayne Rooney before Huddlestone added one late in the game, I wasn't very happy. David Goodwillie's goalless run continued still without a goal this season but hopefully he could find his feet soon.

24th September - Tottenham v Blackpool - League Cup 3rd Rnd

David Goodwillie finally broke his goal draught with 2 goals within the first 16 minutes and we looked on track for a huge win. Nilmar pulled one goal back a couple of minutes later but Sylvestre made it 3-1 after 20 minutes. The game settled down after that as we defended well and couldn't really break the Tottenham defence but dos Santos put the game beyond doubt in the 75th minute as we took a huge 3-1 win.

27th September - Blackpool v Everton - Premier Division

This was one of our easier matches to start the season but we didn't make it count as both sides had to settle for a point. David Goodwillie scored his first league goal of the season in the 25th minute, Rodrigo picking up the assist before Benitez pulled back for Everton in the second half and we had to settle for a 1-1 draw, pretty disappointing compared to some of our big results this season.

30th September - Feyenoord v Blackpool - Champions Cup

Having taken a point against Real Madrid, we fancied our chances against a lower Feyenoord team and James McFadden was having the luck of his life as he scored a good goal in the 15th minute before scoring a tap in, 2 minutes later, Elliot Grandin setting up both goals. Feyenoord found a way back into the game though Paulo in the 29th minute but it was going to be hard for them to fight back when Djuric was sent off for a professional foul just after half-time. Playing with 10 men, they were unable to really threaten our goal and we held out for a great 2-1 win to take our first win in the Champions League. James McFadden took the MOTM award for his 2 goals.

Premier League

After 6 games, we sit in 4th place, with 3 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss from those games. Man City, Chelsea and Everton all sit one point behind us with a game in hand meaning they will probably overtake us. Newcastle are sitting top of the ladder, undefeated in their 6 games with 16 points, while Man Utd have won all but one of their games, one point behind Newcastle due to their first day defeat against Blackburn. Our draw doesn't get any easier over the next month playing Liverpool away, Fulham at home, Chelsea away, Newcastle home and Sunderland away from home at the start of November before our draw finally becomes more relaxing, playing West Brom, Wolves, Peterborough and Leicester in consecutive matches. If we can just stick with the top 3 until then, we will fancy our chances for a top 2 finish.


Champions League

Real Madrid's 4-1 win over Benfica put them top of the ladder, with us just behind on goal difference. Benfica had beaten Feyenoord in their first game to sit third so we would need to make sure we beat them in our next game. The group may come down to our away clash with Real Madrid, where we will be looking to take all 3 points this time.


League Cup

After our 4-1 thrashing of Tottenham at White Hart Lane earlier this month, we would play Newcastle at home in the 4th round, the draw not getting much easier. Meanwhile, Arsenal go up against Chelsea in this round, which should be an entertaining match.

 

[JBlues08]

Whoa! A couple of cracking results there mate. Shame you couldn't get the win over Madrid. Nonetheless, KIU!

 

[hedger_14]

Blackpool October Update​

6th October - Liverpool v Blackpool - Premier Division

It wasn't a great game for us as we found a lot of our players went into the book and Vertonghen scored a long range goal in the 69th minute. The game came alive at the end though when an attacking mentality meant Liverpool were able to catch Blackpool out on the counter and a tap in for Charles N'Zogbia seemed to put the game beyond doubt. Blackpool weren't giving up though and David Goodwillie layed it off for Downing to swing in a cross, less than a minute later and Rodrigo slid in to bring Blackpool back in it but time was running out. Giovani dos Santos was then clean through on goal with the chance to equalise but the shot went narrowly wide before there was an outrage by Blackpool players, staff and fans when Giovani dos Santos went on a promising run and just as he reached the edge of the 18 yard box, Andre Marriner called full time after a pretty poor game of refereeing as well.

18th October - Blackpool v Fulham - Premier Division

When Moussa Dembele opened the scoring 12 minutes in, it seemed like we were in for another poor game, but Giovani dos Santos scored twice in the next 5 minutes to put us in the lead before Goodwillie scored on the stroke of half-time and added a second with 20 minutes remaining to take an emphatic 4-0 win, however Kevin-Prince Boateng would miss the next 2 games through injury. David Goodwillie took the MOTM award, not surprisingly.

21st October - Benfica v Blackpool - Champions Cup

A return to former clubs for both Rodrigo and Nelson Oliveira, Rodrigo starting while Oliveira would be on the bench. It was a pretty even match, ourselves probably the better team slightly but Nelson Oliveira scored a goal, coming off the bench, worthy of the 3 points, his first for Blackpool and one to remember against his former club. He picked up the ball just inside the opposition half, surged past central defender Luisao, evaded the tackle of Lucio inside the box, kept calm and composed from a tight angle and slotted it past Roberto to take the lead. We surrendered that lead 10 minutes later though when Brack gave up the ball deep in our own half, before Maxi Pereira crossed the ball and Gaitan tapped it in to equalise for Benfica. It remained that way but could have been different if Nelson Oliveira hadn't been brought down by Medel who was through on goal, and already on a yellow card, the referee had no choice but to send him off and we had to settle for a 1-1 draw.

26th October - Chelsea v Blackpool - Premier Division

We didn't expect much at Chelsea and they showed their dominance throughout the game, creating chance after chance but no matter what they did, they couldn't find a way past Caballero as he made many quality saves, and Chelsea were made to pay in the second half, when a great run from David Goodwillie down the left hand side of the field resulted in a goal, as he skipped past Terry on the outside and beat Cech from a tight angle to score his 3rd goal in 2 league games and give Blackpool a 1-0 lead. Chelsea tried to pull back level but Caballero made another couple of good saves to keep them out and give Blackpool a memorable win, Caballero taking the MOTM award for probably the best performance of his career.

29th October - Blackpool v Newcastle - League Cup 4th Rnd

Danny Guthrie took the lead early for Newcastle but after some dominance up front, we found our way onto the scoresheet after 15 minutes, when Evatt headed home Grandin's corner. A draw probably seemed to be a fair result and see the game go to extra time but a set play resulted in a 90th minute goal for Danny Spence as Newcastle took a 2-1 win but we would be looking for revenge, playing them in the league in our first game of next month and if you look back at last season, Blackpool lost in the 4th round of the League Cup against Sunderland 2-1 and played them in their next league game and rebounded to win 1-0 so you would fancy Blackpool's chances.

Premier League

We're still up there in 5th place but we would really need a win against Newcastle to keep up in the title race. Man Utd top the table with 21 points from 9 games, 4 ahead of us, while Newcastle are in 2nd on 19 points and Blackburn and Everton are ahead of us on goal difference on 17 points. Man City, Tottenham and Arsenal all sit behind us within 3 points. Once we get our next 2 games out of the row against Newcastle and Sunderland, we play 3 of the bottom 4 teams and Peterborough (12th) to end the month.


Champions League

Following Real Madrid's 3-2 win over Feyenoord, they have pulled 2 points ahead of us with 7 points from their opening 3 games while we have picked up 5, 1 win and 2 draws. Benfica only sit one point behind us though, while Feyenoord really have a mountain to climb if they want even third place, with 3 losses in their first 3 games. We play Benfica and Real Madrid, both away from home this month.

 

[JBlues08]

No more updates?

 

[hedger_14]

Sorry mate, I've got exams coming up but don't worry, I haven't abandoned this. I'll try getting around to an update sometime in the next week. But after my exams, it will be holidays so I'll get through a lot more then.

 

[JBlues08]

Alright. Good luck in your exams.

 

[hedger_14]

Blackpool November Update​

1st November - Blackpool v Newcastle - Premier Division

A comfortable 2-0 win over Newcastle to get revenge for the previous defeat, thanks to a double from David Goodwillie. He scored early on in the 5th minute when a long pass from N'Zonzi found Downing before he played the ball across to Goodwillie who tapped it in for the opening goal and Fatic set Goodwillie up for his second after 29 minutes. He couldn't get his hattrick though and we suffered bad news with Chris Wood out with an injury which meant he would miss the next 2 games.

5th November - Benfica v Blackpool - Champions Cup

It was a very important match for us as Benfica looked to overtake us but Nelson Oliveira scored his 2nd goal for the club and 2nd goal against Benfica to give us the lead 5 minutes in when Goodwillie played a superb ball in behind the defence and his finish was even better. Neal Eardley managed to put the ball into his own net though just before half-time to bring the scores back level. A horrific challenge from David Goodwillie though an hour into the manage saw him be sent from the field and Blackpool could have no complaints. The scores remained level as we took another vital point in the Champions League to keep hopes of progressing alive.

8th November - Sunderland v Blackpool - Premier Division

It's always a tough travel to the Stadium of Light and I was pretty happy coming away with a point. Things were looking good though when David Goodwillie stole the ball from Pazdan before going on a run towards the goal and finally smashing it past the keeper to score his 100th league goal for Blackpool and we led 1-0. A simple tap in for Rasmus Elm put Sunderland back on level terms and despite some great chances for Sunderland, a MOTM performance from Wilfredo Caballero got us a point and our fixture list looked much more promising now.

12th November - Blackpool v West Brom - Premier Division

David Goodwillie's superb run of goalscoring continued in this match when he scored in the 30th minute. A foul from Ivan Fatic about 5 minutes later let West Brom equalise through a Monnet-Paquet header. A bad mixup between Jones and Caballero resulted in Caballero putting the ball into his own net on the stroke of half-time and we were down 2-1. We managed to get one good chance before half-time though and Zuiverloon gave away a foul right outside the box, allowing Giovani dos Santos to score a freakish goal from the set play and the West Brom keeper had no idea as he could only watch as it curled around into the top left corner. It looked like the game was heading for a draw but this time, it was Rodrigo who scored from a free kick, getting a deflection off the wall to score an 80th minute winner and give us a relieving win.

16th November - Wolves v Blackpool - Premier Division

It wasn't going to be a walk in the park against the Wolves away from home but we were expecting a win. It took an hour for the first goal to be scored though but Giovani dos Santos looked a totally different player this season and scored an absolute stunner, as he sprinted past the full back towards the inside and hammered it in the top corner from 25 yards to give us the lead. We couldn't hold onto the lead for long though as Brack made a horrid mistake rushing out at Henry as Wolves hit us on the break off the corner and Henry made us pay as he made a good finish to pull the Wolves back level. Goodwillie scored another good goal though with minutes remaining to get us a fortunate victory and we now looked on track for a very high finish this season.

22nd November - Blackpool v Peterborough - Premier Division

Rodrigo got his first start in a while and proved he should be there as he scored a superb hattrick as we managed a comfortable 4-1 win over Peterborough. Rodrigo's first goal was pretty simple as his first shot rebounded back to him to put the ball in past the keeper in the 15th minute. Goodwillie set Rodrigo up for his second less than 10 minutes later as the strike was a very good one leaving Lewis no chance and the third goal was even better as he considered his options right on half-time before deciding to have a go and curled it past Lewis for a memorable hattrick. Griffiths finally got Peterborough on the scoresheet with less than 20 minutes remaining but we got the 3 goal win when Zakuani impeded Charlie Adam and the skipper stepped up to the spot and converted the penalty to give us an easy 4-1 win. Despite the victory, we were hit with the bad news of Giovani dos Santos' injury which would keep him out for the match against Real Madrid and Leicester.

25th November - Real Madrid v Blackpool - Champions Cup

We had managed to draw Real Madrid in our first meeting but that was at Bloomfield Road and the trip to Santiago Bernabeu was a totally different experience. We really looked good though and Chris Wood opened the scoring in the 41st minute before Charlie Adam converted his second penalty in 2 games to put us 2-0 up, the same lead that we held in our first meeting with Madrid. Cristiano Ronaldo hit back 4 minutes later though and just as it had looked like we had held on for the victory, an 89th minute goal from Gonzalo Higuain forced us to settle for a point but after Benfica's loss to Feyenoord, we still sit in 2nd and it looks like we will progress to the next stage.

29th November - Leicester v Blackpool - Premier Division

It should have been a comfortable win against Leicester but it didn't look good when Danny Ward put the underdogs ahead after 5 minutes. 3 goals before half-time, 2 from Rodrigo and one from the Scottish legend, David Goodwillie gave us a 3-1 lead going into the break. Wordsworth brought Leicester back to within 1, 10 minutes into the second half but we managed to hold on for a 4th straight league victory and extend our unbeaten run in the league to 8 games.

Premier League

Our unbeaten month meant we sat in 1st for the first time this season, 3 points ahead of Man City, Blackburn and Arsenal, although Man City does have a game in hand. 3 straight defeats for Man Utd had brought them to 6th position but they would be looking for a strong response in the next couple of months. Chelsea's Avram Grant's position would have had to be under pressure as they sat in 9th place but he was there for the time being. Next month's draw is still very friendly apart from a home game against Blackburn but then we play Swansea away from home before playing West Ham, Aston Villa and Birmingham at home to end the month so hopefully we can extend our lead at the top of the table.


Champions League

Our spot in second place looked pretty secure with one match remaining, sitting 2 points ahead of 3rd place Benfica while Feyenoord had no chance of qualifying for the next stage. If we beat Feyenoord, we will progress but should we not, then as long as Benfica does not beat Real Madrid, we still still finish 2nd. We have no chance of finishing 1st, 4 points behind Real Madrid but I never really thought that I'd have a chance at finishing top.