The arrival of Colin Calderwood at Bloomfield Road as Assistant Head Coach - or should that be assistant to the head coach - will presumably be an appointment thrust upon incumbent head coach Neil Critchley and not one of his choosing, or something he has requested of Blackpool's owner Simon Sadler. In keeping with the…
What a refreshing change: Bohinj seeks symbiosis where tourism is secondary to local sensibilities
Making tourism work has at times been hard going for the Bohinj region of Slovenia during the last few years. If losing hundreds of guest bedrooms as the inexorable decline and eventual closure of historic hotels the Zlatorog and Bellevue wasn't a bitter enough pill to swallow(along with deteriorating fortunes at the Ski Hotel Vogel…
Overcoming poor opposition does not indicate progress for Critchley’s Blackpool
Following a series of poor performances and results that matched, a win for Blackpool Football Club against fellow strugglers MK Dons was the absolute minimum demanded of Neil Critchley's side. Whilst that was achieved, there were no indications in one of the most turgid 90-minutes of 'action' seen at Bloomfield Road for some seasons that…
Glacier protection must not be sacrificed during uncertain times for the winter-sports industry
Aside from my general feelings on the damage that winter sports can inflict upon alpine regions, it has always been the use of glaciers for skiing and snowboarding which has drawn the majority of my ire. It is understandable how the leviathan snow sports industry has managed to convert glaciers in the minds of Austrians…
Calamity James fails to overshadow the many doubts surfacing from Critchley’s poor start to life at Blackpool F.C.
It was tacitly assumed from our remote vantage points that the sending off of James Husband after 58 seconds would set the tone of last night's game at Bloomfield Road, as Blackpool took on Charlton Athletic. A backs to the wall rearguard action against presumably emboldened Addicks would surely only be a case of damage…
Blackpool Football Club: Head Coach Critchley must meld together his new squad with a League One-averse methodology
A raft of new signings prior to the slamming shut of the transfer window is not something that fans of Blackpool Football Club have become accustomed. Reared on slim pickings delivered by the previous regime more inclined to go on holiday or at least AWOL when vital squad strengthening was needed, an approach diametrically opposed…
Blackpool Football Club secure much-needed defensive reinforcements, but the called-for experience remains conspicuous by its absence
A new defence is what many fans of Blackpool Football Club have recently called for and that is what they have now got, but it remains uncertain whether it is a rearguard that will firmly close the door or one that will do nothing but paper over the back line's sizeable cracks. If anyone had…
Blackpool Football Club: Faltering start already puts head coach Critchley’s footballing ethos under the microscope
Barely a handful of games into the 2020/21 season Blackpool Football Club head coach Neil Critchley can surely be under no illusion just how difficult it is to navigate a course out of League One. Not only from a personal perspective of being the 41-year old's first full season as the main man at a…
Turkmenistan: Germany remains despotic regime’s tacit apologist of choice
It is a link that refuses to go away, with neither party seemingly in a hurry to deny a tacit tie up between the two nations, but why does Germany persist with cosying up to Turkmenistan when such an alliance does little for the image of Europe's powerhouse nation? Unsubstantiated but persistent rumours place $23…
Blackpool Football Club: Liam Feeney thrown under the bus as exodus of experience continues
It is assumed and in the main understood in equal measure that football managers on arriving at their next posting will wish to bring in personnel to play in their image, to dovetail with the most suitable component parts of their predecessor's squad. In the pursuit of implementing an ethos as far removed as can…
Blackpool Football Club: Backed to the hilt Neil Critchley and the squad of his choosing must now deliver owner Sadler’s vision
Four competitive games into his managerial career at Blackpool Football Club Neil Critchley will have long since defined the very different world of the third-tier professional game from a starkly contrasting hothouse atmosphere within Liverpool's youth set up. The dramatic change from working on Merseyside for the best domestic team in world football to a…
Blackpool Football Club: Neil Critchley ruthlessly consigns Grayson era to history
The unexpected but game-changing onset of Covid-19 has made 2020 a year like no other. As schools cautiously head back into the unknown this autumn it feels as if we have already been through a year several times its normal length, with still a third of it to elapse. Events 'pre-pandemic', in other words before…
Will Covid-19 provide the perfect smokescreen for further incursions into Alpine Europe?
As the dust settles cautiously on the beginning of the end of novel coronavirus' first wave, I ponder if what the world has learned during the last six months will be long forgotten once the need for rampant materialism once more kicks in, first during the egregious Halloween/Bonfire Night season before the vulgarity wrapped within…
Ewloe Castle: An uneasy juxtaposition of times distant past and modern day realities
For those UK staycationers who have ever wondered what their countrymen inflict upon the usual Mediterranean suspects each summertime will no longer be in any doubt, nor labour under any misapprehension as to how far into the depths of a moral abyss the country has descended. My recent vacation in North East Wales was not…
Turkmenistan: Far from yelling at clouds, President Berdymukhamedow looks the other way as the international community picks up his Covid tab
As one of the handful of countries who protest against the existence of novel coronavirus within its borders, authoritarian Turkmenistan is not an outright denier of Covid-19 bus has simply insisted that it has not transgressed from, for example, neighbouring Iran which in the early days of the pandemic was one of the most affected,…
Blackpool Football Club: A likely league-wide salary cap sugar-coats departures of the waning and never-will-bes
Football squads being dismantled is nothing new. Often at the height of success all conquering teams are broken up, from a viewpoint that to remain successful standing still and waiting for rivals to catch up is not an option. Such pruning is though the preserve of a select few, and whilst there is logic behind…
Obergurgl: Landslide and Covid-19 heavily curtails summer season, bringing in to question its ‘off season’ future
It was once suggested to me by a hotelier in the Austrian lakeside resort of St. Wolfgang im Salzkammergut that his Obergurgl counterparts did not need to be friendly as they were all already millionaires. Whether each were indeed already men and women of significant means, as was almost twenty years, remains in little doubt…
Pitztal-Oetztal link: Will Covid-19 consign the scheme to history or give it renewed oxygen?
Novel coronavirus necessitated us all to pause and take in what was around us in plain sight all along. Many won't have liked what they saw as the 'look at' me generation co-opted Covid-19 for their Narcissistic ends; others will have been astounded by nature in their gardens and neighbourhoods, while some set off for…
Blackpool Football Club put faith and serious money into an ‘up and (hopefully) coming’ transfer strategy
Stealing a march on their divisional rivals is not something that Blackpool Football Club are historically known for, especially during the Oyston era when often during pre-season an insufficiently staffed squad would be hurriedly padded out before the August kick off. It is though despite Covid-19 ravaging lower league finances and depleting squads to the…
Neil Critchley needs numbers, experience, and quality for his new look Blackpool F.C. squad
Reboot 2.0 for Blackpool Football Club under the auspices of benevolent ownership was paused before it could gain traction, but 'new' head coach Neil Critchley is now beginning to stamp his identity on what is a squad brimming in creative intent but lacking in numbers. After wresting the reins from the ruinous stranglehold the Oyston…
