Championship Appleton new Blackpool boss

[Joey]

Throw in the 2016-17 season too. Another Wembley appearance, a few giant killings in the cups, the double over Swindon (who went down - ha) and a top half finish. He spent well on sellable assets too.

We’ll skirt over 2014-15 when he went through 100 players, tried getting Newey and Hunt playing tika-taka and ruthlessly dumped crowd favourites in Ryan Clarke and Alfie Potter. Having the resources to cancel contracts and bring in Roofe, Baldock (George), MacDonald etc and getting damn lucky with Waddock’s only signing in Danny Hylton helping too.

If Blackpool are willing to be patient, MApp will be a good fit for them. He’s a builder of things and not a quick fixer. If he can continue what Critchley set up, he’ll do a good job.

To be fair, this is one of the more impressive things about Appleton I thought, and far and away the most frustrating about Robbo. He made plenty of mistakes early on and had a real stubbornness about playing the right way, he was questioned about a plan B when things weren't working at a fans even early in his reign and his response was "plan B is plan A". He stuck with it until probably halfway through that season when he realised he needed to be far more pragmatic sometimes, I think getting battered by Cambridge 5-1 live on Sky was a big part of it.

We still generally played great football but we were also able mix it up, sit on a lead or effectively play down channels etc if needed. The big frustration is that Appleton worked out and made great strides in correcting his biggest weakness in six months or so whereas we still have the same issues now four years into the job, as well as the imbalanced squad year after year, something else Appleton was great at. Shouldn't have let Hylton and Wright go when we came up mind.

 

[tonyw]

One was successful with us. Current manager hasn’t been.. yet. Let’s hope he can be!

Honestly, I think back-to-back League One playoff appearances is as good an achievement as getting promoted from League Two.

There's a big step-up in resources and quality between the top half of League One & League Two.....I'd say it's tougher to break into the big club logjam at the top of our current division than it is to get promoted from the 4th tier where there are a lot of crap teams.

Which is not to discredit MApp, because that was an amazing team he built in 2015/16.

 

[Oxford1996]

Honestly, I think back-to-back League One playoff appearances is as good an achievement as getting promoted from League Two.

There's a big step-up in resources and quality between the top half of League One & League Two.....I'd say it's tougher to break into the big club logjam at the top of our current division than it is to get promoted from the 4th tier where there are a lot of crap teams.

Which is not to discredit MApp, because that was an amazing team he built in 2015/16.

Don’t wanna come across as blunt but I’m very picky when it comes to success like that. Success is promotion.

By that logic I could add the 2 Wembley finals under MAPP too.

Similar to the Premier League when teams treat top 4 as a trophy.

I like KR, but he’s failed as we didn’t go up in those play offs. I do think he may of took us up automatically in the ‘PPG’ season.

 

[tonyw]

Don’t wanna come across as blunt but I’m very picky when it comes to success like that. Success is promotion.

By that logic I could add the 2 Wembley finals under MAPP too.

Similar to the Premier League when teams treat top 4 as a trophy.

I like KR, but he’s failed as we didn’t go up in those play offs. I do think he may of took us up automatically in the ‘PPG’ season.

No worries about bluntness, but I'm still going to disagree with you!

For me, success is all about how you perform relative to your resources and reasonable expectations.

To use your Premier League analogy - yeah, it's rubbish when teams like Arsenal or Man U get super-excited when they finish Top 4. Because they've got as much money as anyone and should be expecting/attempting to do better. But for a team with midtable resources.....a Wolves or a Brighton.....it would be an incredible achievement because they would be way overachieving vs. their budget.

For me, Luton had as good a season as anyone last year - they won nothing, but they vastly overachieved relative to their resources........

 

[Oxford1996]

No worries about bluntness, but I'm still going to disagree with you!

For me, success is all about how you perform relative to your resources and reasonable expectations.

To use your Premier League analogy - yeah, it's rubbish when teams like Arsenal or Man U get super-excited when they finish Top 4. Because they've got as much money as anyone and should be expecting/attempting to do better. But for a team with midtable resources.....a Wolves or a Brighton.....it would be an incredible achievement because they would be way overachieving vs. their budget.

For me, Luton had as good a season as anyone last year - they won nothing, but they vastly overachieved relative to their resources........

I agree.

But they still didn’t achieve anything success wise.

And now you see their player of the year Naismith join Bristol City, 3rd favourites for relegation.

 

[werthersoriginal]

I agree.

But they still didn’t achieve anything success wise.

And now you see their player of the year Naismith join Bristol City, 3rd favourites for relegation.

You’ve got too narrow an idea of success. Luton had an incredibly successful season. If their fans aren’t overjoyed at that they will always find disappointment

 

[Paul Cannell]

Still FAILED to win anything.

 

[werthersoriginal]

Still FAILED to win anything.

It would only be a failure if we’d had a top three budget, which I don’t believe we had. I’d say the last three seasons have been pretty successful, but we need to move on up now.

 

[Oxford1996]

You’ve got too narrow an idea of success. Luton had an incredibly successful season. If their fans aren’t overjoyed at that they will always find disappointment

What would you define as a successful season for the season coming up for us?

For me… it’s promotion.

If we was to finish in the play offs and lose that would be failure.. again.

 

[werthersoriginal]

What would you define as a successful season for the season coming up for us?

For me… it’s promotion.

If we was to finish in the play offs and lose that would be failure.. again.

I think we’ve come close enough times that now we need to get serious, yes

 

[Foley]

I agree.

But they still didn’t achieve anything success wise.

And now you see their player of the year Naismith join Bristol City, 3rd favourites for relegation.

Luton didn't achieve anything? Really?
So Accrington achieved nothing in L1 either?
Achievement in my view is all about exceeding expectations and doing better than expected ( as well as Liverpool and Man City achievement)

 

[Oxford1996]

Luton didn't achieve anything? Really?
So Accrington achieved nothing in L1 either?
Achievement in my view is all about exceeding expectations and doing better than expected ( as well as Liverpool and Man City achievement)

I said achieve ‘success wise’.

For me there’s only 3 successful teams in league 1 every year.

That’s the 2 who go up automatically & the 1 who wins the play offs.

 

[Oxymoron]

I like KR, but he’s failed

Or, he hasn't succeeded yet....

 

[Oxford1996]

Or, he hasn't succeeded yet....

Yep. Like I said. I hope he does, because he has done a lot of good work for us.

I do have my doubts though.

 

[Foley]

I said achieve ‘success wise’.

For me there’s only 3 successful teams in league 1 every year.

That’s the 2 who go up automatically & the 1 who wins the play offs.

Fine if you have that view. Very black and white.
For me there is far nore to success than simply going up. If not most teams hardly ever succeed.

 

[Oxford1996]

Fine if you have that view. Very black and white.
For me there is far nore to success than simply going up. If not most teams hardly ever succeed.

Correct. Success should be very hard to achieve

 

[Steve Gilbert]

Correct. Success should be very hard to achieve

You have a very simplistic view of what success is and in doing so and supporting a league 1 football team then you might be disappointed far more than you will be happy.
Success is relative to a clubs resources. Clubs like Morecambe and Accrington avoiding relegation and staying in league 1 will be a success for them.
For our budget over the last few season we have over achieved twice and come where we probably should of resources wise last season.
Next season the club have openly said we want top 2 and at a minimum then promotion. This is the first year they have actually come out and said that’s the aim.
If we manage that then it will take a hell of a lot of luck and good work from the management, players and board.
League 2 is probably the easiest league to get out of. Getting out of league 1 when you have clubs such as Wednesday, Ipswich, Wigan, Rotherham, Barnsley, Bolton, Sunderland and Derby all competing for promotion with much bigger resources it makes it even harder for a club our size.

 

[Paul Cannell]

Can we agree that not promoting this year will be a failure, since that's what the owners said they want?

 

[werthersoriginal]

Can we agree that not promoting this year will be a failure, since that's what the owners said they want?

Yeah I’ll go that far, if we have an increase in budget and any other stuff that’s needed.

 

[werthersoriginal]

I said achieve ‘success wise’.

For me there’s only 3 successful teams in league 1 every year.

That’s the 2 who go up automatically & the 1 who wins the play offs.

This is too simplistic. That means that Man City were the only successful side in the PL whereas really they just did what was expected.