Having gone through a few relegations himself, Blackpool icon Brett Ormerod weighs in on the Premier League’s current relegation struggle and likens a former teammate to a Bloomfield Road legend.
A team like ours from Blackpool would struggle mightily to rise to the top these days and make an impression. Although Brentford has performed admirably, they were a good team when they were promoted and had many international players. In contrast, we were full of elderly players and young guys who had just lost their way, so that wouldn’t be conceivable in the modern day.
Whichever side I played on, the Premier League was always an intense struggle with no easy games. You are penalized for errors, therefore you cannot afford to make them. Right now, the money is just enormous—it’s unimaginable. As a player, you only have to sign one contract to become a multimillionaire at a premier club.
Luton Town and Blackpool share many similarities. Rob Edwards is undoubtedly a vital member of the club, and when I watch Bolton, I notice that Ian Evatt is similar to Ian Holloway in that they have both drawn inspiration from him.
Football has moved on, there’s different shapes and stuff, but you can see it in the team spirit and the togetherness they have.
Luton is making a serious effort; they benefit from playing at home. I turn to face them, and they give their manager the same hug we gave Holloway. They’ll overcome any obstacle for Rob, which is a great example of man-management. They still have a chance because nobody called them out. Nobody would have chosen them over Burnley and Sheffield United out of the three teams that were available.
With Blackpool, we fell short at the end when we went down, but we always attacked. We drew games we should’ve won, and we lost games we should’ve drawn because we were going for it instead of having a plan b.
We went down by one point in the end, but a couple of seasons after that tally would’ve kept us miles safe. Rob was a massive part of our dressing room, so maybe that’s the little bit of edge Luton have got on Burnley and Sheffield United, and the way they’ve done it- they’ve replicated what we did. Everyone will be hoping they can do it.
Football used to be a working class man’s game, but it’s not now, it’s a global thing, and that won’t change now.
The gap is bigger for teams coming up- in terms of quality and money. There’s lots of different factors involved. If Burnley and Sheffield United do go down, then they’ll suddenly become the big boys in the Championship, because they’ll have money to keep their squad together and add to it.
I don’t think it’s a poisoned chalice. If you could guarantee going down and coming back up every year, then it’s better than just surviving in the Premier League. Clubs earned a hell of a lot of money doing it, it’s just when they couldn’t get themselves back up that they started to struggle.
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