Gary Taylor-Fletcher column: Blackpool’s managerial appointment is a progressive one

It’s obviously a progressive appointment. Neil has a great coaching background with everything he’s done at Liverpool.

He will take the club forward and play the way the fans and the owner want them to play. For me, it’s a great appointment moving forward.

I’ve watched Neil work for a while now and I know how highly thought-of he is at Liverpool, so I am a little surprised he’s left that job.

He might have got a bit of the managerial bug when he took charge of Liverpool in the FA Cup and thought he wanted to be number one. What a club to start at as well!

I’d imagine he’s learned a lot from Jurgen Klopp and how they do things at Liverpool. If he can bring one per cent of the way they play to Blackpool it will be an improvement.

He’s been brought in as head coach and I think that sort of model could work at Bloomfield Road.

Ben Mansford is involved and he’s obviously been an agent before. And from what I gather, he’s very hands-on as a chief executive.

Then you’ve got Tommy Johnson, who is head of recruitment, so that will allow Neil to just concentrate on his coaching, although he probably will have some say in the transfers.

At the end of the day his role will be to coach who is put in front of him and get them playing how he wants them to play.

The club have confirmed they’re keeping hold of David Dunn as first-team coach and I think that’s sensible.

There’s usually a bit of a a turnaround when a new manager comes in, but that’s not the case here.

Steve Banks is still involved as goalkeeping coach and he’s been there before. He knows Blackpool through and through.

It’s going to be interesting to see what happens over the next few weeks to see if anyone else comes in.

I must say I’m not 100 per cent sure what the club were thinking when they said at first that they wanted someone with managerial experience.

Critchley has had that with the Under-23s at Liverpool, where he’s dealt with players, including big players who might have stepped down from the first team.

He’ll have seen everything that’s happened and I’m sure he’s well prepared.

As I previously mentioned in this column, I applied for the job. I didn’t get any feedback from the club other than a short letter saying they were going to put together a shortlist and would be back.

I didn’t get anything back after that, which is obviously a bit disappointing but they wanted someone who had a lot more experience than some people. Other than that, there wasn’t much communication.

I’m going to keep searching, though, because it’s something I want to get back into in terms of first-team involvement.

Most of the time it’s about who you know rather than what you know, but I’ll just wait and see what happens.

It’s a big first game for Critchley this weekend as Blackpool make the short journey up the Fylde coast to play Fleetwood Town.

Fleetwood are doing well, with a good few wins in the last few weeks.

When you take into account how the last derby went, it should be quite a fiery game, especially when everyone knows what Joey Barton is like! But he’s got them playing really well. He’s got them battling and working really hard.

He’s gone in there – a bit similar to Critchley – having not had much experience but sometimes if you have that intelligence you can work wonders on the training ground.

To beat Ipswich Town away from home in midweek was a big victory for them and they’re pushing for the play-offs, if not better.

The whole club is run really well, so I’m sure that’s all helping.

But I know Joey and I know how meticulous he is with how he does things in terms of preparation and planning.

He’ll be wondering what Critchley is about, but at the end of the day it’s a local derby and is probably more to do with who wants it more and who can keep their heads.

For Critchley, a win will certainly get him off to the perfect start with the fans.

But from what I’ve seen on social media, they all seem very pleased with the appointment, so I think they’ll love him anyway.