OPINION: Blackpool's approach to summer signings is both sensible and exciting

It’s the sensible way to go about your business in League One, making yourselves sustainable by selling the odd talent or two every summer to raise a profit.

Peterborough United are a club that have done this very well down the years, plucking an array of talent from the lower leagues and non-league, before developing them and making them into better players.

In 2016, the Daily Mail reported how Posh had made a profit of £21.6m by selling eight players in just five years.

Conor Washington, who joined QPR for £2.7m, was signed from Newport County for just £150,000 in 2014.

Dwight Gayle, now with Newcastle United in the Premier League, was sold to Crystal Palace for £6m in the summer of 2013 after signing from Dagenham and Redbridge just a few months earlier for £470,000.

Posh also made profits on Aaron McClean (£1.175m), Craig Mackail-Smith (£2.375m), Lee Tomlin (£1.2m), Britt Assombalonga (£4.25m), Ryan Bennett (£3m) and Paul Taylor (£1.5m). The list goes on and on.

Of course, it can be a risky strategy if your scouting and recruitment isn’t spot on as you require a steady stream of talent to make this blueprint work.

While supporters won’t be particularly fond of losing the club’s best talent every year or so, if you stay true to the strategy and keep faith, it’ll inevitably pay dividends in the long run.

I always believed this was the right way to operate at this level anyway, but the Covid-19 pandemic ought to have sharpened minds even more and made clubs realise they can’t continue to make such astronomical losses.

The game simply isn’t sustainable with the way it was being run and salary caps, looking increasingly inevitable, should change that approach for good.

It is with this in mind that it is so encouraging to see the ages of Blackpool’s three summer recruits to date.

With Keshi Anderson (25), Marvin Ekpiteta (24) and Oliver Sarkic (22) arriving at Bloomfield Road, and 23-year-old Jerry Yates still strongly linked, it’s clear to see what sort of player Blackpool are now targeting.

Of course that’s not to say there’s no room for more senior, experienced pros; you have to strike the right balance.

I highly doubt the Seasiders are exclusively looking for young, up-and-coming players, but as a general rule, it’s got to be the way forward.

For Blackpool, this isn’t just a case of snapping up youngsters for the sake of, they’ve signed players that have already proven themselves and impressed in the division below or – in Sarkic’s case – League One.

However, given Neil Critchley’s background in working closely with youngsters in Liverpool’s academy, this approach shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

It seems clear to me that Blackpool will be operating with a flexible front three next season, similar to how Liverpool currently play under Jurgen Klopp.

That will see the likes of Anderson, Sarkic and Sullay Kaikai roam and inter-change, meaning they won’t necessarily stick to a set position.

Such an approach requires forward players that are capable of pressing high up the pitch and constantly looking to play on the front foot with high energy levels.

Should Critchley pull such an approach off which, from the glimpses we saw before lockdown, seems likely, it looks like Pool fans might be in for an exciting season.

In other news, we saw the departure of first-team coach David Dunn last week, the 40-year-old opting to leave to take the vacant managerial job at Barrow.

He has big shoes to fill, taking over from Ian Evatt who took the Bolton job on the back of the Bluebirds’ National League title success.

With Barrow back in the Football League for the first time in 48 years, Dunn has a big job on his hands.

He showed plenty of promise during his brief stint as Blackpool’s caretaker boss in January and he seems to share similar philosophies to Evatt which should help with the club’s transition.

Much has been made of Dunn’s comments when he was first given the Blackpool job on an interim basis, when he insisted he had no interest in taking on the job full-time.

Some interpreted that to mean the former Blackburn Rovers and England manager didn’t want to become a manager full stop, but that’s obviously not the case.

I wish Dunny all the best of luck.