Some close season stuff!

[Bispham Seasider]

And so you should, just make sure you sort out Houston Dynamo first and get them winning! :D

Today both Blackpool and Barnsley issued statement on their official club websites to confirm Blackpool had tabled a bid for midfielderMartin Devaney. We have offered them £150,000 which whilst a pitiful amount, it does activate a release clause in his contract and Barnsley have given the player permission to speak to Blackpool - they had no choice in the matter really given the clause. Although he of course might not want to come, plus it is very unlikely that Barnsley would accept £150k for him.

Simon Grayson also revealed today that new 'keeper Matthew Gilks was his number one target in that position so it is good for once to get the player he wanted. I suspect Gilks will really push for a place in the starting line-up and may well push Rabs out.

[Seaside Mafia]

Top ten!! We can only dream of such dizzy heights! Quite a few 'Pool fans even now think we are going to be relegated!

More transfer rumours -

Martin Devaney - Barnsley player, who has one of the wonderful "release clauses" has been linked with a move to Blackpool.

Also -

to add to Alex John-Baptiste yet another double barrelled named player - Gifton Noel Williams who is currently playing in the Spanish second division has today been linked with a move to Blackpool.

Paul Dickov is apparently due to let Simon Grayson know soon whether he will come back.

So if somehow we actually managed to sign Job, Baptiste and Williams, it would mean the team could include

Gary Taylor-Fletcher
Joseph-Desire Job
Alex John-Baptiste
Gifton Noel-Williams

(Not that we will get the three of them but still it would be odd!)

Oyston's only signing those players to maximise the potential of revenue made from letters on the back of replica shirts.:rolleyes:
Does the lad from Oldham look unlikley now? I'm slowly beginning to join the D&G rangs, especially if Kaspars disappears to QPR.

[Bispham Seasider]

Chris Taylor you mean (from Oldham)? I really wish we could sign him but nothing has been mentioned about him at all recently.

Yet more speculation about Alex John-Baptiste today that he is about to sign. I realise he played in League Two with Mansfield Town last season, but he is young and maybe is one who could step up to the Championship.

No idea what is happening about Martin Devaney from Barnsely. Their manager Simon Davey clearly doesn't want to lose him, but because of the release clause (which we know about all too well) he has to be allowed to talk to us as we have offered £150k for him. However, why would Devaney want to leave a club who are one of the favourites for relegation and go to the one club who are every bookies favourites to be relegated? We shall see.

Yesterday it was claimed that Paul Dickov is also about to sign, but in a player-coach role. Also that Claus Bech Jorgenson is about to sign a new contract.

Weirdly, the Sun newspaper today claimed that Leeds United and Leicester City (two ahem League One clubs... :D) are both fighting over Ben Burgess with a figure of £200,000 being mentioned. We are already short of strikers we can't afford to lose another.

Right now we have

Ben Burgess - top scorer last season but not a prolific goalscorer and a very average Championship striker
Andy Morrell - will be 34 soon, didn't feature regularly last season and hasn't even signed a new contract. Is listed on the PFA website as being available on a free transfer.
Stephen McPhee - did ok when he signed last season especially with Dickov up front.
Danny Mitchley - 18 year old reserve and yout team player who has never played for the first team.

[Bispham Seasider]

Blackpool finally today confirmed th club had been offered Joseph Desire Job and that whilst nothing has happened about signing him yet, they still might do. Very rarely do BFC comment on players who are rumoured to be connected with the club, so it is a very unusual statement from Simon Grayson to say the least!

Also today there are lots of rumours going round (yet again) that the club have signed a contract with builders and work will start on the South Stand very soon, taking 40 weeks to finish. Of course the cynical point to the fact that the club have also extended the season ticket discount period by another two weeks.......... Thing is we've seen all this before, especially last season around this same time when all the talk was about building the South Stand!

One day it will be true (hopefully!)

[Bispham Seasider]

And the transfer rumours continue!

The Daily Mail today reckons that Jermaine Wright who was released by Southampton last week is in talks with Blackpool today about a move. At 32 he is coming toward the end of his career but would still (in my opinion anyway) be a decent addition to the squad.

Simon Grayson was yesterday linked to the assistant managers job at Manchester United along with other young Football League managers. However, the story (in the Sunday Times) was very lazy journalism in that the journo simply speculated that ManUre could go for a young up and coming manager and then simply chose some names to randomly pick, Grayson being one of them.

Grayson has confirmed that Blackpool are close to adding two more players to the four who have already signed.

Also today it was speculated that two QPR players Daniel Nardiello and another player could be coming to Blackpool in a swap deal for Kaspars Gorkss.

[Art Vandaley]

Thanks for the updates !

[Bispham Seasider]

Blackpool have confirmed that they have got a number of players on trial. They have taken the unusual step though of naming one of them - Sunderland midfielder Arnau Riera who is usually known simply by his first name of Arnau who is spending a week at the club.

He is from Manacor, Spain and played at youth level for Real Mallorca. He then spent time at Mataro in the Spanish second division before playing for Barcelona's reserve team Barcelona B (now FC Barcelona Atlétic). He emoved to Sunderland in 2006 and after spending a short spell on loan with Southend United (then in The Championship) he spent last season on loan at Scottish Premier League club Falkirk.

Blackpool have apparently hastily arranged a behind-closed-doors practice match for Thursday to have a look at Arnau.

[Bispham Seasider]

Blackpool are strongly rumoured to be close to signing former Southamption defender Jermaine Wright.

Paul Dickov is apparently close to making his decision over whether to sign for Blackpool or Toronto.

Still nothing on Kaspars Gorkss.

Sunderland player Arnau Riera has returned home to Spain to try and find a club, though Blackpool still have a number of other un-named players who are due to play in the Fleetwood friendly tomorrow.

[Bispham Seasider]

Today Blackpool are again being linked with a love for Wolverhampton Wanderers defender Rob Edwards.

Edwards a Welsh international has been on the transfer list since May.

[Bispham Seasider]

More updates (mostly speculation and rumours!)

Simon Grayson has confirmed that the club are close to signing one or two more players who might sign this week. Paul Dickov is apparently close to making a decision over who he will sign for. Reports from North America say that he has been offered $500,000 a year to sign for Toronto on an 18 month contract. And former club Leicester City are now also reported to have made him an offer. He may well be lured back there where he had a successfull time. However, they are in League One this season and it would mean a big step down in the quality of football.

Still no news on Kaspars Gorkss other than he is not with Blackpool. Whether he is training with QPR or not I don't know. It is still rumoured that we could be geting Daniel Nardiello and Adam Bolder in return for Gorkss but whether they want to come up here or not remains to be seen.

[Bispham Seasider]

After the loan signing of young Liverpool winger Adam Hammill yesterday, today we are back to yet more triallists!!!

At Wrexham Blackpool are said to have included John Halls a 26 year old defender who was released by Reading when they were relegated from the Premier League last season. He played in the first half.

The other triallist today was said to have been experienced defender Darren Powell who was released by Southampton at the end of last season. However, he apparently got injured in the warm up and so did not feature today.

Also today the Blackpool Gazette have confirmed the names of three players on trial at the club. Two of them however, as I understand it are no longer with the club. They both played in Latvia -

Darius Zutautus a 29 year old Lithuanian defender wh currently plays for FK Ventspils in Latvia. And Latvian defender Olegs Baikovs who plays in Macedonia for FK Vardars.

The other player is Lithuanian international midfielder Mindaugas Kalonas who has played for Dynamo Moscow and Latvian club FK Leipajas Metalurgs, and who is currently playing for Russian Premier League club FC Kuban. Simon Grayson is said to be about to hava look at him on trial.

[Bispham Seasider]

According to the Blackpool Gazette Simong Grayson has

"revealed he's hoping to make his eighth signing of the summer in the next 48 hours. He has a bid in for an unnamed man and is hoping it will be accepted."

Also young striker Danny Mitchley was apparently at Wrexham having recovered from his long term injury but did not make the match day squad.

Still on the injury list are

Gary Taylor-Fletcher, Stephen Crainey, Matty Kay, Joe Martin, Danny Coid.

[Bispham Seasider]

And another name for the rumour mill. Last week it was rumoured among fans who went out to the Latvia tour that Blackpool were after a player from Real Sociedad. Today the Daily Mail reckon we are close to signing Welsh International midfielder David Vaughan from Real Sociedad for £500,000. Vaughan is a left-sided midfielder who can also play at left-back.

[Bispham Seasider]

Another day, more rumours. The Gazette reckons that defender John Halls is on course to earn a contract with the 'Pool, and that he is currently training with Blackpool.

Again from the Gazette, apparently Simon Grayson has said that he still wants to bring in Barnsley midfielder Martin Devaney. It had been thought that any deal had fallen through. Devaney has a release clause in his contract which is activated when a club offers £150,000 for him (a pitifully low amount) and that club then is given permission to speak with the player. Barnsley are understood to be determined to keep Devaney. Grayson said earlier today that the clubs interest in Devaney was not dead.

[Dynamogal]

I'm concerned that with so many player changes and new contracts in flux that the players won't have enough time to develop a good working relationship on the pitch before the season starts. :eek:

[Bispham Seasider]

Aye the good thing is that for once we have signed players early on. We have before now left it until the season has started and then sign players right at the end of the transfer window on 31 August.

The club have though been working hard on team-bonding which is what the Latvia tour was also about (even though it was very short!). Last night they had a charity 20/20 cricket match with the staff playing the players at Thornton Cleveleys Cricket Club.

There will (hopefully) still be more players coming in with all this talk of the likes of Devaney, Nardiello, Vaughan, Dickov. So it looks likely there will be at least 2 or 3 other players still to come in. The best time to develop a partnership - such as the two strikers will be in the league matches rather than pre-season friendlies which are more about getting match fitness. We just have to hope they gell quickly!

[Bispham Seasider]

No new players but yet more names linked with us!

Two more QPR players have been linked with us in a swap deal for Kaspars Gorkss. Welsh international striker Daniel Nardiello continues to be linked, but now two other players have been mentioned as possibly being part of the deal in which we could get Nardiello plus one other player. They are Zeshan Reshman, an English-born 24 year old Pakistani international defender. At 6ft 2in he was also the first Pakistan international footballer to play in the Premier League when he was at Fulham. The other player is Chris Barker a 28 year old left back, who like Nardiello used to play for Barnsley.

Today the club secretary, Matt Williams posted this on the Blackpool Vital forum -

"In terms of other players and targets, we are well down the road with a couple, but until the offers are officially accepted we won't be disclosing any information." He also confirmed that there are "there are several other targets who have not necessarily be mentioned" (on the internet).

[Bispham Seasider]

Blackpool have again been linked with a move for Welsh International David Vaughan, who the News of the World reckon is about to sign this week in a £500,000 deal from Spanish club Real Sociedad. He is a left-sided midfielder.

[Bispham Seasider]

A new week and its rumour mill time again!

According to the Blackpool Gazette, we might sign up to SIX new players this week! They state that Blackpool have bids in for three players and that he is looking at two or three other players on too of them.

Some of the players currently linked with Blackpool are -

Daniel Nardiello - The stiker seems to be coming up here from QPR as part of the Gorkss deal - plus there could be one other player coming as well with one of two defenders, Zeshan Rehman or Chris Barker being mentioned as possibly also coming up here.

David Vaughan, the Spanish media are reporting that the deal is all but done, and that he will sign for Blackpool this week.

Steven Pressley - very experienced Scottish international defender, who at 34 years old is way past his best but who has been playing for Celtic in the SPL. He is rumoured to have been at the Shrewsbury Town match last Friday and said to be training with the club. It could be then that he plays on trial against St Mirren tomorrow. Definitely not one for the future but he could still do a good job for us.

Martin Devaney - the speculation still persists that we might still get Barnsley midfielder Devaney. Barnsley seem to want to keep hold of him though.

Paul Dickov - quite what is going on no-one seems to know and it is dragging on way too long now. The new season is only two weeks away yet he has still not decided who to sign for. He and his agent have had plenty of time to decide. The BBC now reckon that he has toddled off back to Canada for talks with Toronto about a move. Even though he already had talks with them and was offered a deal. Simon Grayson is clearly getting impatient with Dickov, and maybe we could turn again to Joseph Desire Job (but that is pure speculation).

John Halls - former Reading defender who has been at the club on trial since the Wrexham game and who is rumoured to one who will be offered a deal this week.

[Bispham Seasider]

And a few hours later -

the Daily Mirror are now reporting that the Kaspars Gorkss deal has been sorted. They reckon that Gorkss has now finally signed for QPR with us getting £250,00 plus Daniel Nardiello on a permanent transfer and also Zeshan Rehman on a loan deal.

Vaughan is also supposed to have signed.

However, nothing has been confirmed officially.