Blackpool: Bastions of Quality

A great paradox emerged from a weekend where most turgid-league talk centred around the greatness of Chelsea /Ancelotti / Berbatov / Fergurson ad infinium. Mark Lawrenson, footballs most aloof and unentertaining man, defended the only thing worth defending about the Premier League: Blackpool F.C.

Lawrenson: Paradox Maker

In his brief, albiet headlined ode to the tangerines on the BBC Lawrenson, amusingly, helped shaped the opinions of the public toward his complete opposite: entertainment. The world may not know that ludic play is a pastime of Lawrenson’s, but as he withers through the article in tiresome clichés, our imaginations begin to dance with the images of little orange firecrackers sparking across a canvas of green and white.

Blackpool are brilliant for football. Holloway himself admits his own attempts at playing a more rigid and defensive style are as effective as a Sol Campbell’s diet. Perhaps it is something in the water, (it’s definatley not the beer) that makes this story, makes every game, special. But it seems everything they do seems to come to something. As opposed to Lawrenson, whose tiresome verbal droolings smear the pages of the countries worst newspapers and whose devastating soulessness perforates otherwise quite enjoyable football highlights, Blackpool are worth it.

They may well fail, as they did against Chelsea, but who can deny that when they win they win twice. Once in the league and once against the odds. Who else has that effect on your average fan? Lets compound the metaphor, and use Marlon Harewood as a microcosm of Blackpool F.C. Fans have loved Marlon Harewood, wherever he has been, because he is so absurdly entertaining. Sometimes he is brilliant, battering opponents, blustering about the pitch and blasting the goals home. And sometimes he is dreadful. But whatever he is, he is something. He is not the footballing equivalent of Phill Collins; Mark Lawrenson has blind followers in their millions, and I know who I would pay £25 to see on a bad day.

Category: Blackpool Team News