For the second successive season, Blackpool start among the relegation favourites. There, however, the similarities between 2009 and 2010 end. Twelve months ago, Blackpool existed in obscurity outside the Fylde Coast, the region of North West England that is home to the club. That is not an option now. The Seasiders have propelled themselves into the spotlight in an astonishing first year under Ian Holloway. Yet while going up was remarkable, staying there would be incredible.
Blackpool had the Championship's second smallest budget and fourth lowest gates, yet they retain the nucleus of the side tipped for demotion to League One - England's third tier - 12 months ago. Indeed, Holloway begins the Premier League season with a weaker team than that which won May's play-off final, shorn of his influential loanees and with only one signing - Dekel Keinan, the Israeli defender - where he had targeted 10.
It makes them perhaps the most unlikely outsiders in the division's history. The image is of a club who seem unprepared for the challenges ahead. Some of the funds generated by participation in the Premier League is required to improve Bloomfield Road (part of the ground was not satisfactory for the Championship), still more to build a training ground and to pay the bonuses for promotion. Logically, then, Blackpool will probably prop up the division. But logic and Blackpool parted company a year ago. sports@thenational.ae
