Next Blackpool Manager Odds: Why the Tangerines should go all out for Pete Wild
EFL pundit Gab Sutton makes the case for Blackpool to go all out for Barrow boss Pete Wild, as they seek a new permanent manager to lead the rebuild next season following the exit of Mick McCarthy.
High-pressing football
When Blackpool enjoyed their most successful pair of seasons since the Premier League days, winning promotion from League One in 2020-21 before a safe, midtable Championship finish the following year, they had an aggressive, high-pressing style.
Under Neil Critchley, the Tangerines were brilliantly coached without the ball and grasped the nuances of when, who and how to press, whilst also having the old-school dimension of being able to put in the odd sliding challenge to get natives off their seats.
Critchley is an excellent coach – no question about that – but bringing the former Aston Villa assistant back to Bloomfield Road wouldn’t be practical, because local trust in him has been eroded due to how he left.
Instead of looking to recreate the past, Blackpool must start a new chapter with a fresh face, but somebody with similar qualities and a comparable stylistic approach to Critchley – Pete Wild fits the bill.
Set formation and style
In 30 of Barrow’s 41 league games this season, they’ve played either a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3, with only minor practical differences between those two formations.
The three forwards will be hassling and harrying all game to deny the opposing back-three or four the passing angles they want, while either the #10 in a 4-2-3-1 or one of the three midfielders in a 4-3-3, will be tasked with stealing the ball in the middle third.
Robbie Gotts and Billy Waters are particularly strong at the latter role, because they’re also effective ball-carriers who can create, so whenever they get on the ball – especially on a turnover – it acts as a prompt for the team to fly forward.
One of the wide forwards will stay on the flank as an outball, their corresponding full-back will support from behind along with the centre-backs, but everyone else will look to flood the box.
This includes the wide forward and full-back on the opposite wing, who will both attack the far post.
Wild’s teams have established clear patterns of play, which means every player knows their roles and responsibilities inside out.
Attached below is an example of a possible pattern of play under Wild, based on players currently contracted for next season – although actual XI’s will look different to that after a summer of recruitment.
Pete fitness
Wild’s Barrow team are remarkably fit, which is perfect for the style he coaches.
It takes a certain amount of motivational qualities to get a squad in that shape, which is a huge tick in his box.
Perfect for getting the best out of Jordan Gabriel, Andy Lyons, Callum Connolly, Tom Trybull, Sonny Carey, Owen Dale and Jerry Yates, as well as the players the Seasiders recruit after an anticipated summer of high turnover.
Pool would likely look at strengthening midfield, with Harrison Neal on loan from Sheffield United being a possibility, and add a left-footed centre-back, such as Tom Bradbury, who could be an affordable option from Cheltenham, or Jacob Bedeau from Morecambe, who will have the pace to hold a high-line as well as ball-playing finesse.
If Lyons goes for a fee, Josh Cogley from Tranmere would be an ideal free pickup if Pool can beat competitors for the former Birmingham academy graduate, while in midfield, Tommy Leigh can operate as a goalscoring number eight or a pressing #10.
Wild also knows the best players from the northern non-league scene: midfielder Kian Spence at Halifax, defender Harrison Burke at Chester, and forward Sol Soloman at Marine, who an astonishing scored 60 goals in 71 games for Jersey Bulls in the Combined Counties League.
In some respects, it’s harder to execute Wild’s style by recruiting exclusively from elite academy drop-outs, because for some of those players, they may see it as a step down – they might not have the same drive to close down the opposition goalkeeper in the 90th-minute.
Whereas, recruiting players with an edge, a point to prove, means Blackpool can not only establish an incredibly high standard of fitness, but also create the foundations of a culture that will serve them over the long-term.
Proven in senior football
Barnsley boss Michael Duff is now among the EFL’s hottest managerial property.
If he leaves Oakwell, it’ll be because his current club aren’t promoted and it’ll be for a job in the Championship, where Blackpool almost certainly won’t reside next season, and be one of the best appointments of the summer.
Pool have missed the boat with Duff, but that doesn’t mean they can’t use that lesson to redirect themselves towards EFL management’s next big thing.
Taking Barrow from 21st last season to ninth in this campaign, on a bottom-end budget, was an astonishing achievement, but it’s not the type of thing that makes Championship directors sit up and take notice.
However, if Wild turns Barrow into prime promotion contenders next season, his stock will shoot up and he’ll be on everyone’s radar – like Duff now is.
As things are, Blackpool can poach an incredibly gifted manager, without having too much competition, beyond current employers, for his services.
Plus, it’s a safer bet that somebody who has succeeded in the National League and League Two will do the same in League One, than that somebody who has succeeded in Under-23s football will thrive in the third tier.
Success on a budget
Halifax looked a club in turmoil when Wild arrived in 2019, and he inspired them to two National League Play-Off finishes in three seasons, at times finishing above juggernauts like Stockport, Hartlepool, Notts County, Grimsby and Chesterfield on a restrictive budget.
In League Two, Wild’s Barrow side are only a few points behind the likes of Salford, Mansfield and Bradford, who have the luxury of being able to go out and buy proven players at the level.
If Blackpool go into League One, they won’t have the resources of a Derby, for example, and last season set them back so far, they could be some way behind Bolton and Barnsley in terms of their development as a team.
In that sense, it wouldn’t make sense for the Tangerines to go into next season signing primarily League One promotion specialists in the 27-31 age bracket, because they’ll come on huge wages.
If they don’t deliver, it only adds to the scale of the rebuilding job, while if they do, they’ll likely not have the growth in them to step up to the Championship anyway.
As such, it’s better to start afresh now by recruiting fit, young, hungry players who can repair relations between club and fans, establish a style of play and a core capable of being midtable Championship players in 3-4 years.
That way, the club can say they aim to be competitive in League One this season, but within a broader context which is the long-term plan of building something more sustainable.
Developing talent
Goalkeeper Daniel Iversen, centre-backs Tom Bradbury, Neill Byrne, George Edmundson and Niall Maher, full-backs Tom Hamer, Tyrell Warren, Patrick Brough and Rob Hunt, midfielders Kieran Green, Jack Earing and Harrison Neal, plus forwards Devante Rodney, Tobi Sho-Silva, Elliot Newby, Billy Waters, Ben Whitfield, Callum Lang and Sam Surridge have all kicked on, in different ways, after working with Wild.
In the case of Iversen, Bradbury, Lang and Surridge, they all now play two or three leagues higher than they did when they first started working with Wild, and that’ll almost certainly be true for Edmundson next season.
If Blackpool want to start a model of nurturing players, ensconcing them within a fantastic football culture and selling them on for big money, Wild would be a fantastic appointment from that perspective.
He can bring people together
Blackpool’s previous two managers made very little attempt to engage with supporters.
In Michael Appleton and Mick McCarthy’s cases, they had relatively recent success at Oxford and Ipswich respectively: they represent reasonably well-off areas of the country, where the cultural demand for passion in a manager isn’t quite as overwhelming as it might be in other parts.
With enormous respect to the wonderful people of Blackpool, it’s a more economically challenged area and the football club is the central lifeblood of the town, thus there’s a stronger thirst for connection with the people representing it.
Neither Appleton nor McCarthy quite grasped that, or at least, offering that type of connection just isn’t in their nature.
Plus, there’s two or three other managers they’ve had this century who may be looked at less favourably by some in retrospect, for different reasons.
As such, Pool need somebody they can get behind, who they can believe in, someone who can turn a new leaf for the club as it looks to find it’s identity once again.
Wild is incredibly approachable with supporters, passionate on the sidelines, and has shown loyalty to the clubs he’s been at.
Blackpool need to start a new chapter in League One – Wild could be the one to turn the page.
