Blackpool cancel pre-season tour on account of player shortage

Blackpool FC have canceled their pre-season tour as they don’t have enough players

English championship side Blackpool have been forced to cancel their scheduled trip to Spain this week for pre-season games. The step was taken so that the Tangerines can concentrate on player recruitment after they were left with only 8 players on their roster

Mass exodus and new manager

Blackpool saw a mass exodus this summer, as 27 players departed the club. There has been an air of uncertainty hovering around Bloomfield ever since their relegation from the Premier League and that certainly took its toll on the club this off-season.

Jose Riga, the Belgian manager who was unveiled earlier this summer as the man to take charge of the team is yet to speak to the media as speculation mounts that even he might have left the club.

Blackpool were set to play two fixtures in the warm weather of Spain; but the manager will now spend that time aiming to complete transfers in order to fill in the non-existent squad.

Among the eight on the books at Bloomfield Road, only one is a midfielder with no names of any goalkeeper in the squad.

Quotes from the Chairman

Club chairman Karl Oyston told the Blackpool website, "Our time is better spent preparing here than going to Spain," .

Oyston will have to bring n enough player so that Blackpool can field a team on 9th August, when they start their Championship campaign at the City Ground against Nottingham Forest.

Blackpool finished just two points above the relegation zone in the Championship last season.

Change to pre-season plans. http://t.co/iHSwR2hRpl

— Blackpool FC (@BlackpoolFC) July 15, 2014