A number of Blackpool legends will return to Bloomfield Road later this month for a charity game - where they will be managed by former assistant Steve Thompson.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00So Tom, how excited are you to come back to Bloomfield Road for the Legends game and reunite with some old familiar faces?
00:05I think it'd be great to see the lads again.
00:08We're on a group chat where we keep in touch and everybody wishes everyone best when they get new jobs or they're moving on.
00:15They're still a fantastic bunch.
00:17They deserve all the credit they get.
00:20It'd be great to see them back here and I think it gives them the chance to see the fans, the fans to see them as well.
00:25I think it'd be interesting to see what shape some of them come back in as well.
00:28So I'm looking forward to it and it's for a great cause as well.
00:31Obviously my wife used to work at Bryan House and for the Trinity one it's a worthy cause.
00:37Hopefully everyone can get out and support them.
00:39And once again, the fans to see the lads and the lads are surely preaching to the fans.
00:44So I'm really looking forward to it.
00:45When you do achieve something great in football, do they bond you together as a group and make you closer than you normally would have been?
00:51I think this group, I've had success as a player and as a coach, but this group seemed a little bit special.
00:56You know, with Oli, when he and Oli came in and all the lads, it weren't expected how we did it.
01:04You know, we knew things weren't right off the pitch.
01:07We tried to make it as best we could, but I think that brought us together a bit.
01:11And Oli brought a system that suited our style of play.
01:15We had goals in the team, we were excited to watch.
01:17You know, we bounced scenes off each other and we just hit it off, me and Oli.
01:21It was just a great place to work.
01:25And the best thing I could say probably about the lads, you never knew who was in the team.
01:28You know, we had a good dressing room that ran itself.
01:31They had that togetherness and even now you'll see we're still in touch.
01:34So, yeah, it was special times.
01:39And you and Oli met before and you crossed paths or was that the first time you were thrown in at Blackpool?
01:43Well, I played against Oli a few times.
01:45You know, when he was at Bristol Rovers, obviously I was at Bolton, I think two or three times.
01:51We played each other.
01:52I don't think he got close to me, but he tried hard.
01:55But, no, like I say, we came in and as soon as we came in we just hit it off.
02:03You know, we trusted each other.
02:05He brought this momentum and style of play that was exciting to watch.
02:10You know, we feared no one.
02:13But I think the thing about it, we had a bunch of players that took us where we wanted to go.
02:18You know, we had that experience.
02:21We had the lone ones coming in.
02:22We had some good young ones coming through as well.
02:24And the experienced ones helped them as well.
02:26And it was some great memories and happy times.
02:30The team, where I speak to itself, obviously we've got injuries and things like that.
02:34But, you know, I was like a little bit of a buffer for the players to come to me to make things right.
02:40To pass it on to Oli.
02:41As an assistant, as a number two, what you try and do, you try and keep all the problems away from the manager.
02:46Unless you're desperate to get involved in that, which was very rare.
02:51Because, you know, obviously his focus was on the first team, like we all were.
02:56But the thing about it, like I said, the lads that we had here, you just get that feel.
03:02Good factor.
03:03You know, you had lads in there.
03:05Some of the, I always say as a coach to the players, go and do something that we can't coach.
03:10And we had that in the dressing room.
03:11We had match winners.
03:13You know, we had lads that could defend.
03:15We had experienced lads.
03:16We had good talkers.
03:17And the ones that weren't in the team, we never, you know, we kept them fit because you never know when you need it.
03:22And they bought into everything as well.
03:23So it was a good dressing room as well.
03:26Is this one of the rare times that you all get together in person to do something?
03:30I think, but what I've heard on the Great Round, that sometimes that they'll go and meet up in Lytham.
03:36I think they've met up on one or two occasions.
03:39Obviously, with various lads living away the games and that, so it's probably hard for them to meet and that.
03:45But like I say, they're on this WhatsApp group at the moment that's quite entertaining when you're watching stuff on that.
03:52You can look back and see some of the stories.
03:55But yeah, I'm sure that every chance they get, they do meet up.
03:59They're all keeping in touch.
04:00I keep in touch with a lot of players.
04:02They ring me up, asking for a little bit of advice and all that.
04:06And it's always nice just that they ring up and they still want that advice off you.
04:10You've had your first show of courtesy, Steve.
04:12You're looking forward to getting back in and dug out and taking charge of a team.
04:16Yeah, it's going to be good because, like I say, it's a great cause.
04:22I don't know how long some of them are going to last.
04:23So it's going to be, you know, everyone said it's going to be a great cause and it's a fun day.
04:29But you know full well when they go out there, they're going to take it serious.
04:32They don't want to make fools of themselves.
04:34So I think some of them have been training now to try and get themselves fit.
04:38But the main thing is it's for the fans, it's for the players.
04:40Let's get that little bit of feel-good factor back at Blackpool and also it's for a fantastic local cause.
04:46Obviously, Stephen Dobbs has played a big role in getting everyone back.
04:48He's done a lot of calling around, as I've heard.
04:51Is it good to see him sort of in the club and obviously coaching under Steve Bruce now?
04:55Yeah, like I say, Dobbs has, I've always said this through my coaching career,
04:59I thought Dobbs was the best finisher that I've worked with as a striker.
05:01Great character, great to see him doing his coaching badges.
05:06He's learning all the time.
05:08I'm sure one day he'll step up to be a manager.
05:13He's at a club with a great manager, great assistant who he can learn off with them.
05:17But Dobbs, as I say, he's keeping them in touch.
05:19He'll talk to them out and down to the training ground again,
05:23hopefully go and see them again just to sort out who's playing and everything like that.
05:27But, yeah, I'm delighted with Dobbs because, like I say, it's that gradual progression
05:31from, you know, like from the youth team set-up into the first team set-up.
05:35And I'm sure it won't be long before he's a number one somewhere.
05:38Obviously, Blackpool's had a great history of players such as his.
05:41You've got that working of experience in both and along with some of the players.
05:45So, 2007 against Yoval, what was that like?
05:49It was just one of those, we thought we were going to play Forest
05:52because Yoval, obviously, Forest at Forest, we've had them in the playoffs before as well.
05:57So, I think most people thought it was going to be against Forest and that,
06:01but on the day, Yoval beat them at the city ground and we come to Wembley.
06:08Even then, you know, we had Robbie Williams, I think he curled the free kick in
06:11and then Keegan Parker, who could be anything on his day, Keegan, you know,
06:14you hear the stories and that, but he was a cracking player and that.
06:18So, that was the 2-0 win against Yoval, which was, I think that started the ball rolling
06:24because I was working with Simon and Tony Parks.
06:27Obviously, I played with Leicester, with Simon at Leicester.
06:31Tony Parks, when my dad was manager at Buxton, he signed him and sold him on to Blackburn.
06:35So, there's a little bit of history between me and Tony and our family and that.
06:39Very sad what's happening at the moment with Tony.
06:42But it was great for me and Simon to learn off.
06:45That was, you know, as an experience, we're a man of many words,
06:49but when he talks, he commanded your respect.
06:51And when we got into the Championship, I think that got the ball rolling
06:54because you've got a nucleus of a good team there that we're trying to keep together.
06:58What was a young Simon Grayson like, you know, heading into his first coaching job?
07:02Having been a player in Manchester City?
07:04Yeah, well, let's say we were at Leicester together, so we got on.
07:07I got on well with Simon.
07:09I got promoted from the head of recruitment, head of academy, head of youth at Blackpool.
07:15I did that many jobs, I sometimes forget which one I were and that sort.
07:18But, yeah, I managed to get the youth team set up and organised there
07:23and got brought into first-team coach to replace Hayes of Hartford.
07:27I think the one thing about Simon, Tony, is that trust as a coach, you know.
07:32We got on very well as players.
07:36Obviously, we had success at Leicester.
07:39And we had an experience number two in Tony Park.
07:41But Simon came in with his own ideas.
07:43He wanted to be a number one.
07:45And you can see, you know, look at the clubs that he's managed.
07:48You know, he has been successful with what he's done and that.
07:51So it was good times working.
07:53And I say that was the first Wembley appearance for Blackpool.
07:56I think that literally showed that once you get a good team and a good team spirit,
08:01it can take you to places where people don't expect you to.
08:03The phrase football fairytale was probably overused sometimes, but that's what Blackpool reaching the Premier League was.
08:10So what was that return to Wembley like to get to the top two?
08:13Well, when you look back there, I can always remember, you know, that people say which was your best games that you enjoyed,
08:20but I still say it was a forest away in the city that got us to Wembley.
08:25I think on the night there, I think we played some tremendous football, playing Cardiff there.
08:31And I can remember doing the warm-up and going out there and I looked at the thermometer and it was absolutely roasting.
08:36So I tried to do as much of the warm-up as I could in the shadows of the stands and that.
08:41And then you just see Charlie's free kick that we used to work on after training.
08:47It was just a special day when you see a sea of tangerine at Wembley and all that.
08:52And it was a 3-2, so it was...
08:55I think we knew we had a good team there.
08:59We had a manager that believed in everyone, everyone absolutely fantastic.
09:03You know, his man management with the players was second to none.
09:06And we had a team there that bought into all his ideas of how to play.
09:11We used to work on shape, we used to work on, you know, how to go out there working on the shape and different.
09:17And we just trusted each other as coaches.
09:19And I think they got the rewards that they justifiably deserved.
09:23And it hurt me going into the Premiership, which is everyone's dream.
09:27When you look back now, it just seems like a distant memory.
09:29We just wish we could have left a little bit more of a legacy for Blackpool.
09:32Or, you know, if we could have just stayed in that Premiership for another season or another two seasons and got the money in.
09:39And, you know, you see some of the clubs that are in the Premiership now, I'm not disrespecting, but Blackpool could have been as good as them.
09:46You know, they've invested well, they've spent the money well.
09:50That's what we wanted to do, me and Ollie at Blackpool.
09:53Did the final against West Ham 2, I just feel like end of the line stuff, sort of a point where things started to go more downhill for Blackpool.
10:00Is that looking up?
10:02Yeah, I think when you looked at that one, it was disappointing because, you know, with the vast take-goal later on in the game, obviously Tom Hens equalised.
10:15And it just, if you look back through the game, we had so many good chances.
10:20That was a frustrating thing that we thought, you know, on the day we could have, we probably should have won it with the chances that we created.
10:29And I think coming to the end of that one there, you look there, could we hold on to the players any longer?
10:35The ones that, you know, obviously clubs were watching them.
10:38Could we take them any further?
10:39You know, some of them, we thought, have we seen the best of them now?
10:45So it was that transition there, and that was a frustrating one, because I think, you know, I think we deserved that one there.
10:52The West Ham one, I think, you know, when they scored later on, it just deflated us a little bit with that one, as well as we played.
11:00So that was a disappointing one.
11:03I think when you look there, you think, you know, we had that, go in and revamp the team and get more players in, or rely on the same ones again.
11:11But I think the hard thing is, when you've got them sort of players there, you know, they can get their head turned with money.
11:17They're only human.
11:18You know, if people are coming in, and as well as they do in the Championship and the Premiership,
11:23they're always the big clubs there that we could not match the, we can't match them.
11:28And as long as we get the right prize from them and the right fee from them, I think, you know, inevitably they're going to go.
11:35But it's the wages when they're, when you're talking life-changing money, it's hard to keep someone.
11:39And just finally on yourself, obviously you're back in the dugout for a Legends game, but what's your turn, what's the future looking like for yourself?
11:46Are we getting back in?
11:47Yeah, I'm still always looking, you know, I've turned jobs down locally, I've turned jobs down down south, abroad.
11:53I'm just waiting for the right opportunity.
11:55I'm doing support work for a great group called Sunrise.
11:59I'm doing a lot of individual coaching for a group in London, which has really took off.
12:04I'm doing all the BBC for obviously Radio Lines, Radio Leicester.
12:08I'm enjoying that.
12:09I'm just waiting for the right opportunity.
12:11You know, it's got to be right.
12:13I've got a great family at home that, you know, I'm in no rush with three kids, four grandkids, a great supportive wife who's helped me throughout my career.
12:23And all the family have come to it, they still can watch the Blackpool games now.
12:26So I'm just waiting for the right opportunity.
12:28It's, you know, it's got to be good for me to move.
12:32But I'm enjoying what I'm doing at the moment.
12:34I'm still involved with it.
12:35I still think I've got a lot to offer.
12:38You know, people mention about your age and things like that.
12:41But, you know, you see these up-and-coming coaches, they fail and they say, well, they haven't got the experience.
12:44But I still think, you know, even now, you never stop learning from the young ones coming in.
12:49But, yeah, I'm ready to get back in when it's right.