As the season approached it was suggested that if everything fell in to place we'd have a decent spine of a team. With Orlandi, Cubero and O'Hara all looking good, Clark's contacts with Michael Jacobs, Hall and Daniels spoken about for a return in the defence and Gary Madine up front, that was looking like a decent League One side. Now all that is left is Nile Ranger (who has lost his A-Z) and a couple of blokes from Sunderland!
With O'Hara weighing up his options (for the read 'he ain't coming back'), Cubero and Orlandi using the finest minds in contracts to dodge a first class return ride back to Bloomfield Road and Lee Clark's departures casting doubt on any of his old boys returning, there was still a hope that Gary Madine would return. In fact in a recent AVFTT poll (link below), Madine came out top of those players from last season that you'd like to see return.
Well today, the Bolton News suggests that he could be on his way to the Macron. Wanderers are closing in on the signing of former Sheffield Wednesday striker Gary Madine. The 24-year-old is to become Neil Lennon’s first signing of the summer after turning down an offer from Birmingham City to sign at the Macron Stadium.
Madine's arrival may provoke mixed reactions among the Whites support, however, owing to his history of criminal convictions. Madine was found guilty of ABH in 2010 and given community service, then served five months of an 18-month jail term in October 2013 after being found guilty of ABH and GBH in Sheffield. He then spent the last few months of the season in the Championship with Blackpool and finished the campaign with eight goals in 41 appearances in all competitions.
The news is another blow to Blackpool without a manager, any experienced players (bar Phil Horner - strap your boots on lad!) and with time ticking ahead of pre-season training at the end of next month. Just to rub salt in the wounds, Dom Telford (also pictured here) is close to a move to Stoke along with fellow youth player Mark Waddington. Every day brings a new tale of disappointment at a time when most Blackpool fans felt things couldn't get much worse.
AVFTT Poll: http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/blackpool/forum/146129/any-of-this-lot-you