Every club needs it's colourful character and up to his downfall in 1996, Blackpool had it's own touch of eccentricity in Owen Oyston. The man that fell backwards in to a swimming pool, rubbed shoulders alongside the wealthy and influential, wore his trademark fedora and came up with pie in the sky stadium plans for Blackpool Football Club fitted the bill. However, his time at Her Majesty's Pleasure left him disgraced and it seemed that the Seasiders had lost a recognisable figurehead - until along came Valeri Belokon.
Belokon states he was having a meeting with Owen about flogging his Latvian beer when he became interested in owning a slice of the club. His arrival at Bloomfield Road coincided with a change in Blackpool's fortunes that was almost fairy tale like. Having announced that he would get the club to the Premier League within five years, he achieved it in three. If his proclamation sounded ridiculous, the fact the club achieved it was even more so. Due to problems back home, it seemed like Belokon couldn't really enjoy the Premier League season as much as everyone else but his occasional appearances at mainly away grounds were reassurance that he still had a foothold in the club. However, as the Premier League dream faded, Belekon disappeared in to the background as he fought his own troubles back in Latvia.
However, having dealt with unfounded accusations back home, Belekon is back and what an arrival. Over summer we got a taste of what was to come with the Latvian making accusations against the Oystons and demanding he receives some recognition for the money he has put in to the club. Now, in an explosive interview with the Mail newspaper, he goes further and makes the tantalising suggestion that he could buy the club off the Oystons. It's what fans have wanted to hear but more than that, if it happens, it will be the first time that there is a viable option to the Oyston ownership of the club - something that Karl, in particular, has been able to use when answering criticism of the families running of the club.
Now is the time for this to happen. Whether by luck or judgement, Karl's running of the club did take us to the Premier League. Arguably it also lead to our relegation and his misguided decisions and policies have now got us in the position we are. Karl cuts a lonely figure at Bloomfield Road. Those around him have left and now he has painted himself in to a corner and seemingly has no ideas about how to get out of it. The party is over, the bar has run dry and it's time to go. The club cannot recover whilst Oyston and his family are in charge. Their name in the football world is now rotten. Blackpool FC is a no go area with agents, footballers, managers and even fans. If, as Karl has stated all along, they have wanted to ensure the long term survival of the club and leave it in a sustainable and self funding way, then they have achieved their goal. We have no debts, we have no financial worries but sadly we now have no future. It's time for the Oyston's to be true to their word and hear what Belokon has to say. Here is the opportunity they claim they have been waiting for and now is the time to go.
Who knows what life under Belokon would be like? However, it would lift this dark shadow that has been lingering over the club for far too long and that is a risk the vast majority would be prepared to take.
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