Blackpool

Blackpool cancel pre-season tour to Spain

By Joe Fish, ReporterPublished: 15 July 2014 10:50 PM

Championship side Blackpool cancel their pre-season tour to Spain so that they can focus on recruiting players to a squad that only has eight players and no goalkeeper.

Blackpool have decided to cancel their pre-season trip to Spain to focus on adding to their threadbare squad.

The Championship outfit currently only have eight players, none of whom is a goalkeeper, in their playing ranks after a 27-man exodus at the end of last campaign.

Tangerines chairman Karl Oyston has revealed that they have sacrificed going on the tour, on which they were due to play two fixtures, so that he and new manager Jose Riga can concentrate on recruiting.

In a statement on the club's official website, Oyston said: "The manager has taken the decision - and I agree with the decision - to cancel the pre-season tour so that our time is better served to try and get some of the player deals that we've been trying to get over the line for some time across the line.

"Our time will be far better spent preparing here than going over to Spain.

"I've spoken with the chairman of the supporters' association, as I do with most things, about the decision because certain people no doubt booked to go across and follow the two games. We'll look to fairly deal with that issue."

Goalkeeper Matt Gilks, last season's club Player of the Year, was one of the players to leave Bloomfield Road earlier this summer.