Filed under: Blackpool, Premier League, Football
The glitz, glamour and financial benefits offered by the Premier League have changed many a player, many a club and many a chairman.However, it would appear that Karl Oyston is in no danger of falling into that same trap.
The Blackpool chairman has always vowed to run the Bloomfield Road club like any other business and refuses to allow emotion - or new-found fame - to get in the way of the day-to-day operation on his hands.
He leaves the snappy soundbites and attention seeking to the likes of Wigan's Dave Whelan or David Gold and David Sullivan at West Ham United and his level-headed approach also extends to his dealings with Blackpool's squad.
In January, Oyston refused to allow Charlie Adam to leave to join Liverpool or Tottenham Hotspur because he felt Blackpool needed him more and that Adam also had a legally binding contract with the club that Oyston wanted him to honour.
Contracts are readily broken nowadays, but Oyston is a throwback to a time when players were expected to see out the terms of their deals and that is exactly what Oyston made him do.
He knew that Blackpool could get around £12m for Adam but Oyston also knew that if he helped keep the club in the Premier League this season then that would be worth £30m and it was therefore a no-brainer for a man who looks at the balance sheet before anything else.
Oyston sees players as commodities and that is why the club's fans should fear for the future of several members of their squad irrespective of whether the club avoids relegation back into the Championship.
Adam will inevitably leave this summer because Blackpool need to cash in on him before his contract runs out but they are also likely to lose David Vaughan, Stephen Crainey and Matt Gilks.
The trio are all free agents following Sunday's match with Manchester United and are all wanted by other clubs.
And rather than once again doing his level best to keep them at Bloomfield Road, Oyston will refuse to offer inflated pay increases, generous commercial spin-offs or any of the other lures clubs use to keep hold of their best players.
Yes, Oyston would love them to stay but no, he will not shed a tear if they leave because, above all else, the need to maintain a sensible wage structure at the club is more important than keeping any individual player.
He said: "The situation is that we will do all we can to keep them within the structure we've got.
"It is wonderful these lads have so many options. They fully deserve to have them and the interest people are showing.
"We will do the best we can and hope that is enough to keep the players the manager wants to try to keep.
"By the same token, you always accept in football that players come and go.
"Players will progress through their careers and see their future elsewhere.
"When that happens, it is up to myself and the manager to keep bringing players in to keep the club going in the direction we all want."
Some Blackpool fans may wish that Oyston would forego his level-headed approach and go all out to keep that trio on huge new deals.
But in an age where football clubs are struggling to keep afloat, it is refreshing to see a chairman who refuses to be held to ransom and who has the courage to let established stars go if that is what he feels is in the best interests of the club.
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