Blackpool boss Bowyer's quest for quality this summer

The Seasiders have been left with a squad of 16 players after announcing their retained list last week, though they remain in discussions with Tom Aldred, Nathan Delfouneso and Sam Slocombe.

After letting 10 players go, Bowyer is under no illusions that he will have to strengthen for the third tier – but the Pool boss insists the club must only bring the right people in.

“It’s the quality we’re after because of the step-up in the league,” he said. “I’ve had a chat with the chairman. I’ve not gone in with a number. I just said we need quality. We’ll work very hard to get the right people in.

“I think it’s important we provide ourselves with depth because of the loan window.

“Every signing is based on its merits but I think it’s important you don’t restrict yourself with, ‘You can only spend this much on this player’. It’s about the type of player available, then asking the chairman to back me.”

Blackpool’s pre-season recruitment had to be put on hold by their play-off campaign but now it’s full steam ahead.

Bowyer revealed agents were in touch as soon as Pool won promotion at Wembley and he has already drawn up a list of targets.

He added: “As you can imagine, the agents don’t mess around these days. There were texts coming in saying, ‘Congratulations on your win. By the way, I have these players available for you’.

“There’s no doubt we have to strengthen. We have to try to compete with the quality that’s in League One.

“We’ve started our process in terms of hitting targets, making calls and checking on the characters of the players we want to try to bring in. Before this season, I spoke to people who had worked in League Two to get their advice. Some told me not to recruit just to get out of the league – recruit to compete in League One.

“I think we’ve done that. We’ve got players who can make that step up and we’ll give them that opportunity.

“But we still need to develop in certain areas and that’s our main target.”