Should Blackpool look to familiar face for next boss - with interest from ex-QPR and Derby County man
Steve Bruce was sacked by Blackpool over the weekend - with the club currently sat in the bottom four in League One.
Blackpool are on the search for a new manager - with a familiar figure believed to be interested in the vacant role.
Steve Bruce was sacked by the Seasiders on Saturday night after losing seven of his opening 11 games in League One this season - with Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to AFC Wimbledon proving to be his final outing in the Bloomfield Road dugout.
Steve Agnew and Stephen Clemence also exited alongside the head coach, while Stephen Dobbie and Steve Banks will take interim charge and lead the preparations for next Saturday’s game against Stockport County.
A number of names will be considered for the permanent job over the coming days, in what will be a critical appointment for the club to get right.
Ian Evatt is currently the bookies’ favourite at 1/2, and the Gazette understands that the former Blackpool defender would be open to discussions over the role.
The 43-year-old was with the Seasiders permanently between 2007 and 2013 during his playing career, after initially making the move on loan from QPR in 2006.
During his time in Tangerine, the Derby County youth product made 254 appearances in Tangerine, and won promotion from both League One (2007) and the Championship (2010).
Evatt has been coaching since hanging up his boots in 2018. After initially holding a caretaker role with Chesterfield, he has since held permanent positions with Barrow and Bolton Wanderers - with his stint with the latter producing promotion to League One as well as an EFL Trophy.
Head vs heart
OPINION: From a sentimental point of view, looking back to a former player would be hard to resist.
Evatt was a loved figure during his time on the Fylde Coast, and was part of the Blackpool team that reached the Premier League.
He’s someone that already knows the club, and has credit in the bank with the majority of the fan base.
Moving onto a coaching point of view, his CV makes promising reading. With Barrow he won the National League, while his time with Bolton saw him deliver promotion to League One.
After reaching the third tier with the Trotters, he was able to kick on further, and was 90 minutes from reaching the Championship at the end of the 2023/24 campaign.
A defeat to Oxford United in the play-off final at Wembley ultimately changed the direction of his time at the Toughsheet Community Stadium.
On the pitch last season, form clearly took a dip, and there were obvious problems that led to his departure in January, but overall it was a good five-year stint.
Now, a question the Seasiders must ask themselves is, how do they see the club playing?
During his time with Bolton, Evatt used a wing-back system, with three at the back - which is exactly what Neil Critchley utilised during his time at Bloomfield Road.
Blackpool sacked the ex-Liverpool partly because of that brand of football, and have now spent two transfer windows under Bruce trying to move away from that.
It’d be a pretty damning indictment of the club’s overall planning process if they were to go back to a wing-back system, having focussed their recent business on getting natural wingers through the door.
That’s not to say that formation couldn’t work - but it’d mark a wasted 12-month project, whether it’s Evatt or any other coach who comes in and wants to play that way.
It’d also present challenges in terms of numbers in the key positions to play that way, so whoever gets the role will need to be open-minded in however they approach it.
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