Brett Ormerod column: Derby days are a welcome feature of Blackpool's fixture list

Right now, I’d take safety for Blackpool, but you just never know. I’m sure Neil Critchley and those above him at the club will be looking as high up as possible – and why not?

They will need to get a flavour of the league though, because it is a step up as I say, but the majority of the squad is accustomed to playing the way Critchley wants them to and I’ve no doubt they’ll compete well.

Hopefully they’ll hit the ground running, but Bristol City away is a tough start.

As a player, I can’t remember winning at Ashton Gate too many times with Blackpool.

I’ve had a busy summer so it’s been hard to keep up with Blackpool’s transfer business!

What is it, another nine that have come in? So it’s been another big turnover as it always seems to be nowadays.

It’s really exciting times. They’ve got a tremendous squad, everything is getting stronger every year and I’m really looking forward to this season. There’s nothing like the Championship.

Obviously, there are the derby games against Preston and Blackburn but it’s not just that.

There are plenty of other big games to look forward to. There are so many strong sides at this level.

Put the rivalries aside for one moment, it’s just nice to have these games back. Derbies are always fantastic occasions.

There are people within families that support either team, there are work colleagues, friends and so on. It’s what it’s all about.

I always think it’s a huge shame when you go a while without playing your rivals.

You only have to look at Scotland when Rangers went out of the top league for a few years. Scottish football took a hell of a long time to recover from that.

That’s on a bigger scale, granted, but it’s always nice when these games come along because there’s nothing like a derby game.

You look at Burnley, they’re in the Premier League, and then you’ve got the three Lancashire sides in the Championship.

No disrespect to Morecambe and Fleetwood, but the main four are the four that have been around for a very long time and they’re all doing well at this minute. It’s good for Lancashire football.

Back to this summer, it’s been great to see the club tie down their best players to longer deals this summer – people like Chris Maxwell, Kevin Stewart and Jerry Yates.

That’s the beauty of Blackpool now, that’s what they have to their advantage.

A few years ago, they probably would have lost Yates to another Championship team but they’ve now got the resources to keep hold of those players.

I heard a lot of rumours about Jerry, which wasn’t a huge surprise to be honest because he had a fantastic season last year.

When your best players aren’t getting attention, something is wrong.

He wanted to stay and that’s a massive thing. He’s happy where he is and he likes the way Critchley goes about things, so that was a fantastic piece of business. I’ve no doubt he’ll have another good season.

Looking back to this weekend, it would be massive for Blackpool to get off to a good start but as Critchley has said himself, it isn’t the be-all and end-all.

It’s a tough league, one that gets tougher every year because the spending power of the teams coming down is massive.

It’s a mixture. You’ve got Championship-quality teams but you’ve also got Premier League teams in there as well, in all but name because of their finances.

You only have to look at the teams that come down and then go back up again, like Norwich, because they had the resources to keep hold of their players.

That just wasn’t possible maybe 10 or 15 years ago.

In the Championship, historically at least, those clubs wanted to move their best players on to get them off the wage bill, but that’s no longer the case. That makes it a lot, lot tougher.

You only have to take a look at Fulham, who are paying some big fees for their signings this summer. The gap between top and bottom is massive and it seems to be getting bigger.

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