Brett Ormerod column: Tough decisions going forward by my difficult choices looking back

These are scary times for football as a spectator sport, with social distancing due to coronavirus looking set to continue for quite a few months.

With the Bury situation still fresh in everyone’s minds and whispers about a number of other clubs in trouble, it really is a case of survival at all costs at many levels of the game as income dries up.

Since my last column two weeks ago, we’ve really had no news coming out of Blackpool and not a lot coming out of football in general, but my view is still that the best approach for the Premier League and EFL is to complete their season by playing matches behind closed doors.

Players having to play a lot of games in a short time is something no-one would have batted an eyelid about in the past and they shouldn’t now.

It is difficult for players not knowing when they will going back to work. But everybody is in the same boat and asking the same questions, so they just have to keep on top of their fitness and be ready when the call comes.

The players would need to be tested, of course, but the concept of playing behind closed doors is nothing new in football, though in the past such games have tended to be punishments for the clubs concerned.

The supporters need not miss out as the iFollow system is now established, so the fans can still tune in to the games, while the season could end with some integrity, which would not be the case if matches were declared null and void.

The National League has decided it will not be completing its season and I feel gutted for my old mate Ian Evatt because his Barrow club have every right to be top of the league.

What Evo has done there is similar to what Ian Holloway did at Blackpool and they have had a phenomenal season. They have earned the right to be promoted and Evo is still a close friend of mine.

I have also been involved at AFC Fylde this season and I can’t help but feel they don’t deserve to be relegated.

They are a fantastic club and you have to ask if they would have got out of trouble had they played more games. You just don’t know.

You also think about the top Championship clubs if fixtures are not completed. The top two, Leeds and West Brom, are looking at massive amounts of money if they go up – money that changes a club’s history.

You can’t just null-and-void the season. It’s not as though it’s halfway through – we’ve played 80-90 per cent of the fixtures.

I saw Charlie Adam’s list of the best players he played alongside, including our Blackpool team-mate Stephen Crainey.

BBC Radio Lancashire asked me to do the same thing. It’s just a bit of fun but I’ll admit it caused me a massive headache and I’ve changed my mind several times since.

It did make me realise how lucky I was to play with so many unbelievable talents.

Charlie was in my XI and I also picked Crains at left-back, but that wasn’t easy as I’d also been in teams with John Hills at Blackpool and Callum Davidson at Preston.

And there were players like Keith Southern and Paul McKenna, who I think is one of the best who never played in the Premier League.

The fairest way to choose is to judge players purely on the stage their career was at when you played alongside them. For example, I played with Dan Petrescu and Andre Kanchelskis at Southampton – both awesome players but not quite the players they were when I was their team-mate.

But overall it made me realise what a blessing it was to have had the opportunity to play with so many talented players and some who were top world players.

It just puts a smile on my face and makes me think how lucky this scruffy lad from Blackburn has been.