Chief executive Ben Mansford defends Blackpool's decision to recruit heavily in January transfer window

The Seasiders were one of the most active clubs in England last month, working on 24 deals in total.

In what was an unprecedented winter transfer window for the club, Blackpool agreed 12 incomings while a further 12 faced the exit door.

Concerns had been raised that making wholesale changes midway through the campaign was far from ideal, but Mansford says the club needed to make some "tough decisions".

When asked if, in hindsight, they would have been as active as they were, Mansford told The Gazette: “Yes I think so.

“We want people that want to be here and can come on the journey with us.

“Some of those tough decisions were about asking ourselves if these people are going to be part of our future and whether we can make the top six with these players. Can these players shift their mentality from the past to the future?

“Curtis Tilt, for example, probably wasn’t going to sign a new deal and probably was ready for a fresh challenge. We had to be grown up to accept that.

“I think we finished the window with a better squad than we had and we finished it with a set of people that are more in-tune with where we’re going.

“It’s quite exciting to be able to recruit people like Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, to have one of the best coaches in the country in Brendan Rodgers in giving him a debut on one day and then sent him up the road to us the next.

“For me, that’s exciting for the future.

“I try not to regret the things we do, it’s the things you don’t do.

"But I think we have a different balance to the squad and I hope we continue over the next few windows to heighten the quality, to reduce the cost to Simon - which is really important - and to give the town a club they enjoy paying their hard-earned cash to come and watch.”