'It's time for the revolving door to stop': Why Joe Nuttall's surprise departure sums up last year's hectic summer of recruitment at Blackpool

Should Jamie Devitt leave Bloomfield Road before the transfer window shuts on October 16, as is expected, he’ll become the eighth of last year’s cohort of nine permanent arrivals to have already left.

Joe Nuttall became the latest to pack his bags last night when he agreed a season-long loan move to League One newcomers Northampton Town.

To describe his debut season with Blackpool as “frustrating” wouldn’t do it justice, in truth it was a bit of a nightmare.

Having arrived as Blackpool’s marquee summer signing from Blackburn Rovers for a sizeable fee, the striker scored just four goals in 33 appearances - only two of them coming in the league.

His disappointing campaign can be put down to a number of different factors; the form of Armand Gnanduillet; his lack of starts; the tactics employed by Simon Grayson and yes; his own attitude and application.

Grayson also hinted at personal problems away from the football pitch and it’s fair to say he had more than his fair share of abuse on social media, which can never be excused.

But, while not wishing to write him off, it soon became abundantly clear that Nuttall wasn’t going to be the talismanic number nine the club had initially hoped he would be.

Not straight away, anyway, but fingers crossed his loan move to Sixfields does the world of good for him and he returns to the Fylde coast a better player and brimming with confidence.

Ryan Hardie endured a similar tale of frustration last term. Brought in for good money from Rangers to much fanfare, the Scottish striker netted just one goal all season.

Did he ever receive a proper run in the side? No. But did he show enough in the games he did get? Again, you’d have to say no, even if they were fleeting appearances in league games and starts in cup competitions.

Hopefully Nuttall can perform similarly to how Hardie did during his brief but impressive loan spell with Plymouth Argyle last year, where he scored seven times in 13 appearances.

Hardie, unlike Nuttall, had already been identified as a target by Terry McPhillips prior to Grayson’s arrival in July.

Once Grayson took over following McPhillips’ surprise decision to stand down, the 50-year-old took a week or so to check on clips and footage of the forward before rubber-stamping the move. But the wheels were already in motion.

As for Nuttall, he was very much a Grayson signing. He was well known to the former Blackpool manager who had seen him play for Blackburn’s Under-23 side on a number of occasions as a teammate of his son, Joe.

As we know, scoring goals regularly in the Under-23 leagues and doing it at senior level in League One are two completely different ball-games, and Nuttall has yet to make that transition.

Calum Macdonald and Sean Scannell were two more of Grayson’s signings who have both since left - one permanently in Scannell and one temporarily in Macdonald.

Scannell looked like a questionable acquisition from the start. While still only aged 29, the winger was plagued by injuries during his time at Bradford City and their fans were more than happy to swap him for Harry Pritchard, who moved in the other direction.

There’s no doubting his quality, Scannell has performed at the highest level for both Huddersfield Town and Crystal Palace after all, but his best days are surely behind him.

He made just 12 appearances during his time with the Seasiders, the high point his well-taken strike in the 2-1 victory against Lincoln City in September. But aside from that, he offered little.

Macdonald, meanwhile, was surprisingly allowed to leave on loan last month when he joined League Two side Tranmere Rovers for the season.

The attacking left-back did little wrong last term, but he was never given a proper run of games that many fans felt he deserved.

Many expected him to kick on this season, potentially as Blackpool’s first-choice full-back. Neil Critchley obviously thought differently.

Grayson’s recruitment, in contrast to his first spell, was mixed at best. But it’s unfair to lay the blame solely at his door.

He only had three or four weeks to identify and bring in his own players before the season got underway, with loaness Jak Alnwick, Rocky Bushiri, Ben Heneghan and James Husband all coming on board to mixed degrees of effectiveness.

McPhillips’ recruitment was hardly stellar, either. While Ryan Edwards did okay, Ben Tollitt and Adi Yussuf - who were both taken from non-league - failed to make a single competitive appearance between them.

While Yussuf had enjoyed a strong campaign the previous season two divisions below with Solihull Moors, signing him on the back of his impressive display against Blackpool in the FA Cup was foolish. His CV of former clubs, 13 in total, didn’t exactly scream a player that was going to do the business at the top end of the third tier.

Tollitt, meanwhile, had been released by Tranmere Rovers - League Two at the time - after struggling with injuries. He scored four goals in a loan spell with Wrexham before his departure. He’s now with AFC Fylde in the National League North.

Both Tollitt and Yussuf were handed two-year deals with the option to extend by a further 12 months. That can’t be pinned on McPhillips, that was down to the interim board.

This gets to the crux of the problem. Last summer marked a hugely significant moment in the history of Blackpool Football Club, which had gone from the despised Oyston ownership in February, into receivership and under the control of the interim board to Simon Sadler in the space of just four months.

Not one person can take sole blame for Blackpool’s hit-and-miss recruitment last year. Circumstances dictated it would be a chaotic few moments on and off the pitch, transition was inevitable and badly needed.

With so much upheaval - remember, a further 12 players were brought in during the January transfer window while another 12 departed - it’s no wonder Blackpool’s campaign was so haphazard.

Even Kaikai, to an extent, didn’t hit the heights we all expected of him last season, but that’s more to do with injury problems more than anything else.

Should the former Crystal Palace man remain fit this season he will be a key player for the Seasiders. He’s already proven that in pre-season.

Including this summer, Blackpool have brought in a total of 55 players during the past five transfer windows. That’s an average of 11 per window.

Neil Critchley’s recruitment, while still hefty, has been fairly modest with eight new arrivals so far compared to the 16 that arrived prior to the 2018/19 campaign.

Blackpool have been even busier during that time shipping players out, moving on an astonishing 68 during the last five windows - an average of almost 14 per window.

It’s completely understandable that Critchley wants his own players that are capable of playing his style of football and of the required quality to get the Seasiders into the Championship. But if Blackpool are serious about sustaining long-term success then the revolving door must stop.

But now the Seasiders finally have stability off the pitch, one would hope the days of constant chopping and changing are finally over.

The interim board did a sterling job getting the club up to speed in what must have been a hugely chaotic period last year. Dealing with the mess leftover from the Oyston era was an unenviable task.

But rushing through a host of questionable signings under McPhillips presented Sadler with a mish-mash of a squad that was never realistically going to compete for the top six. The aftermath of that is still being dealt with to this day.