'The icing on the cake:' Blackpool's position on loan deals outlined - as Karamoko Dembele admission is made

So far this summer, the Seasiders have recruited Ashley Fletcher alongside a familiar face in Jordan Rhodes – who returns following his successful spell at Bloomfield Road on loan from Huddersfield Town last season. Fellow loanees Hayden Coulson, George Byers and Karamoko Dembele also impressed during their time on the Fylde Coast, with the latter scoring nine goals and providing 14 assists in all competitions.

At Monday night’s fans forum, Downes discussed the way Blackpool would approach the transfer window ahead of the 2024/25 campaign, and if they would look to bring in players on temporary deals.

"You’re loaning in a certain quality," he said.

"We want to sign permanent players, we don’t actively go looking for loan players as an option, but a lot of the time it can be that little bit of extra quality we can’t attract to the football club in League One.

"Using Kaddy (Karamoko Dembele) as an example, he came from a top team in France. We were fortunate that we sold this project to him, and to have him for the season, because he added the quality we couldn’t afford to bring in.

“We did ask the question first of all on whether we could buy him or not, and it wasn’t going to work.

"I’d like to think all four loans we finished with at the end of the season added to us and gave us something, instead of being loan players blocking up other people’s path.”

Head coach Neil Critchley and owner Simon Sadler were also among those on the panel at the recent fans forum at Bloomfield Road, and both emphasised the importance of loaning players in.

"Last season we had less loan players than the season before,” Critchley stated.

"We want to be a club that develops our own players, we want to be a club that brings in permanent players- sign them and develop them to hopefully give you an exciting team to watch and we progress.

"If one of those players end up being beyond us then we can sell them and use that money to help our club to develop and go again further.

"We don’t want to be a team that brings in an enormous amount of loan players, but we also know because of who we are and where we are, the loan market is something we have to use to our benefit.”

"The reality is as a League One club you’re often going to find some of your best players are loan players,” Sadler added.

"We beat Lincoln in the play-off final, and they had Morgan Rogers and Brennan Johnson who are now two Premier League players. We had Dan Ballard and Ellis Simms.

"If we’re doing our jobs right, then our loan players should be the icing on the cake.”