Why Blackpool legend Brett Ormerod has been impressed by Blackburn Rovers, Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest target Josh Bowler

I listened to the radio the other day when people were debating how he will cope with it all because he’s a wanted man, will it affect him and all that.

But I don’t think it will because when the speculation first started in January with Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest, he actually got better after that because he went on a great run.

He never allowed it to interrupt his game, it didn’t affect his form and he never had an attitude about it. If anything, he got better.

That’s when he really started to show what he can do, so I never had any doubts about him because he’s a great football player and a really good professional, so I was not surprised at all to hear he got Man of the Match against Reading on Saturday.

No club wants their best players to leave and I’m sure the club will act in the best way they can for the club, just like he will do for himself.

But you don’t hear him moaning, you don’t hear him sticking transfer requests in, he just gets his head down, works hard and he gets on with his game.

He was fantastic last season and hopefully he carries that on again this season.

Just on last Saturday, it was a great way for Blackpool to start the season last week with what was a hard-earned win. To start off with a win was important for Michael Appleton because there were a few fans with some doubts.

But there’s a good squad there and one more than capable of challenging in the Championship.

It’s clear Appleton wants his side to play a bit more football and that’s fine, but I always think it’s all well and good playing passing football but it’s got to be with a purpose. To be fair during the first-half against Reading that was the case.

But sometimes teams can be guilty of passing the ball just for the sake of passing and they get bogged down in it.

When you watch the best passing teams, like Barcelona back in the day and Spain, they were doing it to find an opening and they did it quickly. The opposition would switch off and they were in.

Sometimes in England we misinterpret that and keep the ball just for the sake of it when we all know possession doesn’t win football matches.

It will be interesting to see how Blackpool’s style develops over the season. It’s only the first game and there’s a long way to go, but it’s a great start.

They now move on to Stoke away which will be tricky, but they will obviously have great memories of the win they had their last season.

I didn’t see the away game last season but I did see them at Bloomfield Road and they looked decent, so on form they can be very good but when they’re not, they’re not very good if you will, so there doesn’t seem to be a happy medium.

They will be looking to bounce back at home after losing their opening game against Millwall, so it will be a tough game.