'Groundhog day': BST slams Blackpool FC over Gary Bowyer resignation

OPINION: A sad day as Blackpool loses the man that was the glue holding the club together

The 47-year-old handed in his resignation yesterday - just five days into the new season - in what was another chaotic mess of a day for the football club.

While the official club statement gave no reason for his departure, The Gazette understands Bowyer has been growing increasingly frustrated with the disarray off the pitch and recent developments have pushed him over the edge.

He held showdown talks with club owner Owen Oyston yesterday and soon after it was confirmed he had decided to stand down.

Two of his main frustrations appear to centre around the loss of the club’s key players this summer, many of them for free, as well as the situation regarding the club’s training ground.

Squires Gate has been deemed unusable, leaving the club to train in Preston and Leigh.

Bowyer initially had to pay for the training facilities in Preston out of his own money before being reimbursed by the club.

Christine Seddon, chair of Blackpool Supporters’ Trust, described yesterday’s developments as a “shambles”.

She added. “It’s just incredibly sad because we’re just like hamsters in a wheel, aren’t we? Here we are again managerless. It’s groundhog day all over again.

“What is going on? Where are we going? And what does Owen Oyston seriously think he is achieving by clinging on so desperately to something he should have let go of a long time ago.

“His complete lack of self awareness is staggering but I think the really sad thing is, it’s not just about the football now. It’s about what we’ve been saying all along, it’s about a club that’s supposed to be part of the community.

“It’s about a club that had such a wonderful opportunity put its way when all that money came into the club. It’s just turned to dust.

“It’s just so wrong that one individual, that’s basically what it’s coming down to now, can have such a drastic and catastrophic effect on a community asset.

“It’s totally wrong on so many levels. Who will rid us of this turbulent owner?

“Where are the football authorities in this? They just seem to sleep on while all this has been going on.

“Something is seriously going to have to happen now because we must be at the end of this. It can’t go on.

“The man that was holding together what was left of a once fine club, he’s now gone. It’s just incredibly sad.

“Imagine what he could have done with proper backing and with all the fans there - if it was a proper football club.

“I am forever the optimist and what I do know is that we were mired in inertia and something needed to happen. Something has happened now, and maybe finally this will be the catalyst to bring this whole sorry mess to an end.”