Blackpool in shambles as Bowyer quits

Gary Bowyer has quit as Blackpool manager one game into the new season having tired of the shambolic running of the seaside club.

Bowyer has performed exceptionally well in a two-year reign at Bloomfield Road, defying financial strife to secure promotion to League One, before consolidated the club’s place in the division last season. But having started this campaign with a 0-0 draw with Wycombe Wanderers, Bowyer met controversial owner Owen Oyston and announced his departure.

The 47-year-old has been considering his future amid crippling economic conditions at the club that left him without a usable training ground. Bowyer paid for an alternative training site himself in Preston before the club reimbursed him, while many of his best players left on free transfers over the summer.

Blackpool face an uncertain future following a dispute between Oyston and former director Valeri Belokon. Last November, the Oyston family was ordered to pay Belokon £31.27 million, having been deemed to have “abused their powers” as majority shareholders.

Mr Justice Smith ruled the Oystons had “illegitimately stripped” the club of millions of pounds after promotion to the Premier League in 2010.

The vast majority of that sum is still to be paid to Belokon. Blackpool fans have been campaigning against the Oystons for years.

They initially hoped the debt to Belokon would force the quick sale of the club, enabling a new owner to support Bowyer. Instead, matters have come to a head with the manager’s exit and Oyston, whose son Karl quit as chairman last February, clinging to power.

Assistant manager Terry Mcphillips has taken over on an interim basis.