Michael Appleton named as Blackpool boss after landing vacant role

Michael Appleton has been named as Blackpool's new manager.

He fills the vacancy at the Championship club following Neil Critchley's shock exit earlier this month. Appleton returns to a familiar role, having been boss at Bloomfield Road between 2012 and 2013.

Critchley shocked many by leaving the Seasiders to take up the Aston Villa assistant manager's job. He will now be Steven Gerrard's number two following Michael Beale's departure to become QPR manager.

After being re-appointed, Appleton told Blackpool's website: "I am absolutely delighted to be here. To be able to come back to the club, with where the club is at during this moment in time, after two really successful seasons, I can't wait to get started."

"When I spoke to Simon, to Ben, John and Brett, you could clearly feel the energy in the room, and I think they felt that from me as well. This club now feels like the right club at the right time. The fans will certainly have seen glimpses of what I tried to do in my days at Lincoln. I want to play aggressive, forward-thinking football and we have certain things that we want from the players when we're playing, dependent on opposition clearly. We just want to be exciting and get people off their seats."

Appleton only spent two months in the role last time around, from November 2012 to January 2013. He bossed just 12 games in that brief period before being poached by Lancashire rivals Blackburn.

Since then he has achieved success with Oxford United, taking them into League One in his second season in charge. He moved to Lincoln in 2019 and in 2020-21 he led them to the League One play-off final, ironically losing to Blackpool at Wembley.

Tangerines' owner Simon Sadler said of the appointment: "I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Michael back to Blackpool. I am very much looking forward to seeing what he can achieve during his second stint with us. Whilst success cannot be guaranteed, Ben, Brett, John and I are convinced that, after a thorough recruitment process, he's the right man for us at this point in our journey.

"All of the prospective head coaches were strong candidates and we spent several hours with each to get to know them better. After debating their individual pros and cons, we were unanimous in our decision to choose Michael Appleton."

Last year Appleton underwent surgery for testicular cancer, having found a lump a few months earlier.

Appleton had previously been under a year's surveillance after complaining of pain in his testicles and returned to his GP after noticing a lump that was confirmed as cancer.

He described himself as "one of the fortunate ones" after his testicular cancer treatment was successful.

The 46-year-old, whose playing career saw him start out at Manchester United before playing for Preston and West Brom, has signed a deal at Blackpool until the summer of 2026.