The war of words at Blackpool FC between Jose Riga and chairman Karl Oyston has resumed, with the manager stating: “Maybe one day the truth will be told”.
The pair have been at loggerheads since Riga’s appointment in June and their relationship remains damaged despite head-to-head talks a week ago.
Speaking on the BBC’s Football Focus programme ahead of Saturday’s goalless draw at Brighton, Oyston insisted he had “no regrets” about approaching Burton boss Gary Rowett a fortnight ago and offering him Riga’s job .
And after Pool picked up their second point of the season on the south coast, Riga responded: “Someone prefers to speak at this club and another prefers to work.
“I am very, very comfortable with everything I’ve done at this club from day one. I know what I’ve done here.
“Maybe the truth will be told one day but I’m just focused on my job. Speaking is very easy.”
Still winless after eight Championship games, Riga has maintained his squad isn’t strong enough to climb out of the relegation zone, despite signs of improvement.
The Pool boss added: “We are still missing the same things. It’s not a big enough squad to compete, certainly not for the whole season.
“All I want to do is be competitive. I want points, that’s my job. I’m a coach and I like to win. I don’t want to be nice or loved by people — I want to win.
“If I start to get involved in these (Oyston’s) words, then I wouldn’t be able to focus on my job. I still hope for a collaboration which will allow us to bring players in.”
Pool battled for a point on Saturday after another tough afternoon of backs-to-the-wall defending.
But Riga was delighted with his players and said: “It was a good point and in the circumstances it felt like three.
“We finished with 10 players (due to an injury to defender Jeffrey Rentmeister) after I’d just made my last change.
“It was quite difficult because we had a striker (Francois Zoko) playing at right-back and another (Nile Ranger) in midfield.
“We wanted to get something from this game and we did. That was nice.”
Riga revealed that Pool’s preparations for the game were less than ideal, with some bizarre travel arrangements hardly helping.
He explained: “I am happy because we had a trip on Friday that was quite complicated. We had to get a train, the metro, then another train and then the coach, so we arrived quite late.
“The train we wanted at 1pm was full because we booked it late, so we had to take a much later one.
“I don’t want to explain all this, but it is also a reason I was so happy we did what we had to do to get the point.”
Rentmeister left the stadium on crutches after twisting his ankle and will undergo a scan this afternoon. |  |
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