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'We let people down' - Defender makes admission on time with Blackpool
Blackpool Gazette
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13/06/2025
Wigan Athletic defender Will Aimson reflects on his time with Blackpool.
Category
🥇
Sports
Transcript
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00:00
First of all, it was a big decision to leave Hull at the time.
00:05
I was doing my best to break through into the first team at Hull.
00:10
I was another lad in a similar position.
00:12
We both got the opportunities to go out on loan to League One clubs.
00:18
The club wasn't in the best of places,
00:22
obviously off the back of a relegation from the Championship.
00:25
I went just with an open mind,
00:27
just to do the best for the club for a month's loan.
00:31
I was actually put into centre mid to begin with,
00:34
which was new for me, but I enjoyed it.
00:36
Then I was at that stage of my career
00:39
where I'd come off the back of a long injury as well.
00:41
I broke my leg a year and a half before that.
00:45
I was just trying to get regular first team football
00:47
and men's football senior football.
00:50
That happened and then I didn't play as much.
00:52
Obviously, I signed permanently in January,
00:55
which was a tough decision, really.
00:58
At the time, I was playing every week in League One.
01:02
For me, I wanted to try and build my way back up
01:04
to the Championship and Premiership that way.
01:10
Obviously, I didn't get the opportunity to play
01:12
as much as I would have liked towards the end of the season.
01:14
We ended up going down, which was a shame.
01:15
Obviously, the club was in a bad spot at the time.
01:19
Things changed very quickly in football.
01:20
That was a disappointment for me, being a Premier League team.
01:26
All of a sudden, you find yourself in League Two.
01:29
Football can do that to you.
01:32
How much did it shape you as a character?
01:34
I think that's very much been chucked in at the deep end,
01:36
especially when you play in different positions.
01:38
I think when you're younger, you're fearless.
01:40
I was anyway.
01:41
For my position, obviously, I'm a centre-half,
01:47
but I've always been quite mobile
01:49
and I've always been quite comfortable on the ball.
01:52
I think I'd spoke to a few of the senior players at the time
01:55
and I didn't try anything.
01:57
I knew my limits in there.
01:59
I wasn't going to be the next Rodri.
02:01
I knew that.
02:02
But I just did my job.
02:06
I think what was effective was that I had a defensive head on me.
02:11
My first train of thought is defend.
02:14
So I was probably a nuisance for any number 10s
02:17
or any attacking midfielders that were trying to make stuff happen
02:19
because my first thought was defend.
02:21
Obviously, I did what I could on the ball,
02:23
just kept stuff simple.
02:24
But as a character, it made me grow.
02:29
Obviously, that's my first and only relegation, touch wood.
02:32
But they're obviously not nice.
02:36
It's difficult.
02:37
Obviously, things change at football clubs.
02:39
Everyone's wages change.
02:42
You're playing in a lesser league.
02:44
So there's a lot that comes with it.
02:46
So that was very disappointing for me.
02:48
Personally, I think all the lads I played would agree.
02:51
Probably let a lot of people down, really.
02:53
But obviously, something good happened the following year.
02:56
So, yeah, I mean, you only grow and learn from those moments, definitely.
03:03
What did Gary Boyer do to steady that ship and sort of, as a team,
03:08
it was like a kind of you against the world kind of thing
03:10
in terms of you didn't have fans in the stadium,
03:12
but you still managed to enjoy success in the playoffs?
03:16
Yeah, I mean, he came in with fresh ideas, a lot of energy.
03:21
He was one of us, really.
03:22
You know, he was, how do I describe it?
03:26
He wanted to have fun.
03:27
He just wanted everybody to enjoy it as much as possible, training.
03:29
But don't get me wrong, when it was time to knuckle down
03:32
and get serious, he would at the same time.
03:35
I can't find, you won't find too many players at that club
03:39
at the time that had a bad relationship, really, with him.
03:42
He was brilliant with every single person.
03:45
I think that's probably a manager's hardest job is keeping everybody on board
03:48
when, you know, there is going to be players that aren't playing.
03:52
That's just the way football is.
03:53
There's going to be players that aren't starting as much as they want
03:55
or aren't getting enough minutes or as many minutes as they want to get.
03:59
So, I think he did very well to keep everybody on board,
04:03
especially with the outside stuff that was going on.
04:07
I think he just reiterated, you know, we couldn't affect that.
04:11
You know, that's out of our hands.
04:13
You know, whatever we did, however we felt it, you know,
04:16
there was nothing we could do.
04:18
We could only, you know, control what happened on the pitch.
04:20
I think a phrase he used to use was control the controllables.
04:25
And that's, you know, what we did.
04:26
We had a pretty average start.
04:28
And then I think second half of the season, we gelled, everything clicked.
04:32
And we really, we didn't look back, really.
04:33
We kicked on and took the momentum straight into the playoffs.
04:38
I know what he told stories about going down to the arcades
04:40
or going down to the pier.
04:43
So, did he shield you from, like, the problems
04:46
as make work as fun as it could be?
04:48
Was that key?
04:50
Yeah, like I said, it was just about controlling, again,
04:53
what we could control.
04:54
It was, listen, we're not daft.
04:57
Like, we knew what was going on
04:58
and the troubles that were happening
05:01
and everything with the fans.
05:03
And, of course, it's not nice.
05:04
But, again, we, you know, we have our careers on the line
05:07
and we're all trying to do the best for ourselves
05:10
and the best for the team
05:11
and ultimately to help the club get back to, you know,
05:15
it was too big of a club to be playing in that league.
05:17
Even League One at some stage.
05:21
So, yeah, it was, that's what I said.
05:25
We were just concentrated about what we were doing on the pitch
05:27
and in training every day.
05:29
And, like I said, after Christmas, it seemed to really click.
05:32
How strange was it to play at Wembley?
05:35
We obviously saw a few fans there.
05:37
I think in 2012, it was like 35,000 Blackpool fans
05:41
and then it was down to 5,000.
05:43
So, how strange, sort of, yeah, a big occasion,
05:46
but obviously not.
05:47
Yeah, it was, I mean, that was, I think,
05:53
I'd maybe only been to Wembley,
05:55
maybe one or two times before that,
05:56
only to watch, never to play.
05:59
And then, don't get me wrong,
06:01
it was still a bit strange walking out,
06:04
still a good atmosphere.
06:06
You know, everything around it,
06:08
all the fire and the fire,
06:09
it's a confetti, of course.
06:11
You know, it's special to even, you know,
06:13
put a foot on the grass at that place.
06:16
So, listen, once the game started
06:18
and the whistle went,
06:19
oh, you're in the warm-up,
06:20
you go into your zone and your mode
06:22
and you don't really,
06:24
you don't, that's how I kind of,
06:26
you know, deal with games anyway.
06:27
As soon as that whistle goes,
06:28
you know, you're in your zone
06:29
and you don't really take notice of anything around you.
06:31
You're concentrating on your job on the pitch.
06:33
So, yeah, we, listen,
06:36
we still, we appreciate the fans that came.
06:38
We understand why fans didn't come as well.
06:42
Again, that was out of our hands.
06:44
But, you know, I had all my family
06:46
and friends from back home down south
06:48
come to the game
06:50
and I think all the other boys did.
06:52
So, it was still a very special day,
06:54
one that I'll remember, you know,
06:55
for a long time.
06:57
Obviously, your entire time in the club
06:59
was right at the heart of sort of the problems.
07:02
Do you go back as a visiting player now
07:04
or have you been back and seen sort of
07:05
the atmosphere with the fans there and think?
07:08
What could have been, you know,
07:09
just how special it can be?
07:12
It was quite quickly, wasn't it,
07:14
after I'd left that, you know,
07:16
they got everything turned around.
07:17
I was, of course, I was, you know,
07:18
buzzing for the club and the fans really.
07:22
And I went to go and watch a game.
07:23
And it was just great to see, really.
07:26
There was no bitter feelings whatsoever.
07:29
It was just great to see the stadium packed
07:31
and, you know, what the club and the fans
07:34
have got an offer to show.
07:36
So, yeah, like I said,
07:37
there was no bitter feelings.
07:39
I enjoyed my time there.
07:41
I'd made some great friends, memories, of course.
07:44
So, it was just great to see, you know,
07:46
the club back thriving again, really.
07:50
And since leaving,
07:51
you've not been afraid to move about.
07:54
You've been up and down the country,
07:55
probably to both ends quite literally.
07:57
So, oh, yeah.
07:58
Obviously, your career is,
08:00
how pleased you are sort of the way
08:01
you've sort of learnt from your experiences
08:02
and, you know,
08:04
become this experienced player that you are now?
08:06
Yeah, obviously, I left Blackpool.
08:08
It was my kind of choice to leave.
08:12
I think we had the League One season
08:14
after promotion
08:14
and I still played a good amount of games.
08:16
But, you know,
08:18
I'd always come out of the team every now and then.
08:19
And I think it was time for me to go and,
08:21
you know, be,
08:24
well, try to be number one,
08:26
centre-half,
08:27
first name on the team sheet,
08:28
if you'd like,
08:29
or try and,
08:30
obviously, don't get given that.
08:31
You've got to earn that.
08:32
But I wanted to kind of go
08:33
and get that kind of,
08:34
position somewhere else
08:36
and, obviously,
08:37
went to Rhine-Lowe and Bury.
08:40
And, obviously,
08:41
we ended up in an
08:42
even worse situation, really,
08:44
that year.
08:45
And then,
08:46
it's a shame, really,
08:47
because we had a
08:48
very, very strong team
08:49
in that League too.
08:50
And I think we
08:50
see a lot of teams
08:52
bounce and bounce up again recently.
08:53
So, I think we'd, you know,
08:54
we'd have had a good chance of doing that.
08:56
But, obviously, the club went into,
08:57
you know, liquidation
08:59
and ended up going.
09:00
So, obviously,
09:01
ended up going to Plymouth.
09:03
Manager took me there
09:04
and, you know,
09:05
I had a good few years there.
09:07
And, yeah,
09:07
I've done a few laps
09:08
of the country.
09:09
But, no,
09:10
listen,
09:10
it's a short career.
09:12
But I've enjoyed my time,
09:14
played for some really,
09:14
really, you know,
09:15
big clubs
09:16
and made some great memories.
09:18
Just on Ryan Lowe,
09:20
it's a good job that,
09:20
obviously,
09:21
you've played under him twice
09:21
before,
09:22
and then he ends up at Wigan.
09:23
So,
09:24
did that work out quite well
09:25
for yourself to someone
09:26
who you knew already
09:27
walking through the door?
09:29
Yeah, definitely.
09:30
Listen,
09:30
I had,
09:31
I think it was three years
09:33
with him
09:33
and had two promotions.
09:36
So,
09:36
you know,
09:36
we've had a lot of joy together
09:39
when he's been coached
09:40
and I've been a player.
09:41
So, you know,
09:42
I enjoy playing under him,
09:43
get on well with him.
09:44
I like the way he plays
09:45
and,
09:46
you know,
09:46
it's been really good
09:48
having him in,
09:49
of course.
09:49
As soon as I've seen
09:50
he was appointed
09:51
or maybe being appointed,
09:52
it was brilliant
09:53
to have him in.
09:55
You know,
09:55
we've only had a short time
09:56
with him so far.
09:57
I had the backhand
09:58
of last season
09:59
but I'm really looking forward
10:00
to pre-season
10:00
and,
10:01
you know,
10:02
getting the group together
10:03
and now as one of the senior players,
10:05
you know,
10:05
trying to get the group bonded
10:07
and helping as much as I can
10:08
with the team
10:09
and hopefully we'll have
10:09
a successful season.
10:11
Yeah,
10:11
I'm guessing
10:12
under Iron Law
10:13
you're looking towards
10:14
the top end of the table.
10:15
Obviously,
10:15
Blackpool's got Steve Bruce,
10:16
they'll have similar ambitions.
10:18
So,
10:18
how competitive is League 1 next year?
10:20
Because you could go through
10:21
every team and say,
10:21
oh,
10:21
they've got him,
10:22
they've got him.
10:23
There's quite a lot of teams
10:23
who can fancy themselves.
10:26
Yeah,
10:26
I think it's almost turning,
10:28
especially,
10:28
you know,
10:29
the top 8 maybe
10:30
or sometimes top 10.
10:31
It's almost like
10:32
a mini-championship really.
10:34
You see a lot of big clubs,
10:36
you know,
10:36
your Derby's,
10:37
Sheffield Wednesdays,
10:38
Portsmouth's.
10:39
You know,
10:39
it could go on,
10:40
there's loads
10:40
and there are Boltons,
10:41
Wiggins
10:41
and they kind of get
10:42
into League 1
10:43
and get stuck
10:44
for a little bit.
10:45
and there's some,
10:47
you know,
10:47
there's been some massive clubs
10:48
in League 1
10:50
for a long time
10:50
and there's only,
10:52
I'd like to,
10:53
well,
10:53
there is,
10:53
there's only getting more.
10:54
So,
10:55
yeah,
10:56
it's a much more competitive league
10:58
than maybe when I first played
10:59
in it 10 years ago.
11:02
But it's,
11:02
it's very enjoyable.
11:04
You get some,
11:05
you get some good games,
11:06
you get some big crowds.
11:09
Like you say,
11:09
it's a really competitive league.
11:11
So,
11:11
no,
11:11
I definitely enjoy playing in it.
11:13
You know,
11:14
I'd love to,
11:15
to battle for promotion
11:16
and have the opportunity
11:17
to go and play in the championship.
11:18
That's definitely the aim
11:19
this year.
11:21
So,
11:22
hopefully we can,
11:22
you know,
11:23
have an exciting season.
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