With Ian Holloway at helm, Blackpool can build on towering achievement

It needed a character not scared of speaking out and being honest.

It needed a manager prepared to invest in adventure and daring and forsake caution. A game awash with cash and mired in cynicism needed a dash of romance.

That is why English football should be thankful that Blackpool, a little club who cherish former heroes such as Stanley Matthews, Stan Mortensen and Alan Ball, have become the 44th club to play in the Premier League.

True, once the celebration champagne had lost its fizz and Jimmy Armfield, Blackpool's greatest living ambassador, had wiped the tears from his eyes, there were sceptics doubting the wisdom of the club's 3-2 play-off victory over Cardiff.

They pointed to Blackpool's average attendance this season of just over 8,600. They cited inadequacies at the club's Bloomfield Road ground, poor training facilities, a hellish one-way traffic system. They predicted Blackpool would go straight back down, just like five of the last seven clubs to have been promoted via the play-offs.

And they might. The Premier League is one of the most unforgiving places in sport and Blackpool's record signing is Charlie Adam, superb at Wembley but who cost the princely sum of 500,000. Their squad is largely unknown outside the seaside resort but what we do know is that they have a manager who can make a difference.

A manager in Holloway renowned for his comic one-liners but whose journey in taking Blackpool from relegation favourites to the Premier League in a single season is a serious achievement. We should dismiss his contention that "I want to win the Champions League in two years" as little more than candy floss on a dream-like afternoon. Instead we should listen to a man with a tight hold on reality.

"I'm not a clown, an idiot or madcap," he said. "I'm just a human being who tries to encourage other people and who sometimes needs encouraging himself – and I might need a lot of it next year."

That is beyond doubt. Encouragement to spend at least some of the television millions which will come Blackpool's way on reinforcements because the defence on view at Wembley would get ripped apart week after week in the Premier League.

Encouragement, too, however, to keep playing the intelligent and fluid possession-based football on which Blackpool's glory has been based.

Yes, they will find it tough. Just as Burnley did last year and Hull and West Brom and Watford have done in the past. But what Blackpool must not do is squander the opportunity to build the club. To secure its future for decades to come.

Much has been made of the victory at Wembley being worth at least 88m and it is, 40m coming from increased revenues, mainly from television, next season. The other 48m would be drip fed in parachute payments over four years if Blackpool went down, 16m in the first two years and 8m each in the two years after that. More than enough to make a difference in upgrading their ground, building training facilities, putting in place a solid infrastructure.

It would be criminal if Blackpool opted to chase the dream and gamble the prize on inflated transfers and silly wages. And that is where the value of Holloway comes back in. The value of a manager who can conjure dramatic performances from essentially journeymen players.

That is a quality which will be needed in spades by the seaside next season when no doubt the headline writers will be dusting off all those other Blackpool cliches which become so tedious.

Right now, however, perhaps one of them, 'A Towering Achievement,' captures perfectly the wonder of a memorable weekend.

Not just for Blackpool, but for English football.

WISDOM OF OLLIE

A selection of quotes from Blackpool manager Ian 'Ollie' Holloway.

On his life at Bloomfield Road:

"I love Blackpool. We're very similar. We both look better in the dark."

On securing Blackpool's place in the Premier League:

"These boys will be immortal now, people will be talking about them in 40 years."

Following the 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace in March:

"In the first half we were like the Dog and Duck, in the second half we were like Real Madrid. We can't go on like that. One minute I was pulling pints and collecting subs. The next I was on a luxury coach. At full-time, I was like an irritated Jack Russell who can't quite get the mutt out of the hole and they deserved that. Some of those boys who I started with didn't put in a shift for Blackpool."

On his man-management skills:

"I believe in what I am doing totally and once people speak to me they do too. I could sell snow to the Eskimos."

On winning ugly, following a QPR victory over Chesterfield:

"To put it in gentleman's terms, if you've been out for a night and you're looking for a young lady and you pull one, you've done what you set out to do. We didn't look our best today but we've pulled.

"Some weeks the lady is good looking and some weeks they're not. Our performance today would have been not the best looking bird but at least we got her in the taxi.

"She may not have been the best looking lady we ended up taking home but it was still very pleasant and very nice, so thanks very much and let's have coffee."

On players celebrating by removing their shirts:

"I don't see the problem with footballers taking their shirts off after scoring a goal. They enjoy it and the young ladies enjoy it too. I suppose that's one of the main reasons women come to football games. Of course they'd have to go and watch another game because my lads are as ugly as sin."

After winning promotion to the Championship with QPR:

"Every dog has its day, and today is woof day. I just want to bark."

On QPR's new Danish striker Marc Nygaard:

"When my wife first saw Marc, she said he was a fine specimen of a man. She says I have nothing to worry about, but I think she wants me to buy her a QPR shirt with his name on the back for Christmas."

On coping with pressure:

"There was a spell in the second half when I took my heart off my sleeve and put it in my mouth."

Making the case for video technology:

"Why haven't they got cameras? The officials can speak to each other easily enough now. Why aren't we using laptops that are linked up and can give a decision in five seconds? A chimpanzee could do it – with not much training.

"We might as well go back to being cavemen, grab our girl by the hair, drag her into the cave whether she wants to come in or not because we may as well live in that age."