Appleton: I'm in the dark over my future

Michael Appleton insists he remains in the dark over his future as links with him becoming the new Blackpool manager persist.

The Blues boss was at Fratton Park last night to oversee Pompey’s dreadful 1-0 defeat to Brentford.

In the 24 hours building up to that encounter, he had emerged as the red-hot favourite to take over at the Tangerines.

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The News understands Blackpool are keen on Appleton, although there has still to be an official approach to Blues administrator Trevor Birch.

Blackpool won 2-0 at Sheffield Wednesday last night and chairman Karl Oyston claimed he had already got his man and was lining up to reveal him today.

But to further cloud the issue, sources in the north-west claim Southampton boss Nigel Adkins is now wanted by Blackpool – providing the under-pressure manager is soon dismissed at St Mary’s.

And despite reports suggesting Appleton’s move to Bloomfield Road was a done deal, the Pompey boss was adamant he had not held talks with the Championship club.

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He said: ‘I have got no idea if Blackpool will make an official approach.

‘Until I am told by Trevor (Birch) any differently, I will just continue to do what I have got to do.

‘I have got a job to do, I am manager of Portsmouth and I’ve got a huge, huge game on Saturday now against Bury.

‘Today I will be staying around here doing what I normally do on Wednesdays off. I’ll be having a bit of a look at the video from last night and pick up a few little bits and pieces we need to improve on and try to make sure we iron them out on the training field.

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‘Over the past two or three weeks it has been one club after another club.

‘One side of it is obviously flattering, but the other is you don’t want it to affect people around you. With me, it is the people I work with, the players I work with.

‘I try to keep my own focus and, on Monday, when I was hearing all these stories I basically took myself away and gave myself a little bit of time to be on my own and focus on the game.

‘It’s not going to be easy when people are reading and watching the TV having to listen to people comment on my future. It is probably going to affect the players at some point.

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‘They will probably turn around and say it doesn’t, but they are only human beings.’

It was another desperately-poor home performance from the Blues last night, with Clayton Donaldson grabbing the decisive goal on nine minutes.

Pompey were booed off at the final whistle and Appleton admitted the uncertainly over his future may have had an impact.

He added: ‘It may have possibly affected them last night, who knows.

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‘But from my point of view they were really well prepared last night, knew exactly what was coming and we knew it was going to be a tight game.’

‘I didn’t see us losing the game, I must say, but we’ve lost to a set-play which was poorly defended.’