MANAGER Simon Grayson admits it was difficult to tell certain players that they were being released from the club yesterday, but believes it had to be done to progress the football club.

In total, 11 players in and around the squad departed Bloomfield Road - with club skipper Michael Jackson heading that list.

The other more notable names to leave the club were Michael Flynn, John Hills and Andy Welsh, who have all featured during the season. Wembley hero Keigan Parker also joined them after contract talks broke down early in the campaign and a subsequent move to Barnsley fell through in January. Marcus Bean, Paul Tierney, Phil Doughty, Matt Lawlor, Lewis Edge and Phil Marsh were the other players to leave.

The division the Seasiders find themselves in next season has played a massive part in the manager's thinking, but nevertheless, it was still a tough call to make.

On his decision, Grayson said: "It's a very difficult stage of the season. I think every manager doesn't enjoy doing this with first team players and youth team players.

"We've obviously had to release some established first team players along the way. It's never easy as I've said, but the decisions are made to try and make sure we bring in possibly better players - and try and keep progressing as a football club."

Despite letting certain players leave, the manager was quick to praise their efforts for the football club.

He said: "The ones we have released have been fantastic to work with. The list that you look at, the likes of Michael Jackson being club captain for the last two years, lifted the trophy at Wembley, fantastic pro. I just felt it was an opportunity that Michael wouldn't play so many games next year.

"And then there's the likes of Keigan Parker. He's been a fantastic servant, got some great goals for us along the way, and then John Hills, Michael Flynn - who's played quite a lot of games this year - obviously there's quite a long list to go through.

"But we've made the decisions that we think are the right for the football club to try and take us forward.

"I think some of the players have been made up for a while, the likes of Marcus Bean and Paul Tierney. They've known for a while that their contracts won't be extended.

"The other ones, a lot of the decisions would have been made on the division that we're in. We've decided that because we're in the Championship, we're going to try and get a better quality of player. That's not disrespectful to the players that we've released, if we'd gone down then those players would probably still be here.

"So it's getting the right balance, about progressing the football club and trying to freshen things up.

"We can't get away from the fact of how successful some of the players have been (that have been released) for the club," he added.

YOU CAN HEAR THE MANAGER'S THOUGHTS ON HIS DECISION NOW ON TANGERINE WORLD.