Holloway: We’ve made some fantastic strides, but we’re going to have to make some enormous ones to stay up

It's the Premier League – but not as we know it.

Blackpool’s primitive Squires Gate training ground is light years away from the likes of Manchester United or Chelsea’s state-of-the-art facilities as boss Ian Holloway took training for the first time on Tuesday.

The Seasiders, who are back in the top flight for the first time in 39 years, hope this will be their last season before they move to a new purpose-built training ground.

Bloomfield Road will also be an eye-opener for away fans, whenever they finally get to watch a match there, and work on erecting the temporary east stand is already behind schedule.

Blackpool have had to switch their opening day home fixture against Wigan to the DW Stadium and face a race against time to get Bloomfield Road ready for the visit of Fulham on August 28.

Holloway, who is taking his players on a two-week training camp to Cornwall, also has his work cut out to be ready for the big kick-off.

He has just 16 outfield players and needs another nine to meet Premier League’s minimum requirements.

Holloway is relishing the huge task ahead of him and said he is delighted to be back working with his players following their play-off heroics at Wembley.

“We’ve made some fantastic strides, but we’re going to have to make some ­enormous ones to beat three teams and stay up,” he said.

“The two teams that went up with us, one of them had 32 points more than us and the other had 26 more so that’s how much we’ve got to catch up.”