Grayson guided Blackpool to survival in their first season back in the Championship (Getty)

Blackpool have released 11 players after securing their Championship survival with last weekend's 1-1 draw with promotion-chasing Watford.

Club captain Michael Jackson, Kiegan Parker and Michael Flynn are among those looking for new clubs.

"We've had to release some very established first team players," Grayson told BBC Radio Lancashire.

"But the decisions are made to try and bring in some better players to keep progressing as a football club."

They've been up against million pound players and crowds regularly of between 20-3000, so this surpasses last year Simon Grayson

Also heading out of Bloomfield Road are John Hills, Paul Tierney, Phil Doughty, Andy Welsh, Marcus Bean, Lewis Edge, Michael Flynn, Matt Lawlor and Phil Marsh.

Andy Morrell, Claus Jorgensen and Simon Wiles have all been offered new deals, while Ben Burgess, Danny Coid, Kaspars Gorkks, Stephen Crainey, Michael D'Agostino and Matt Kay have had their options of a further years contract activated.

Meanwhile, the Blackpool boss believes avoiding relegation from the Championship is a bigger achievement than their promotion success last year.

"They should be really proud," said Grayson.

"They've been up against million pound players and crowds regularly of between 20-30,000, so this surpasses last year."