Firstly from a 60 year plus supporter a big well done for all concerned with the promotion effort but what now? We achieved what seemed impossible down to astute management of the team and the loan system. We now need to get our act together and get the right infrastructure within the club, a Ceo , proper scouting system academy to take full advantage of any payments from the premier league. More investment in the club be it a share issue or company sponsorship. When players come in on loan for example Armstrong we should of had first option on him if available. All does not seem well behindd the scenes with no one in overall charge and things not happening. Please Raj be realistic and loosen the purse strings before the club suffers big time.

Careful now, anyone constructively criticising the club is not a true fan and obviously a darloid in disguise (sarcasm).

I think to some degree people are overreacting. We were in a similar spot at this time last season and eventually Challinor managed to put a squad together. I think another plus is that most clubs have already assembled squads, this means not as many clubs will be after our players.

The absolutely stupidly late NL start has completely fingured us. That's the main issue for me. And I'm someone who often criticizes the club, but this is a very short break indeed. The fact we've only set up one friendly speaks volumes.

I look at local clubs and nearly everyone has a full set of friendlies. Could see us playing impromptu games against the likes of Brandon United last season.

whatever does happen in the coming months the useless NL can be blamed for anything at pools and not the club this time. 5 weeks on saturday to zero hour. the clock is ticking.

Totally agree with you. Replacing yet another CEO this close to the beginning of the season must raise alarm bells. We must obviously place confidence in Raj but a little communication would go a long way.

the club was dismantled from the inside out only a few years ago when Raj saved our bacon - in all fairness to him, he set the priorities of getting a winning football team on the pitch first backed by a good manager (how good at the time we didnt even realise, what a coop thats turned out). Anyways the club now has to rebuild itself internally, and start to act like a Football league club again. Already not sure if you have seen but a vacancy for CEO has went up on indeed just this morning. Moving in the right direction already. Also if the appointment is to be as good as the managerial one was then things will almost certainly get better. a good captain at the helm to run the club and DC doing miracles on the pitch NSD UTFP !!!

CEO - so what happened to Jesper and the guy who replaced him? And then there is the bloke before Jesper. See a pattern?

lets not forget these have all been appointments whilst we have been playing our football at NL level. Jesper was short term anyways and wasnt he acting as a director of football not the actual CEO. did we have an acting CEO during the IOR days ? i presume we now are trying to re-fill positions we let go once we found ourselves trying to survive but also play in the tinpot league. hopefully this CEO comes with League pedigree and has absolute interest in the club. Next up we need a good scouting network and reserve / youth team setting back up.

Russ Green??

Mark Maguire was Chief Executive in the NL but left last June when Raj was cutting everything to the bone because the club had had no income for months. Maguire had a hand in recruiting Dave Challinor, so deserves some credit for that.

Jesper has his own consultancy business and that's the capacity he was engaged in at Pools. He was 'Acting Executive Director.'

Don't really know anything about the last bloke who filled in for a bit - there was never a press announcement that he had been appointed in any official capacity.

Now that the job has been properly re-advertised I'll be amazed if there's not a new CEO in post for the start of the season.

I wonder if we'll hear anything today about retention/recruitment.
It seems to be more painstaking than it really should be.

some clubs told their fans on a number of their signings yesterday officially. they might have been nailed on for weeks whilst being paid wages by their former clubs. we have just started the procedure. even when there is agreement then there is a medical to set up before any info about em comes out to us.

We're supposed to be negotiating new terms with eight of of last season's squad, that procedure hasn't just started nor does it need medicals. Six of that eight were offered re engagement before the retained list was announced. Has no one taken up the offer? Are all of them stalling for more money or a better offer from another club?

We should be into pre season by Monday at the latest. No news about any of that either.

Not a squeak from the club, apart from pushing season ticket sales.

No news about how season tickets are going.

The silence is continuing to be deafening.

Dave Challinor is quoted in the Mail today saying he's got a list of EFL players he thinks can improve the squad that he's working on as fast as he can. He's also talking to Newcastle about bringing Lewis Cass back.

Nothing about the members of the promotion winning squad who were offered new terms last week - which could be worrying, but equally as of now there's been no confirmation that any of them other than Armstrong and Johnson are going elsewhere.

I've renewed my season ticket today because I've got any amount of faith in Challinor's ability. Just hope that the chairman isn't being over-cautious with the financial backing he's prepared to give him - far better to hit the ground running than to play catch up all season! Raj knows the fans will go all out to support a winning team.

That is re assuring but I would prefer DC to be informing us through the Official Site. I don't get the Mail and trying to read it online is a joke.
Did you get any inclination as to the number of ST's sold, Mr Hogans?

No, but I didn't ask - I tried to renew online but got the wrong renewal cost so rang the ticket office and renewed over the phone. I imagine they're as desperate to have some official signings news to boost ST sales as we are to hear it.

Chief Executive CEO
Hartlepool United Football Club
Hartlepool TS24
Job details

Salary
£60,000 - £70,000 a year
Job type
Full-time
Permanent
Number of positions for this role
1
Full Job Description

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Hartlepool United Football Club

Details

Post: Full time post

Basic Salary: £60k-£70k

Bonus : Performance related bonus

Location: Victoria Park, TS24 8BZ

To apply please send CV and covering letter and include the following details:

· Availability / required notice period

Closing date for applications is 23rd July 2021 (with early applications preferred).

Please note that due to the anticipated high level of interest in this role, regrettably we will not be in a position to provide feedback to unsuccessful applicants.

Overview

Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the North-East of England. After highly successful 2020/21 saw the team win promotion from the National League, 2021/22 will see the club return to the English Football League following a short 4-year absence. The club was purchased by Chairman Raj Singh in 2017 and since then extensive progress has been made both in terms of restoring financial viability to club (irrespective of on-field success) and exploring longer term commercial business plans with the ultimate aspiration to deliver a new stadium development at Victoria Park alongside further promotions within the EFL. The position of Chief Executive Officer is a newly created role as the club looks to build on recent successes and represents an incredible opportunity for the correct candidate to join that journey and to help shape the next chapter in the Club’s remarkable history.

Key Responsibilities

· Reporting to the Board of Directors and Chairman.

· Overall responsibility for off-field commercial budgets and targets.

· Leading and inspiring delivery of best in class operational and commercial solutions, working closely with incumbent Operations Manager

· Overseeing improved operational control systems alongside Operations Manager and finance team

· Identify and deliver new commercial opportunities and growth.

· Representing the club at all senior executive attended meetings with the EFL and relevant governing authorities.

· Being the main Club spokesperson with media and press when required.

· Supporting the 1st team manager where necessary to ensure smooth delivery of football operations.

· Support the 1st team manager with recruitment and management of 1st team budget

· Leading development of volunteer resource and supporter participations.

· Supporting development of a full Club football pathway programme and the Community Foundation.

· Integrating with site development plans and project team.

Candidate Requirements

· Proven senior management track record with relevant sector experience (experience in professional football sector highly desirable, experience in other comparable professional sport sectors is a minimum requirement).

· Ability to lead by example and to be hands-on in delivering change.

· Ability to inspire people with varying skill sets from various departments.

· Ability to handle pressure and to satisfy multiple stakeholders to deadline.

· Strong presentational skills and media awareness.

· Track record of delivering value for money with financial budgets and targets.

· Flexibility with working hours to suit the demands of the business including attendance on home matchdays.

· Excellent organisation and time management skills.

· Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to build and manage lasting relationships.

· An enthusiastic, committed and self-driven individual who wants to deliver success.

Application deadline: 23/07/2021

Job Types: Full-time, Permanent

Salary: £60,000.00-£70,000.00 per year

Additional pay:

Performance bonus
Benefits:

Additional leave
Company pension
On-site parking
Work remotely

no news can be good news but if there is more bad news they may be loath to tell us anymore of it. only time i suppose will tell.

Yes I agree, I dont think the club will anounce any more players leaving/turning down offers until we announce some new signings.

The lack of rumours is even worrying

Featherstone agreed to sign for Notts

after all the years he,s been at pools with the team getting worse and not better once improvement has been made he,s jumped ship. its either the club really lacks money and he,s got one last good pay day or he,s not up for another relegation scrap.

Let's be honest. It's all about the money & it appears we don't have the proverbial pot to piss in !

is it totally the money or the offers being made to players, especially those yet to resign, is an insult to what they have achieved. if they feel that way you cannot blame em for doing sideways or backwards move. its like working for a firm who have started doing well and have received a big contract. a week later you are offered a 1 per cent pay rise. we,d be looking elsewhere i think.

Going to have to eat my words and say people aren't overreacting. The silence really is deafening now. Not just players either but very little in the way of training news, friendlies, the new youth academy etc.

On the plus side, other than Johnson we've not truly lost anyone...yet.

Yes, it is simply a case of worrying that what has been built is slowly collapsing and instead of tweaking the squad here and there and keeping the momentum going, we are looking like a virtual rebuild.
I have no doubt that DC is up to that task but he needs backing. If the club can't see their way to finance keeping what we've got, then they are sending out the message that we may not have the squad to maintain our progression and that could be the catalyst that sends DC somewhere else.
The single biggest worry for me is the possible return to the shit pit we have just clawed our way out of.

Can only hope Raj pulls it out the bag & it's just a case of tying a few bits up. Sutton have retained virtually the whole of their promotion squad.

The small nuances in what he has said so far do suggest it'll be a tight ship. 'We make more in X revenue stream but as a result of promotion X costs more' ...

In some respects Raj's tenure is similar to that of Harold Hornsey's. Both pulled the club up by it's bootstraps but, in Harold's case, the realisation that he couldn't take the club any further, led to looking outwards to facilitate further progress. Is Raj facing the same dilemma or has he still got more juice in the tank. I hope he has because standing still is tantamount to going backwards.

thats got me wondering now if there is something going on behind the scenes we know nothing of. with all this good free publicity that pools have been getting over the recent weeks and not just in the town i wonder if there are people sniffing round the club either wanting to get on board or owning it.

We have now pushed our pre-season start back from today to Thursday, it's certainly not reassuring to here we need to postpone preseason because we don't have a squad.

Wouldn't shock me if a few of the players had covid though (another reason to delay a return to pre-season), if the Notts County bound player has contracted it from the end of season celebrations.

That thought has crossed my mind as well Mr Accy.

It wouldn't be unlike Singh to totally blow a massive opportunity success brings like......
If players you want to stay are leaving then it can only be down to the fact they aren't being offered what they believe they are worth.
Sometimes it can be down to greed on their part, but penny pinching is something we have seen before from a certain person.
Also, hasn't Singh got an obligation to pay a chunk of money to Sage now you are back in the league? That won't help matters.

Any news on catering arrangements?

They are chipping away at it.

Aye Sutton, signing non league players, Who on here would be happy about that.
How many EFL clubs have been trying to sign Sutton players.

Spokesman for the club says they have an oven ready solution and are getting some bloke from down South to come up and announce it.

Will we get a chance to grill him.

as i have said before sutton seem to have gone under the radar somewhat after they got promoted. as for them signing non league players it does not bother me where they came from as long as they are injury free and good enough. imagine some would have moaned if pools had signed jamie vardy and not a near pensioner from boro.

Agree Mr Accy. Sutton were tying down their players the minute they knew they were up.
Wattie Moore and Ken Johnson were two of the best servants the club have ever had. Both of them signed from Seaton Holy Trinity. There are some good players in non league football and all of Sutton's squad are now EFL players. Time will tell if they stay that way.
I'm sure if DC was asked who he would be happy to sign from non league clubs he would provide quite a list.

[quote="derwent"][
Wattie Moore and Ken Johnson were two of the best servants the club have ever had. Both of them signed from Seaton Holy Trinity.
that however would never happen in todays football world. if they had not been in some clubs acadamy as young lads they would never get the chance. my lad was a late developer so missed out as a kid. he eventually did a rhys oates and everything clicked. got a trial at kettering with lying about his previous. once they found out he didn,t go to a centre of excellence he never got a phone call after doing well in the trial. he tried to get in at rugby town where their manager was really honest with him. he was told not to bother as he missed out on that stage in his career and just play local football. the system has to be seen to work and no one is prepared to break it.

thinking they are good enough, is risky at the very least.
injury free, whats around the corner.

I'll just remind everyone.. we're concerned about the difficulties being faced now that Pools have been promoted. I'd much rather be in this position than waiting for the NL fixture list being released tomorrow.

We only need to finish outside the bottom two. Something that historically has happened more often than not.

UTP!

And we still have DC

[quote="trevwoody"]I'll just remind everyone.. we're concerned about the difficulties being faced now that Pools have been promoted. I'd much rather be in this position than waiting for the NL fixture list being released tomorrow.

We only need to finish outside the bottom two. Something that historically has happened more often than not.

yes, we,d still be short of players if we had not gone up and we will not be playing bloody eastleigh on a tuesday night next season.

Sterry and Oates to be announced

My Auntie lives in Eastleigh and she's gutted she can't threaten their players with her blue and white brolly anymore.

Tasty news! Fingers crossed your sauces are better than some other peoples.

Both ours and Sutton,s squad are not good enough to challenge/survive Lge2.
We need some trusted Lge 1/2 players to bolster our numbers.

At one time Barrow were very close to the trap door, And at one time Harrogate were close by too.

Most rumours are false