How will we know……?
A weekly Mail is always chasing the news and its Thursday publication is a crap day for sports reporting….a match report six days after the event is hardly gonna have you fighting for a copy.
It’s left to speculate as opposed to actual news reporting on Pools, more fluffy magazine froth and substitutes for real reporting……so far removed from the Footy Mail.
Is it written by AI…?

well thats their first use of the banning orders they have promised us. better have a shave and press my pants before i come up for the gateshead game, plus getting my hair cut to the desired length or go full killip.

So bans the mail wants to ban fans, a player that's played for us for 9 year doesn't want anything to do with the club, telling prospective buyers he will believe it when he sees the money. Club is fast turning into a joke shop.

A win against a bunch of kids may fool some for a week or two but until this guy has gone we are in for troubled times.

'Fool' how? The rest of us understand it was a friendly win and only the first game of pre-season, but football fans do tend to enjoy seeing their side win.

And if you're talking about Featherstone, how do you know he "doesn't want anything to do with the club"?

Some peoples’s cups are half full and some are half empty…..and some have a dirty big hole in the bottom.

if the clubs a joke shop now then what was it 12 months ago. not even the foundations of any shop never mind a joke one. come on do you sell anything until you see the money or let em have it on trust they,ll pay you one day. as for featherstone were you one who knocked him for most of his time with us and has now become a hero because it fits your agenda against the club.

and some have not got a cup or a mug.

Already fans talking about going up on the back of a friendly win against mostly kids. Featherstone hasn't even got back to Pools 3 weeks before the season.

I find banning the mail a complete joke, I find wanting to ban fans idiotic and only one loser will come out of it. Why has he even mentioned in programme notes about believe it when I see it how professional of him.

Scoffed at the idea of potential buyers before, they went to wrexham, ugla interested in Pools, goes to York now splashing the cash. One common denominator in all of this mess.

Askey is the only one saving any hope for next season, how long will he stay?

It’s called positive thinking.
Ok it may be wishful thinking but that’s what keeps most football supporters going from the top to the bottom. Constantly looking for and expecting failure get’s you nowhere…. I think there is room for optimism, maybe not promotion, but to go into a new season with zero expectations is pointless.
This relentless woodpecker like knocking of the club is no use to man nor beast, negativity breeds negativity.

The Mail is a joke now from a Pools supporters standpoint, just chit chat, gossip and speculation, nothing concrete….. out touch describes it, but a once a week paper is always chasing it’s own tail.

It's not me banning the mail, or wanting to ban supporters and we know its basically aimed at the North West corner. Why cone out with this on the eve of a new season, kamikaze stuff

Well said, Sir.

All getting a bit silly now.
Any updates on takeover.

Whilst Raj is in charge he will do as he sees fit and if that includes what he sees as abusive customers being banned. At least he has signalled his intentions and anyone who criticises him for that can test it elsewhere. Go into your local supermarket, pub or cinema and hurl abuse and you'll quickly find yourself on the outside.
If Raj has a policy of demanding to see the colour of prospective buyers money surely that is his right and, to some extent, he is protecting the club and it's fans from going through the charlatan route we experienced a short while ago.
As for pre season friendlies, we all are aware of the total insignificance of the result. The object of these encounters is well documented and for me the main output I'm looking for is a fully fit squad in the days immediately prior to the season's kick off.
As for Mr Billy et al, my first reaction is here he goes again. I find it all a bit tedious or, as Kev put it........silly.

So are you saying when 300 in the millhouse corner starting singing abusive songs they should be marched out the ground? That's going to go down a treat isn't it? How do you decide who gets thrown out and who doesn't.

I could also say the same of you defending a bloke who appears to be on a mission to alienate the lifeblood of the club the fans.

Hang about, who thinks for one moment the North West Corner is the target for the boot…..?
It may well apply to certain individuals but not an entire section, there’s plenty of so called abuse that goes on, but that depends on the level or nature of abuse…or even banter that gets touted as ‘abuse’, but that’s part of the game to me.
If however some individual is being grossly offensive that’s their problem ….. and has been since time immemorial.

I'm not saying how the process should be carried out, it's not my idea. Nor am I agreeing with it, so how it is done isn't down to me.
I'm not defending Raj in any way shape or form. I'm saying that, whilst he is owner, he calls the tune. How he does that is not my responsibility or yours for that matter. More importantly there is nothing i can do about it other than walk away. We could all adopt your stance of criticising at every corner but the answer is quite simple, we are helpless to change very little unless we can buy him out. That is not defending him it is facing reality, hard as that is.

Very fair comment however:-

1. If we only ever talked about things we could affect then think about how boring football forums would be. We football and our football clubs and that's why there are these groups.

2. Who says we can't affect anything? You're looking at us as individuals but we are a collective. We are the fan base and (to a degree of course) we can affect much more than any individual.

By the way, the Mail being banned = not good, regardless of what you think of the quality of that particular publication these days.

Never heard this happen at any other Club.
.
Putin style as i see it.
WTF.

Actually, it's not the first time and has happened under previous owners too. Nor is it unusual, Boro has banned the Gazette in the past. The Sun have been banned from Liverpool for many years, and Southampton refused all photographers accreditation except the club photographers a few years ago. In 2021, Rangers tried charging the press £25K per season to attend their matches. Indeed, I suspect you'll find several other clubs have banned either specific journalists, photographers or media outlets from their grounds albeit for a short while.

Whether it is right and ethical is a different matter and not one I am prepared to comment on.

The Sun thing and even the Rangers thing, totally different kettle of fish. This is something usually associated with basket case football clubs which is worrying.

It happened in the not too distant past with the Echo…..it’s all about ‘shots across bows’ …God knows why…...then eventually they kiss and make up.
I buy the Mail every week but don’t even read the Pool’s stuff anymore.

Great post Snowy. More needed like this..

I find this strange...it doesnt get more bland and innocuous than the Mail in terms of coverage.
Sort of paper that talks about 'turning the corner' after a home 0-0 draw that breaks a run of 8 defeats on the bounce....if that it too critical for current regime then not sure what isnt.

1. Not stifling opinion and you can talk about Raj's position until you are blue in the face, my point is what ever good has it done us other than to get things off our chest. Yes we are a collective but the best influence open to us as a collective only becomes evident when we collectively get behind the team in our thousands. That's what we're famous for and that's what every outsider notices and talks about.

2.As I have said, as individuals our only weapon is to walk away, withdraw support, don't spend cash in the club etc etc, but that is negative and we know the consequences of that. So what can we do as a collective. We can collectively raise money for the club on a regular basis. We have a trust that was formed for that purpose. How often do we hear from them? I believe that were close on a thousand members at it's outset, what's the position now? How near are they to realistically take over the club? Why do they seem to have become a closed group who never appear to communicate to the rest of the fan base??
We always come back to the same position and that is financial clout. We need a body of wealthy people or even just one who is willing to satisfy our individual or collective ambitions and put their cash up. At the moment we have Raj and rumours of other interested parties.
You Mr Imp and others who criticise Raj or aren't satisfied with his contribution can start
a Poolie fan collective, whose members are prepared to regularly invest their cash in the club, having bought the current owner out in the first place and then we can all collectively get behind you, thank you and collectively pat you on the back. However a word of warning, you can't please all of the people all of the time and when you start making mistakes, cutting costs etc etc, you will be hounded by the doomers of that era, because football fans have voracious appetites and short memories and are relentless in their expectation of having someone else's money to satisfy their individual and collective ambitions for their club that you are expected to fund.
But hey I wish you all the luck in the world as you embark on this adventure.
I won't criticise you though. I will hold you in awe as a group of Poolies who were prepared to put your money, time and effort to satisfy, or at least try to. satisfy my dreams of success.

The mail has been bland for years, but you occasionally get a bit of transfer stuff or news, to ban them seems weird and a bit disturbing from Raj if he's that worried by the flacid stories the mail publish.
This points to more worrying times down the road....

When the Mail went from a daily to a weekly advert catalogue with a smattering of local news and not even a local office now, it lost credibility in my eyes, I don’t even see it as a local paper because it has no physical connection to the town anymore, the only interesting part is the magistrate courts round up.
I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it, Ratboy gets more info on Pools than the Mail and it only costs a Bonio.

Derwent. We're just chatting about our club like millions of fans up and down the country do all the time and have done forever. The good and bad of owners, players and we rutting else. There are TV channels dedicated to it where people get well paid to talk about football while others watch. And there are these forums, hundreds of them. Its nothing unusual. And .... we fans can barely affect any of it. I reckon we just crack on and continue to enjoy talking cos if we weren't here... no professional football.

"So what can we do as a collective. We can collectively raise money for the club on a regular basis. We have a trust that was formed for that purpose. How often do we hear from them? I believe that were close on a thousand members at it's outset, what's the position now? How near are they to realistically take over the club? Why do they seem to have become a closed group who never appear to communicate to the rest of the fan base??"

Also, welcome back from outer Mongolia.

could be something that has happened behind the scenes that we know nothing about. local papers do not just sit in the stands and report games but get behind the scenes mixing with everyone at the club. its not about banning of free speech but more of banning people who think its fine to abuse our owners family, players managers and anyone else at the club by a tirade of obsenaties and personal abuse. doubt anyone would be banned if they criticised anything about pools in a reasonable and factual manner even though they,d never get a reply. fans are only members of the general public who on the whole love to moan more than they give credit to anyone. help someone in their daily life and thats it. upset someone and you,ll never hear the end of it.

So you think the Mail guy has been swearing at Pools staff. Pretty unlikely.

yes. one thing fans are at any club is that they are not and will ever be united. the rest of the poolies are like the bunker. so many different opinions and fall into as many groups as we have fans. then there has to be some at the top just to run it. would these see themselves as a sort of super fan and be different to the person you used to know. like the bloke who was militant and vote them into a position on the union where in 6 months they seem to be part of the management.

no,but could be backstabbing and stirring the shit just to get a good story. again we know nothing apart from it cannot be what we actually read in the mail. yet another football related story we have no information about and are left with just our own theory,s.

They are United at plenty of clubs.

"Would these see themselves as a sort of super fan and be different to the person you used to know. like the bloke who was militant and vote them into a position on the union where in 6 months they seem to be part of the management."

No, they could be perceived this way by others who were perhaps irrationally jealous or perhaps had some kind of envious resentment complex. But for us who just think of Poolies are brothers and sisters, we'll be fine with it.

think the closest fans are ever united is when the club are really facing problems. in the normal times its like a brother and sister relationship where you fall out on a regular basis but come together if you are threatened by outsiders or events then fall out again. really doubt win everything man.city has fans who all sing from the same hymn sheet either. one of the reasons football is popular because of different opinions people have. bit like politics with a ball.

You say "we fans can barely affect any of it". I'm pleased that has finally sunk in as I've been telling you that for months, perhaps even years. By all means continue the patter as there is nowt wrong with that but it's welcoming to read a bit of positivity once in a while
amongst the continuous doom and gloom.

What's outer mongolia got to do with collectives and the trust,
Actually I've never been there, have you.

I’ve been to Charlie Dickens for Magnolia…. (Acrylic Eggshell)

Reynolds did a lot of this at Darlo. He banned an Echo writer, he banned fans, he went power crazy and got a taste for it. It just doesn’t create a happy atmosphere.

Ramble makes sense in the main. I’m skint, could never own Pools. But by god Raj has wasted some of his fortune whilst at Pools & made some pretty comedic decisions (in amongst some good ones - appointing Challinor for instance). Now that, I am permitted to comment on, even if I can’t afford to buy Pools and run it how I would choose to.

Bare in mind there’s been very little to ‘be positive’ about. There’s a silver lining that perhaps Askey is the new DC, that’s worth being positive about for sure.

Just imagine the scenario where Askey does turn out to be our saviour and Raj decides the sale’s off and I’m staying put….and he chalks up a second promotion…
it’s just a scenario though

Meanwhile, back in the real world...

Don't hold your breath sunbeam, it is a distinct possibility. When it comes to owning a football club at our level, there is no real world, just the fantasy of far off dreams of success by the hard core diehards, hopefully funded by rich people who appear to have nothing better to do with their hard earned than fritter it away to feed their ego. Usually they wake up, smell the coffee and get out but Raj has done it twice and, as Snowy suggests, he still might carry on.
Mr Bigdog says Raj has wasted some of his own money whilst owning Pools but others say he has pocketed the extra revenue from cup runs and compensation/transfer fees, refusing to splash the cash and only shopping in the bargain basement. So which is it.

Even if he has pocketed money (which is more than his right, rightly or wrongly!)… A waste of money is financing the signing of a gamble manager, a load of gamble Scottish footballers (on 2 year deals, a change of tact for Pools) whilst reaping the rewards of being a football league team once more (more sponsorship, more opportunity to scale, build upwards)…Then proceeding to switch managers twice more (Askey applying in all 3 instances), upweighting the budget to 1.7 million in the process, finally landing on the right manager and still getting relegated - AND subsequently losing an unholy amount of revenue in the process as a National League team again. 2 years down the drain.

Just because I can’t afford the club doesn’t mean I can’t pass comment on the above. That… is a shit show of a 12 months in purely football terms before you consider anything else.

I am positive for the season ahead, it’s a step change from the last pre-season & Raj is still putting money in which I’m eternally grateful for - it’s just a shame the absolute decision-making debacle that unfolded last year means we have to go again the absolute doldrums of the National League. Different decisions made… 100% different outcome, for the betterment of our football club.

Amen

Wish I hadn’t made the Raj joke now…it actually was a joke…but I’m wondering now.