Geoff Thompson who has bankrolled South Shields as they climbed up the leagues has put the club up for sale. Wonder if they can find another sugar daddy.

Them and Gateshead torpedoed in the same week.

In fairness to Thompson at South Shields he is suffering with Cancer and has stated he will financially support the Club until it is sold.

Reckon they'll sink like a stone, now.
He clearly wants to protect his kids inheritance - would also suggest that prognosis is bleak.

Would hope someone could take it on, but wouldn't hold my breath

Other than the carTOON army being clensed by the Camel Jockeys - sad to say that North East football on the whole is not in great shape and reflects the financial neglect of the region by the current government

What has the political/financial state of the region got to do with football clubs, if they’re successful people come, if they’re crap people don’t come.
If you’re going to use that analogy we got promoted twice in the past thirty years under a Tory government! …. I think it’s best not confusing your politics with your football, always a bad choice.

[quote="Critical Thinking"]In fairness to Thompson at South Shields he is suffering with Cancer and has stated he will financially support the Club until it is sold.[/quot

From playing northern league football at Peterlee to not far of the same division as the well run HUFC.
He should be given the freedom of South Shields.
Outstanding achievement and clearly laid the foundations for them to crack on up the pyramid.

Good luck to him with his health issues.

What seasons n who were the tory PMs.
Have a guess at John Major in 91.

So who do we reckon will be taken over first pools or south shields?

Wouldn't even hazard a guess Mr B. Who do you think?

or which foreign vegan, publicity seeking, human rights ignorer do they want. seriously how many clubs have ever had two owners on the trot throwing silly money at clubs. in this case we might actually get one first.

It’ll have been Boris….

Still goin good.
Beat the top team Saturday n currently 2nd top.
Wise decision from G Liddle. turning down the once mighty HUFC.

HUFC have never been mighty, Or even close.
Makes me laugh when players/managers say pools are a big club, Even more so when fans believe it.
We are minnows in the football world.

Well didn't see that coming, a thread about South Shields turns into a pop at the club you claim to support. Just shows how even when we haven't played for over a week that some just need to slag us off.

Not having a pop at the club or supporters, Being realistic.
And we are minnows in the football world who nobody gives a toss about, Apart from ourselves.

In the cold light of day, Thats where we are.
It would be delusional to believe otherwise, Sorry if this upsets you but my imo.

He turned us down because Shields offered more money. What journeyman footballer wouldn't do that at his point in his career?

Class is permanent, but he he was exposed for lack of pace at times back in League 2. Towards the end of that season he missed more games than he started. Would have had more to offer than Peter Hartley though

Ya allowed to continue threads ya know.
Get some happy pills.

Wasn't aimed at you Mr G, the only time people refer to the once mighty Pools is to slag them off, as you say there's nothing at all once mighty about us never having been above tier 3.
It's getting a bit monotonous when almost every thread is turned into a dig at either the club in general or the Chairman. You'd think it was actually other teams fans infiltrating the board at times.

In a small pond we a blue whale.
Watch us smash the Northern Premier east division next season
UTP

Yawn.............

When you can still pull in 4000 to 5000 after 100 years of struggle then managers and players probobly see massive potential.

Coffee or Coke that mite wake ya up.

Kev…applying that logic, if we end up in the under 11’s we’ll be mega giants with an average score of 80-0 a week..mind you, the present team will probably get a 4-4 draw.

Certainly wouldnt keep a clean sheet

Brilliant result that for south shields, got a great opportunity playing in the conference. A step up from playing at peterlee a few year back in the northern league.

Really not having a dig at the club OR Chairman, Nor am i a supporter of his
However he was as far as i know the only person who showed the slighest interset in saving our club
And for that reason alone i will not slag him off, Hurle abuse his way.

Hes no angel far from it if you believe the stories and high turnover of staff.

Not the biggest gates i,ve been to for Lge games.
Mind i was impressed with the crowd size and Atmosphere in Lge2

But i can with belief say that if we start again crowds will never reach 5000 again, Not in my lifetime.

I can’t see why South Shields can’t compete in the national league if they are promoted. They get larger crowds than half the teams in our league.

They attracted a lot of Mags & Mackems who were sick of how their clubs were being run.
When we played them in the Northern League, we made up about 95% of the crowd that day.
It will be interesting to see what happens when they get sold, or if the Mackems ever get back to the Premier League.

2300 there Saturday. Any team that’s on a roll, no matter what league they are in will attract the punters. Every football fans wants to see a winning team.
Look at Macclesfield, they were lucky to get 2000 fans when in league two, now they’re getting double that.

It will be the same for pools as well any success will be backed by large crowds no matter what happens over the next year.

Any team on a roll does, …and when they’re not on a roll.

so really then with crowds of that size we are one of the leagues minnows. even as a league club amongst the 92 we are and always were. even if the vic was refurbed with a 10,000 plus ground we,d hardly ever fill it. every club has its minimum and maximum gates they,ll ever get and ours will be lower that number i,m afraid.

If as you say it’s been 100 years of struggle, why would you expect anything to change now.

I see it differently, sunshine and rain, more rain than sunshine but the sunshine’s enjoyable when it come’s out.
Expecting constant enjoyment is unrealistic at any club.

We are pulling in 4000 to 5000 on the back of 100 years of misery. Name another club as bad that can pull in those gates? Rochdale? Halifax? Darlo? Newport? Crewe? If pools had big money owners like wrexham our crowds would not be 4000 to 5000 in league 2 we would also have had a major increase.

Look at wrexhams crowds over last 20 years, i know they have less competition so they had huge potential . We have never had apart from ior the opportunity to really see how big the club can get.

We were pulling the crowds in during IOR, but in relative terms they weren’t that big considering the investment..but pre IOR they weren’t that good at all.
You got your peaks for the good spells but they were transient which used to pee me off, but generally we’ve been let down by local support….it’s a thing in Hartlepool for a percentage of the population to rubbish their own town and Pools were no exception to their malice

Things have changed though. Football lower down is very popular now, a lot of sunderland fans class pools as their second team, a lot regualrly come. We got rid of pay on the gate and crowds that had been fiddled for years, jumped rapidly. We were utter shite last season for 35 games, hardly won a game and averaged over 4500 at times, regularly take 1000 to games 2 hours away and are capable of selling out 5000 to london in hours for big cup game. We have untapped potential, which challinor started tapping into with a half decent team. Anew owner with half decent cash will see this come to fruition with any modicum of success.

its total guesswork though what our average crowds would be if we got a decent owner splashing the cash and pools gained promotion and were doing well back in the league. think every club mentions they have potential and you only have to look at mkdons and their ground to see that potential never reaches expectations for the majority.

You could also mention Stockport, Whos crowds were poor till the money man arrived.

Every club’s crowds go up when the ‘money man’ arrives…that’s quite normal, trouble is there ain’t any on the far horizon. And if he was a ‘money man’ as befits the title, Raj would be no problem to buy out.

winning games help a long way though. they were getting over 5,000 the season before the take over that happened in the covid era. once in the mid table national league north they thought 2,500 was a good number. it does not matter who the owner is and i cannot see our gates rising until whats on offer on the pitch improves with wins and not who actually is the club owner. does anyone really not coming because of raj and would come back for the first game of a new era. we might get a few fans from across the country attending games but the majority of poolies and fans of smaller clubs would live in a 5 mile radius of the ground. compare hartlepool to stockport and you,ll see which town has the most potential if its just down to population alone.

Exactly, Bill Gates could buy the club but if we didn't start winning games how many more would come?

If bill gates owned the club though chances of winning games would be seriously enhanced, its no shock to see wrexham and stockport winning games regularly now. Money basically buys wins.

Another good win for south shields last night. Another play off contender beaten.

Not at Chelsea presently, and Man City weren't overnight successes either. Man Utd have spaffed a fortune but aren't pulling up trees.
Money can certainly help but guarantees nothing.

Er obviously, but how many other clubs at our level have cash heavy sugar daddies….not that I’d turn one down, but where are they?

Saw them get knocked out of the facup few weeks back, one word Abysmal.
And so was Liddle, Think he left cause he knew he would struggle, Wise players do.

even with ones more reach a certain level and never push on from that. harrogate, salford, forest green to name just three without looking plus those who had it and pissed it up.

Stockport and Wrexham have been the two standout winners on the takeover stakes and it turns out unfortunately for us that it was Stockport who got benefit at our expense…and before anyone says we should have offered more, he was going and most clubs couldn’t have competed anyway…… but it appears Harrogate, Salford and Forest Green appear to be consolidating, in other words the bountiful owners have probably decided that they’ve spent enough or lost interest and things are ticking over, but for most clubs the arrival of a proper benefactor is a pipe dream.

You can turn round and say salford have come up about 5 leagues or so hit the buffers, but eventually they will buy there way out of league 2. Money guarantees nothing but if you want to go anywhere in football now you need it. Pools arent going to reach the premiership paying players 1500 a week and man city are probobly never going to end up in league 2 when they can afford the kevin de bruynes of this world.