yes anything is still possible. mind you so is relegation. a lot depends more on the attitude of the players to where we will finish. over a full game nobody has played us off the park yet and we have given teams the points rather than them earning them.

Strange that some are saying that Raj is doing to us what he did to Darlo? When he first took over they'd already been in administration and finances were shocking. Partly because of the White Elephant Arena running costs, and especially as they were not allowed to use the stadium for anything other than sporting activities, finances continued to get worse. At the same time the relationship between him and the fans was acrimonious, to the point where he walked due to refusing to put anymore investment in and abuse of him a d his family by fans. As a result they had to reform and restart in the 9th tier playing on a pitch the equivalent of Hartlepool Rovers Rugby Club.
We are not in the same position, we've never been in administration, finances are improving, and we don't have huge costs in running the Vic. We do have some who are strong critics of him, and by his account giving him and his family abuse, so there are some parallels. A turn around on the pitch will put us in a much better position, but for those who seem intent on driving him out and taking our chances - do you want to be playing in the 9th tier at Greyfields, surely no "real fan" can seriously advocate this?
Yes play offs are still doable, it's only 1st November.

58 isn’t young, so you’re no spring chicken either.

Good question.

Nice rewriting of history underlined there.
Raj was welcomed by the fans for digging us out the mess left by George Houghton. He got us to Wembley where we won the FA Trophy.
Despite this, season ticket sales weren't great and he did send out a warning crowds needed to improve. He then sacked Cooper and was in the process of appointing another manager. It was actually something a player said in a piss taking way after an FA cup defeat that made him snap and put the club into administration. After that things went downhill rapidly between Singh and fans, not before. His treatment of certain players was appalling.

Anyone can ’snap’ that’s the chance anyone takes when they speak without thinking…one man’s piss take is another man’s final straw…it’s never the final straw comment that’s the problem, it’s the inevitable what went before.

Maybe he should get a bit more involved with the players here. I'd be changing the shape of the dressing room if I was chairman after some of the performances we've had from them. If he got riled up over a FA cup defeat he must be mellowing cos there is no evidence he got excited after the Chester game.

No rewriting at all as far as I know things had turned really sour between the fans before he walked, yes he took them I to administration first, but the relationship (as widely reported at the time) was awful before he walked out.
The bottom line is that no "real fan" should be talking about driving him out and taking our chances. As I recall I think the official supporters group at Darlo thought you'd be relegated 1 Division when you arose as a Phoenix club and were staggered when you were placed in tier 9.

Yes they were well and truly shafted by the authorities, which I was appalled with.

Thanks to Singh withholding the "football share", therefore we were classed as a new club despite agreeing to honour the debts of the old one! The FA even refused to refund the clubs entry fee into the FA Cup as in their view, the club that paid it wasn't playing in it as we had paid the entry fee on time prior to being forced to change the playing name.....
Despite was PTID says, the fans weren't giving Singh a hard time, other than the usual "we are crap do something about it" that every chairman gets when the team isn't performing well. Nobody was saying spend more money etc as he had backed Cooper very well during the close season. We were all just waiting for him to appoint Coopers successor when he just lost the plot. After that, yes it did get nasty.

Bottom line as I said, we can't afford Raj to walk off into the sunset until there's a credible buyer in place. If he goes and asks for all his money back we're in the same boat as you were.
Also. Its clear he has a thin skin and is easily riled.

After the Chester defeat i was expecting him to go mental, As far as i am aware he did not.

And with regard to the Chester game did our staff do their homework.
Looking at the Lge, Chester have the second best defence.
Yet we continued trying to play through them.

Exactly..and all this tosh about getting rid of Raj then dropping down the leagues to become a Phoenix club would end up like Peter Kaye’s Phoenix Club, a joke.

How are play offs doable though? We have a manager that now a lot on here want the back off, a team getting beat off all and sundry at the minute, were expecting miracles from mancini and cook to pull us out of the mire, it will probobly take mancini 2 months to get match fit again, a chairman thats not interested in improving things cos he wants out. I think we need to concentrate on 50 points whether its november 1st or august 1st because this team is in free fall. Mathematically it might be possible but thats all im afraid.

You've answered your own question, mathematically it's possible. I'm sure many clubs have made play offs having worse starts than we've had.
I've never given up on a season by the end of October and I've seen a lot worse than what's being served up just now.

I do Yes- is that allowed?

I just dont see where a change around will happen though? Conceding 2 every game. Lost 7 of the last 10, something drastic would have to happen, i think we said something similar last season and this lot is worse.

Remember the season under Wilson…awful start and came good…but I can’t see this lot rising to the occasion.

It seems he has learned from his mistakes at Darlo as I reckon he would have dumped you last season but at least he is keeping you on life support.
You have probably got the fact that your fan base increased so much over the IOR years that the crowds you still get make it more worthwhile persevering with, compared to the mess we were in.

We werent getting beat by the likes of oxford city 5-2 chester 6 bottom of the conference north, dorking etc. Fans are pinning their hopes thinking one man is going to turn us round, the teams confidence or ability is shot to pieces, im sure they will raise their game now and again and possibly beat the ebbsfleets but they wont do it enough.

Exactly, that’s why I said ‘with this lot’..
I don’t doubt their ability, but if you haven’t got the character, fight, desire or sheer will to win you might as well be dummies in the club shop window.
Do they actually care?

I suppose when you lose week in week out it probobly looks that way. A good start and lets be honest one of those gateshead they tortured us for 90 minutes is blinkering a lot of people into thinking this is a half decent side.

The two sides we played at the top chesterfield tortured us and barnet were 3 up in no time. We had a good set of fixtures and had a couple of players playing out of their skins. Anyone that still thinks we have a chance seriously are just letting their hearts rule their heads or just havent watched the last two months.

We aren’t contenders… but we aren’t that bad either.

We have proved though without dodds and mancini we simply are poor. Dodds is out for the season. So he cant affect things and mancini might be back xmas time, might keep us up if he gets back to the standard he was, lets be honest its going to take some time doing that.

My doubts are on the pitch…..my dilemma is…..is it the manager or is it the players… ..even if in theory we brought in two or three decent players ( just a theory)..you’d have eight less than impressive players around them on current form cancelling out their efforts…the dressing room has to be shaken up first because that’s the problem…but it appears nothings been done apart from hand wringing from the manager.

A defensive leader at CB, and a pacy wide player could make a massive difference. Surprisingly Cooke has been a big miss a day surely he must be due back soon.
I know we've been awful over the last 10 games or so, but we weren't in the first 8 or 9, who knows what the next 10 will bring.
To suggest because we're presently awful means we will be for the rest of the season is as mad as claiming promotion in early Septmber because of a good start. Its football and its (especially at Pools) unpredictable.
We could do with being nearer the top than the bottom if we want to attract investment that's for certain.

Well Well Well.
It looks like both chairman n Manager believed they could produce Success on the cheap n nasty with a ready made excuse of lets blame GL PH n KC if it goes tits up which it has major style.

JA had numerous chances to keep us in the EFL.
We hit this slump and he gets a 3 years contract extension.
Only at Pools ya cudent make this shit up.
Unbelievable Jeff.
Hes gone quiet is he still President or probably had enuf.

Everyone welcomed his appointment, but to be fair, you’d have found a drawback to employing Pep Guardiola.

Numerous chances to keep us up? Hardly, he gave us a slim chance by turning the previous managers misfits into something research.bling a football team. Then so.ething went tots up in the dressing room and we were back to square one for the remaining handful of games.
He deserves credit for what he did last season and certainly for our start to this one, but he needs to turn things around sharpish if we want to to attract serious investors. And how do any of us know enough financial info to claim its all on the cheap? Did t most of our new arrivals come from efl clubs which would suggest otherwise.

Its a minor miracle the guy got us to the top of the league. Id like to see what he is like with a better standard of players, i dont think we would be questioning him as much then. The guy deserves the chance of having cook and mancini back.

And he got his 3 year contract during the good start, not after we hit this slump so to suggest otherwise is unfair. I think most on here were very happy at the time he signed the new contract. I can't recall any critics of it!

i do not think we have a play off chance and never expected us to have one before the season started. however i thought we tortured chesterfield until mancini,s injury and might have snatched a late draw at barnet. convinced also if we were playing at oxford on saturday we would not ship 5 goals there again. it was just one of those games like we get every season where they could have shut their eyes or mis kicked the ball and it would go in. think anyone who has played at any standard have been involved in similar games to these.

He was welcomed as the ideal candidate with his experience and I suspect we could have avoided relegation if the children hadn’t took the huff and sulked.

I thougt the new contract was a good move by Raj. Don't mind admitting it.

I actually believed he’d cracked it too. Ah well

Back to reality.
Takeover wont happen.
Why would new investors want to clear somebody elses debts.
The quicker the Pop the quicker the rebuild.
Simple commercial strategy.
But some may disagree and thats life i suppose.
UTP.

Football suicide solves nothing, in fact it would create more problems than it would solve, far more.
Standing on someone else’s windswept pitch along with 300 other survivors at the ‘local’ derby, fist punching the air celebrating your victory over Raj really is the hollowest of victories.

would love to find all these debt free football clubs are that people invest in. however if i was thinking of buying raj out i,d play the long game as i,d guess it will be cheaper to but pools after the end of the season if we finish where we are now than buying it now. its like buying a second hand car. the seller aint going to drop his price the day the car goes on sale but leave it as long as possible they will do.

That's a very one sided way of looking at those games. I saw the Gateshead and Chesterfield matches. The Heed were well on top in the first half but lost the plot when Pools went down to 10 men - the longer the second half went on the less they looked like scoring. Tough on them that we nicked it at the death but that's football! As for Chesterfield, do you seriously think they'd have turned it around so easily if Mancini hadn't been crocked after 20 minutes? Pools were giving them a football lesson till that point. Didn't see the Barnet game but you're overlooking the fact that Pools pulled 2 goals back late on.

For that matter, Pools are still coming on strong late in games, including the last three - Aldershot, Halifax and Rochdale. Not sure a 'gutless' team that 'doesn't care' does that? Finding new ways every week to gift the opposition goals is feckin' maddening, but the first 11 was good enough to be a top 7 NL team, no question. It's just that there was no strength in depth. Still isn't

Back to reality, we're in NL today. If we go pop we'll likely suffer the same fate as Darlo and Bury - tier 9 North East Counties League playing the mighty Pickering Town, Knaresborough, Tadcaster, etc
Now does anyone seriously believe that going pop is the most desirable option?
Even if we got relegated this season we'd be tier 6. To think a phoenix in club has got the god given right to storm through the minor leagues to where we are now is beyond belief, look at Darlo and the years they've been in the wilderness and they're back on the slide.
The reality is going pop is the most ridiculous wish for anyone claiming to be a fan.
Most of us support the club regardless of owners, and by God we've had a lot worse than Raj. Calling for us to go pop sooner rather than later is calling for the destruction of our club.
Get real, Raj is all we've got for now and there usnt presently any better option.

agree PTID. would love to see how well all these pheonix clubs have really done. who wants to be accrington mark 2 to reform and take 40 years to get back into the league. apart from the free money clubs get what is really that brilliant being one of the 92. a lot of it is in the minds of clubs and fans rather than the reality of games.

Let’s be honest, advocates of the ‘phoenix club option’ are addicted to rose tinted glasses.
To the theme of the Magic Roundabout …..they see us with 3,000 plus gates at the Vic with a promotion every season till we get back to where we are now …. ….with a team of god knows what to perform this miracle….and all because they have derangement syndrome over Raj.
It’s cutting something a bit more sensitive than your nose off to spite your face.
Another running sore is their belief that every other team in this league and above are well organised, well financed football Nirvana’s where happiness reigns the whole year round while we endure a life of frozen stagnation and decay in our football Gulag.

think you only have to look at a random club who are struggling to find how true that is. even those clubs who we,d love to be like there will be many dissenters on board who require total perfection in everything that revolves round there club.

https://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/23898 ... ught-club/

Thoughts?
From the outside looking in your owner is a prize cock

Read it again …. You’ve got your Sugar Daddies, enjoy the ride, while it lasts.

At times you need a manager to be a good fit for the club. Same with owners. Somehow i feel the americans at wrexham is a better fit than they would have been at pools even if each club might be in a different place on the pitch now. Just cannot see the publicity and the american razzamatazz going down as well with poolies as it has done at wrexhams new age fans. In this way clubs are not all the same as each other. get a feeling they,d have lapped it up also at stockport but not oldham.

Wasting your time Snowy, These beliefs will not be shaken/stirred.

As an example:
Would like to know how much Macclesfield have stumped up so far to get to the mighty NPL.
Away to the Marske this weekend.

To be brutally honest if we some how the backing of Robert Smethurst, I would happliy drop to the NPL.

Don,t begrudge whats happening at your place for 1 min, And hope it continues.

With regard to your owners wanting to buy Pools, If they had wanted to they would no doubt.

exactly. do not think for one minute they were looking for the best bargain to be had or just the cheapest club on offer. possibly looking at both clubs at the time and their history and the possibilities of the futures for the clubs wrexham might seem the better prospect. we would never have got an international game at the vic but with wrexhams improved ground they expect to hold a welsh international game. plus being the only big club in north wales they,ll attract fans for no other reason but they are welsh and they want to support a welsh club.

Why do I need to read it again exactly?