it was either the players around at the time or lees inability to motivate the players once the club had got the points they wanted before the season started. if we had finished 17th under curle he,d have been given a contract for a few more seasons. the highlight of the lee months were typically pools, defeated on penalties in a semi final against a team top of the league one division higher. crawfords penalty miss really was the start of the end of his time at pools and if we had made wembley i,m sure he,d .have still been at the club last season and would surely for all his own problems would have done better than hartley.

Ah, rookie managers, CLOUGH and Taylor?

You don't think reports of being the scenes buffoonery at HUFC are credible?!! ..... wow. Where have you been recently?

I'm not knocking the club. The people responsible for us being in this mess are not HUFC. They are not 'the club'. I will continue to criticise those who mismanage my beloved Hartlepool United thank you very much.

Stage to bring Askey into it. Unless you think he'll come on here, read my posts and get so upset because of his reverence and adoration of the clubs hierarchy that it affects his ability to do his job and we have a poor season because of it. Bit far fetched but each to his own.

I think if anyone can inspire bread and butter national league signings into unlocking their own potential and become success stories, just like DC did, then Askey is the man. He's done it before.

Id say your posts are well within the laws of Free Speech n Critical Freedom.
Is the bunker gunna turn into the Nat West Bank.

Well done to Farage by the way.
Last time i checked we still majorly underachieving floating about in division 5.

Will summer start in August this year?.

I don't think about anything Lee said in the interview because I haven't read it. People who have been sacked very rarely open up and say "Look I've been sacked because I wasn't good enough and I made big mistakes like appointing my mate as assistant. On top of that I lost the dressing room in the latter part of the season prior to being dismissed. I left the Chairman with no choice."
You however jump on anything said by anybody that in any way tarnishes the club's owner and believe it as fact. I think my version of Lee's managerial career at the club is a lot nearer reality.
I have no knowledge or proof of buffoonery at the club so I can't comment on it and if Lee is the instigator of such accusations then it is good reason to take it with a pinch of salt, which is why I have no interest in it, unless of course good solid evidence is presented to me to back up Mr Lee's comments. A sacked employee is not usually the person to give an unbiased opinion in my view.

On Stage three (as you call it). No I don't expect JA to read anything regarding your comments but you are missing the point. I am drawing your attention to the fact that all we get from you is doom and gloom coupled with Raj bashing and suggesting to you that Lee is the past and nothing will change that, especially muck raking. BUT JA is the future and IS being backed by Raj so a bit of support and encouragement of that wouldn't go amiss.

In fact your third point is exactly what I'm suggesting and I welcome it. At least it is a glimpse of the possibility of you taking my advice after all.

a case of lees time at pools being seen as being better than it was just to knock raj even more. for some fans he will never win no matter what he does and would knock him for giving them a lift he he did not allow them to sit in their preferred seat. the biggest mistake RS made was not employing a replacement for lee much quicker than he did.

Nobody is saying Mr Imp's posts are outside the laws of free speech. The fact that each and every one are still here is proof of that.
No need for that comment Kev.

I wish we had Natwest's assets and financial clout. We would all be very rich and able to support the club in very tangible ways.
Would we be able to get rid of the doom and gloom??
I'll let you can answer that one old son.

Good point Mr Accy.

Everyone is saying JA is the man for the job, a no nonsense manager.
So if things are as bad as Lee states they were, why’s he still here and signing players, in fact building a team in his own image.
If it was as bad as the Choir Celelestial say it is he’d be off.
Last time I checked he’s still here.

Simpsons podcast in my opinion is just a chat with mates who had a gripe because one of them had got the sack and were just nit picking. If you liked Lee you thought it interesting if you don’t like Raj you take it as gospel. Pity there was no one there to ask questions or query Lee.

Agreed, if it wasn’t for Singh Pools would have ended up in administration and playing in god knows what league.

Sour grapes from both Barron and Simpson, weren’t they both sacked’ from Pools ?

These ‘interviews’ are basically cosy ‘lad’s chats’ and the trouble with that is you don’t get a full picture, which a bona fide journalist would provide and try to give a balanced coverage.
Another problem is it tends to be one sided, with it usually sympathetic to the interviewee which reinforces prejudices or gets dismissed as self pity.
You really need a two interviewers with opposite viewpoints.

Snow is that not what I said.

Yeah its just sore grapes. Completely making it up about of the pitch lunacy. Its not as we completely messed up last season for that very thing is it? Nooooo, just bitter ex employees.

Another one of those threads where both sides have valid points to make - how about just recognising that and calling it quits?

Pools are about to start another season, the club is up for sale, we've got the right manager in - time to move on to the next chapter.

Fair comment. Will do

Askey is the right guy. Hope to see the ground bouncing once again.

It is indeed, great minds eh ?
We’re right though.

I'm not a big Raj fan- however he has acknowledged that mistakes have been made, and whilst he's put the club up for sale- he is at least trying to protect his asset to a degree. He has kept JA in the building and whilst we don't know figures - has allowed him to shape a team that will at least hopefully be competitive.

What's done is done- no good comes from raking over that particular set of coals. We go again and I personally think we're in a lot better situation than the last time we fell through the trapdoor. We know what to expect as a fanbase, we're not going to win every game. Though we now have JA in charge, who with the right backing both financially and from us the fans has the experience and nous to at least make us competitive nearer the top than the bottom. You also need a bit of luck too!

In Askey we trust!

We’re going into this league with eyes wide open, last time we were Babes in the Wood, who expected it to be a comfortable ride, our first game against Dover came as a rude awakening, but we know the score now and have a manager grounded in this league, we are better prepared this time around.

unless we have some horrendous injury list and suffer from poor match officials there cannot be many excuses left this season. if everything is equal and we have another poor season with a vastly experianced manager i just wonder where pools will go next. a bottom half finish would surely stretch the fans patiance and for many that might be it.

If that was true Pools would have had no fans left by the end of the 80s - after two decades of unbroken failure. 'There's always next season' is the football fan's mantra. We only start to think differently when age and poor health catches up with us!

quite a different era though with less alternatives to spend your time doing. on top of that expectations seem higher now with little excuses for their clubs failures. back then it was basically playing to avoid relegations and having to wait to see if we got enough votes to remain in the league to have a carbon copy of the next season than the last was. many fans at other clubs also forgot what the P word was. there must have been quite a few who started watching pools when they first bacame a league club and had to wait till retirement or near retirement before seeing a single promotion.

And I hope you are right.

Regardless of getting promoted or not, hopefully we're going to see more wins this season and particularly at the Vic. Can't beat that winning feeling no matter which league we're in imo.

thats how i have always felt watching pools. coming away with 3 points regularly especially after a good match. never think about promotions till there is a possibility they might happen.