i have to say that in the 20 years that ive been watching pools this is the least excitment and expectation that ive ever had, still got my season but wont be getting used much as im in norway 6 weeks on 2 off theres just no hype evrything seems so flat other teams are signing players left right and centre and we just seem to be hanging on for noble ? dont know weather its got anything to do with the ground not been bought yet or what, i really hope im wrong but ive got a horrible feeling about this season by the way i know my spelling and grammer is shit

What I don't get is after all the years of true dross, your losing interest now, when it's not as bad as it was?

Don't get me wrong, the last few years have been utter Shite in the main, but I'd rather this than the mid 90s again

Im with you Mr B. Some people just cant wait for us to fail.

....exactly we are Hartlepool United, we battle against adversity, we have no money, spend little money, what you see is what you get. Anyone who thinks we'll take the league by storm should take a long hard look at the cold facts........we are the Nisa Stores of League One.......compared to Sheff Utd's Asda. Our current owners are probably the most affluent owners we have ever had, and we're thankful for that.
But until some billionaire Russian or Arab owners come along we'll do well just to keep our heads above water.....and we all need to take a step back and remind ourselves of this.

Said with tongue in cheek i presume but actualy not far off the mark imo.

Why get eat up so much about what they earn, maybe your premiership players, especially recents like Michael Owen or Alan Smith who've hardly played a game but picked up their 50k a week.
I know lads offshore earning more than quite a few of the pools players are. Theyve earned the right to make a half decent living by putting in the effort to make the grade at league one.
I don't think you'll see many league 1/2 footballers being able to retire once theyre on a last roll in their mid 30s!

Have you seen Evan Horwoods new motor in the car park, complete with private plate

How does losing interest have anything to do with wanting us to fail?

That may well be the case but utter shite in which division (constantly)?

I think it's a combination of factors that are really starting to piss people off. On the pitch you don't always get the impression that every player puts everything into every game. Half hearted challenges, sulking, whinging, diving and at times shocking decision making in games does my head in. Add referee's into the mix and you can understand why people are frustrated with the game.

Off the pitch everything surrounding the game is just so expensive now, pints, food, petrol, train tickets - its hard not paying now. People in general don't seem as happy or sociable as they were 10-15 years ago. Maybe everyone is depressed or skint...? Or maybe we are all just getting old?

I'll hold my hands up and say it doesn't bother me too much how much footballers earn, I'm not looking for an argument, that's just my view.

I would think the reason why many people may not be excited by Pools at this point is that we all know the team we have at the moment is very, very unlikely to get in the play-offs. I thought we may have been able to at the start of the season and I think now I've seen the team play, I was wrong. Purely and simply, long-balls towards Steve Howard and no goals isn't going to get anybody excited. Had we had a better, more positive start to the season I highly doubt that this thread would be here.

I think part of it is there is more media coverage now so its harder to divorce yourself from reality.
The shite collins came out with on twitter pre-seasom really brought it home to me...unable to take any criticism and going on about 'scarifices' made,seemed divorced from the real world.
Plus constant soundbites which are basically them talking shite, stories of people drinking after getting beat etc.....
all dds up to the overall impression they are not bothered and think they should be immune from criticism.

Its hard to get excited or feel any real affinity with most of this lot.

Similarly to Chip, I am experiencing a waning of interest.

One of my biggest bugbears is the standard of refereeing.

I also think that the club has fulfilled any ambition that it ever had. There is very little excitement to stir the blood and fuel expectations/dreams.

This season, for example, we have a threadbare squad and, for my money, we are taking a big gamble.
I'm fed up with all the bickering etc that has taken place between the club and their landlords.

I'm sick of excuses like "we need the ground to move forward". If we need it then get it bought or shut up.

Talking of "best feelings"..............my best feelings in recent years were during the Hornsey period. Then the owner was a Poolie the same as me. His love for the club was such that when he knew he could do no more he held up his hands and said so. The club had the Mullens and Baggs, true Poolies, running through it's veins.

I have never felt any affinity for KH like I did for HH. HH gave up his job as Chairman because he loved the club, he wanted the best for the club and he knew he could no longer deliver it.

I feel the club is going through the motions and that is probably why I am also doing the same.

Supporters are not turning up because it is exciting to do so, it is because they are being bought at the moment and you have to ask yourself how long will that scenario go on.

In the Hornsey years we had the die hards of sub 2000 crowds where going to watch pools grab a win was more in hope than expectation.
We still have those fans and will always have those fans.
I still really look forward to the saturday and midweek home games, whats the alternative in this god forsaken town, in the middle of winter? Not that i'm using that as an excuse, if we had a variety of entertainment within the area when the game was on i'd still pick going to pools.
I can possibly understand the young uns who started going 2000 onwards, most of the following years were the good years, promotions, play offs, the odd relegation only for us to bounce back!
But when others are questioning the sanity or disinterest of going when they have barely missed a home game in the last 30 years or so then maybe there is something wrong, or maybe these same people are just miserable foookers and like nothing better than to come on here and complain about nothing

Just to try and put a little bit of perspective to this thread and the general gloom regarding our start to the season, Swindon won away at Stoke last night. I think that means that Swindon have played 5 games this season and won 4 of them, including at least one (maybe 2) against higher division opposition.

It's difficult to pinpoint, Mr Tree, I'll admit that. I'm 68 in December and still going. Sixty years since I first ventured into the Vic which is a long time, so I can't really be accused of lacking stamina !!!!!!!!!!!!
Come back to me when you're 68 !!!!!!!!!!!!

It's difficult to pinpoint, Mr Tree, I'll admit that. I'm 68 in December and still going. Sixty years since I first ventured into the Vic which is a long time, so I can't really be accused of lacking stamina !!!!!!!!!!!!
Come back to me when you're 68 !!!!!!!!!!!!

120 years youve been going, thats good that.

On paper I agree Mr Ripper, it doesn't look too bad, but the team just doesn't seem dangerous at all. My hope is that if we beat Scunthorpe on Saturday something will click, be it technically or mentally and we can go on and have a decent campaign.

It's not just our start that is causing gloom, Mr R..............for me anyway.
I expected what is happening so it came as no surprise to me because I don't think our squad( as it stands) is capable of anything other than a struggle.
There was very little pre season hype, even the season ticket offer was low key.
There is nothing emanating from the club to stir the blood and I think that is rubbing off more than anything.
A few decent signings might help like.

double trouble

Aye.

I find it very hard to get excited about a team that looks destined to finish below mid table year on year.

When I first started going it was all about fight for survival and in a sick kind of way we used to enjoy it. We accepted that's what HUFC was all about and you just got on with it. Anything else was a bonus.

Then we turned pretty good and it became exciting, very very exciting. A bit too exciting at times.

Now we appear to have just hit a plateua and it's become quite dull. Combine this with expensive living costs, watching football no longer the novelty that it was when I grew up in the 1990's, working shifts so my weekends are novelties and a general lack of respect for footballers; I just can't get the same excitement.

I also hate 99% of all modern football grounds, away games aren't half as appealing as they were previously.

I think the Cardiff season spoilt us all and ever since then expectations have been very high. Prior to that a couple of promotions and relagation dogfights. Not a lot of excitement of recent but hey lads two games into the season (league), lets not lose all hope just yet. Be happy.

Some good posts there chaps.
What gets to me is IOR they are a multi million pound company but have never said lets have ago for the championship and bring in quality to do it.
the ground is there to be got at a good price if IOR want it.
I'm hearing more and more about cooper will be gone by Crimbo and Barron has been promised the job already
how true all this i do not know.
Yes we are lucky to have IOR and yes i remember the bad old days. but we have mega rich oil company as our owners and no ambition to go with them.

Last seasons games were just really boring, i dont blame anyone for not wanting to come back this year after that.

Granted we are in league 1, but i dont want the world, just show a tiny bit of ambition, you dont need money for that.

Treading water year on year at the murment.

As Paul Merson said after the play off final that was Hartlepools one and only chance to go up
And he was right.

Paul Merson's head is completely fucked though after years of gambling/drinking and class A drugs. I wouldn't take too much notice of him.

We're a reasonably solid League 1 side, not a million miles from challenging for the play-offs. There has to be a number of changes though and IOR clearly aren't interested in funding those changes until other factors are settled in their favour.

Think I'd have to get really low before I took any notice of what Paul Merson had to say about football.

I remember the Viv Busby etc days well and your point about IOR rings true when I inform people here that we are owned by an oil company there reply is "well why do you struggle ever year and teams like Blackpool etc have give it a real go with what appears to be a smaller backer". I have no answer to this but I am just happy we have a club and thank IOR for this as without them we would be dead.

Why would we?

someone else might buy us

George Reynolds perhaps.

or Barry Wilkie....

i heard hes gunna buy us n re-open 42 at the back of the town end

Who on earth would stump up the sort of value IOR would put on Pools for the privilege of owning our club. Perhaps Twilight may know someone in another galaxy.

since when were IOR 'mega-rich'?

They're a fecking oil company!

Right. All oil companies are mega rich and never get into/have problems.

Thanks for the business studies lesson. Any more pearls of wisdom?

right, and?

they work in the oil industry, they aren't the same kind of Oil company as BP for example.

Theo Walcott has just turned down £75 k per week . He is a fringe England player not a world class player by any means. No wonder people are losing interest when they read about footballers getting in one week what most people might earn in 3 years.

how accurate this is i don't know...

"Increased Oil Recovery Limited does not appear to have been involved with any lawsuits. They have 1 subsidiary. There are 2 shareholders of Increased Oil Recovery Limited. The company has assets totalling £5,246,735 plus liabilities totalling £13,229,750. They owe £131,188 to creditors and are due £487,395 from trade debtors. As of their last financial statement, they had £3,428,922 in cash reserves. According to their last financial report, the business made a gross profit of £501,402. Their net worth is £-6,031,025, and the value of their shareholders' interest is £-6,022,435."

and the company that owns them where all the money comes from?

Save your breath MrB, they are in the Oil business so are therefore mega rich. Its as simple as that.

[/quote]Have you seen Evan Horwoods new motor in the car park, complete with private plate [/quote]

Go on then whats the plate, cause I live round the corner from Evan and know him personally. Last night he was driving a standard Vauxhall

Might have been Gareths, he has a tasty motor

Knew you'd finally see sense!

I'm ok with football in general - enjoyed a lot of the European Championships and will watch Match of the Day happily till it turns into the usual 2 horse race in the New Year. I even give Manish and the shit summarisers on TFLS a go - they're a good cure for insomnia!

The problem for me is much closer to home - we're still in August and it's really hard to pretend Pools are going to have a decent season. Three completed games is nothing - Pools struggled till about November in Turner's first full season in charge and then turned it right around, but I remember watching that team, even when we were getting beat you just knew they were capable of a lot more. Can I see this Pools 2012/13 doing something similar? Not really. It's an average squad at best, short of cover in a few positions, indifferently coached, and with a manager who seems only a couple more bad results away from complete meltdown. The season ticket offer was a good effort but otherwise IOR are being their usual sphinx-like selves. Nothing is being said or done to whip up any enthusiasm.

its only been a two horse race last year the previous ones its generally been 2-4 teams could have won it.

What do you mean you dont know how true that is? It's obviously complete rubbish that everybody always "hears" after a couple of bad results

It's good to see that we some of IOR's accountants as members of the bunker