..... if a new owner came in, splashing the cash, then decided they wanted us ditch blue for red and change the name of the club to something more marketable...... how much of your soul would you sell for success... what's you line in the sand....?

and then moved the club lock stock and barrel to somewhere more affluent.. .. Parmo would form the new club New FC Hartlepool 2468 and we'd climb the leagues from the bottom. Success means nothing if you tear the heart out of the club.

The kit change thing is a hard one isn't it? Clubs do change kits over the years don't they- Leeds under Revie because he wanted them to be like Real Madrid springs to mind but you've also got Aston Villa who started off in a black shirt with a big red lion on it, Everton who started in pink and white halfs and Spurs who had light blue and white with a giant Maltese cross. Pools have always been blue and white but, having started with a plain white shirt, have varied the shades of blue and had stripes, hoops, a giant V and the promotion chevrons as well as plain blue shirts.

The whole invention of tradition thing is starting to piss me off to be honest, the more the game changes the more the marketing people go on about tradition. Man Yoo's commercial fanbase loved it when they got the chance to wear yellow and green merchandise for a change but it didn't even dent the Glazer's spearheading of the globalisation of English football. Arsenal with their claret shirt- the evidence says that they actually wore bright red originally but that wouldn't have been different enough to flog as a one-off special kit change.

As we're the only league club in the region with any terracing left I sometimes wonder if somebody will buy Pools and use us as an authentic 'hotbed of football' experience- flat caps, brown macs and rattles all available for an extra few quid. Standing on crumbling terraces, passing children overhead to the front and somebody pissing on you all included in the premium retro package. Could have special 70s days where everybody kicks the shit out of each other as well- the eastern European fans would be flocking over for that.

Shorter answer is that I'd rather keep the blue and I'd rather stay at the Vic but I think I'd learn to live with the changes as long as I was happy with the wider activities of the new owners. My line in the sand would be name change and an out of town location, partly because I think they'd be clear signs that the new owners had bought a franchise and that Pools were effectively dead. At that point I'd transfer my alleigances to Parmopools 13, 18, 22, two fat ladies Bingo! FC.

the kit change wouldnt bother me, but a name change would.

Also couldnt care less what colour we play in.

The only new name I'd accept without bitching would be Hartlepools United.
If they gave us a French style name like Sporting Club of Hartlepool & South Durham, it would get on my nerves but wouldn't be the end of the world.
But if they changed the name to something like Total Pipefitting Contractor Solutions Hartlepool they could fuck right off.

As for the kit, not really bothered.

And as for the location, it has to be in the borough of Hartlepool or they'll have done a South Shields/Gateshead, or even worse, a Wimbledon/MkDonalds.

Cardiff fans where going mad about the change from blue to red, they dont seem to be to annoyed now they are in the PL.

Havent we had more name changes than probably every club playing professional football?

They were more fiddling with the name then realising it was wrong though. I'm thinking more if we became something like FC Teesside Haze and moved to a ground that isn't really anywhere but has great access to the A19 and is ideal for Tina Turner concerts.

Hartlepool Reds FC?

Has a nice ring to it but I'd still stick with blue despite the dodgy political implications.