https://www.hartlepoolunited.co.uk/news ... -director/

Used to be a defender and only 7 years older than Peter Hartley. Wonder if he's brought his boots?

another new role at pools which we are all helping to fund. director of chips and tea bags next whose job is to souce the cheapest available for us.

I seriously doubt that we 'all' are. Time will tell if there's any tangible benefit that the fans can see. Wonder where the appointment leaves Lennie Lawrence and his advisory role, which I'm sure he is also being paid for?

This getting old trying to follow Pools off field staff is very confusing. I read about Sporting Director, head of sorts Science, head of sports Recruitment, then we have fitness coaches, physio’s, goalkeeping coaches, special advisors ( len Lawrence) and on top of that fancy names for the youth academy back room staff.
I was brought up with Fred Westgarth as manager and his son Ned as trainer who ran on the field to treat players with a football bladder filled with water and a sponge, and you know I think our team then was better than the present crop.

Newport fans over the moon, Well one of them is, He wrote.

"I see pools have appointed Darren Kelly as sporting director!! good luck with that, the blokes a charleton and waste of a wage packet we are well rid of him."

well he might be in good company with others in what i class as made up jobs. less players than we once had but more backroom staff. fon job appointments.ootball has got worse than any old style labour council was ever with these n

I make it 28 players in the first-team squad excluding our Academy lads and the two pretend back-up keepers (Boyes and Letheren). That's a big squad by this league's standards - the problem is too many of them are not up to snuff or injured.

All those players and backroom staff amounts to a substantial investment in wages - maybe the wrong investment in some areas and too late in others, but there's no denying money is being spent.

What are a Sporting Directors duties, I assume he is on a substantial salary, where did the Recruitment expert go ?

just looked at the programme and we have 2 more backroom staff than players who are getting something from the cllub That does not include any part timers not mentioned and extra staff on a matchday that are needed.

you tell me or any football fan for that matter. ask the club or any other who has one will tell you but will be lost in the pages of bullshit connected with these roles.

I think you will find that out of date, very rarely is the OS updated.

I just wonder is this Askew’s choice because looking at his record on Wikipedia it doesn’t exactly inspire me.

Think he arrived at newport when LL was there.

Whats the job description?

yep utterly baffled by these appointments - understand if he had come in at the start but i feel now its little too late - unless he can work wonders for us come the summer and suddenly we have a load of very good players ready to sign and a scouting network to rival the best in the area, then fair enough

just another Lennie job for the boys - probs wont hear a peep out of him now

Not sure how these characters pass themselves off as Football CEOs, Directors of Football, Heads of Scouting etc.
Trotter, Hobin, Turnbull, Maguire amongst others and now Kelly, who have never amounted to anything at previous clubs. Bet they don't come cheap with salaries and expenses. Maybe this has impacted on the transfer budget. I might be wrong but think Challinor did more or less everything by himself. He certainly had a great eye for a player and knew how to manage his budget.

Seems a strange appointment with a few weeks before the end of the season.

Bit like a Eunuch in a Brothel - No balls and can't score!

Why do we need a sporting director …are not the manager and his team the best to decide these matters….. we do seem to have a comprehensive collection of over titled under performers in the background who on the evidence so far are producing the square root of sod all.
Time for a cull, too many side liners getting in the way and holding us back and a drain on money which could be better spent on the playing budget.

From the Os, job description,
The new role at Pools will bridge the gap between football department and the Board including overseeing and supporting the Club and Manager with football staff appointments, player scouting and recruitment, contract negotiations, loan club relations, medical and sport science, academy development and facility use.

I thought we had a Recruitment fella or has he been dispensed with, not listed on the OS now,looking at the OS they still have the squad photo with Hartley and Young, Curle, West and Letheran still shown as being on the Coaching Staff. It’s a bit of a mixture really, in fact confusing looking at the drop-down menus on whose who tbh, shocking really the OS is a disgrace.
I have emailed Pools but never receive a reply or even an acknowledgment to say they have received my emails.

you are like the rest of us, entrance gate fodder. try emailing them offering money or sponsorship you,ll get the quickest reply known to man. pool good at communications and the person you want to speak to on the phone is always unavailable and a letter is never answered. got sick of writing to pools about players i have spotted especially names who went on to play well over 100 games for carlisle and that shit player teddy sheringham who a few weeks after my letter was loaned out to aldershot from millwall.

As I posted earlier on this subject getting confused on titles I just saw an advert in ‘The Freebie’ for Seaton beach huts , enquiries to Strategic Asset Management, civic Centre. What a mouthful. Probably done by a sixteen year old junior clerk.
Sorry for getting away from football.

Its players we should be spending money on not fictitious job titles

true, but clubs need to look after all their friends and aquatances they have in the game. remember the words well from an ex league manager. its hard getting into the football world, but once you are in you are in it for life if you wish. in other words its just jobs for the boys.

Apparently Head of Recruitment Chris Trotter has now left, so Darren Kelly is effectively his replacement. The Fail seeing this as part of a worrying 'churn' of personnel. I'd prefer to see it in the light of him getting the push for recommending too many sub-standard players. Hartley and Curle had to walk the plank for being crap at their job, so why not Trotter?

I can think of at least one ex-contributor to The Bunker who'll be over well satisfied that Trotter has gone. At least Kelly is an ex-footballer, not a 'geek.'

Remember the days when the Manager n Assistant did the jobs of about 7 employees in todays world.

yes and watching games every chance they had and back for training the next day. they had sunday off only unless the players were crap on a saturday and they brought em all in then.

Proper football.

met up yesterday with a good mate of mine who we lost touch with. A player who could be discribed as an old lower division journeyman appearing for crewe, stockport,rochdale,halifax and preston. those words came up in conversation and the reason he hardly attends games or watches em on the box anymore. a player went down after blocking a shot and stayed down. his reply was he,ll be up in a second after the clapping and adulation goes down and lo and behold he was on script. said thank god i played in the days of battles with bob scott and the like when you kicked each other to death and had a pint after. anyone who dared dive or pretended to be injured in games were looked down upon and disliked even by their own team mates.

Have a look at N,hampto v Crawley highlights and see the sending off.
The Crawley player looks like hes been punched in the kidneys.

Even the Crawley fans condemed it.

a minimum 6 match ban for the cheating git. the fa have to get a grip on this and stamp it out. where is there a better place to start than the bottom of division 2 as they are not going to start with the millionaires. get the message out to the cheats like they would on other subjects they are quickly getting tough on.