Think Askey be sacked at the end of the season if we go down or do you think Raj will let him build a team for next season, for the National League.

What I've seen up to now with the lack of quality we've got, he could build a team if Raj keeps faith with him and gives him a full closed season to buy and sign players, that he wants.

However, I personally think Raj will sack him and waste 4/5 weeks in finding a new manager, which will lead to all the best and better players go to other teams. Then as usual we are scrapping the bottom of the barrel to build a team, with over the hill players and injury prone players that no one else wants.

Well that's my thought. Hopping I'm wrong.

I can see him staying unless he wants to leave for some reason. However given the investment that some NL clubs have i could not see us returning to the EFL for a decade.

I think he should stay and get settled in for next season wherever we are.
It’s time for a bit of stability, too many changes are not conducive to team building. He knows these leagues, let him manage.

Askey wont be sacked. He has taken on a well nigh impossible job and has brought about an improvement in the way the team play. When (not if) we go down, he will stay on because he has a great knowledge of what it takes to escape from the NL. If he does leave it wont be because he was sacked.

If Pools go down the answer to your question depends 100% on the manner of going down. If we make a decent fight of it, Askey stays, no problem. If we carry on drawing and losing games to the end, the majority of fans will turn against him. With Raj a manager's chances are always dicey when that happens.

If Pools go down it’s not Askeys fault, he has inherited a team of misfits, give him a chance to see what he can do with his own signings that’s if we can get shot of some of the ones currently on the books.

You can't put any blame on askey if we go down, it's not his team and he just has to make the best of it. I think he was brought in for both eventualities, had a bit success in league and done well at national league level. Unless he's wanting away I can't see the point in him being sacked. We've looked a bit more organised last couple games if nothing else and but for a couple refs mistakes could have won the games.

A lot will depend on how this season pans out but Personally I think he is worth a punt for at least next season.

I totally agree but my concern is if he saves us some other team will take him either in Div 2 or National league. I hope to hell Raj gives him a new contract soon but we all know Raj is very good at losing quality managers and players.

Agree but if he was brought in for both eventualities why not give him a contract that keeps him beyond this season

Sorry I wasn't aware his contract was just until the end of the season.

Neither was I. Have details about his contract been disclosed or is this speculation?

Don't think it was mentioned the length of his contract

Don't think it was mentioned the length of his contract

OK so as far as any one on here knows, he could just as easily have a year/18 months as till the end of the season.

I may be wrong but I thought Askey said he is contracted until end of this season.

I have no idea how long his contract is but I am hoping it takes in at least next season. However as we all know Raj is prone to a six months "trial" before he commits to anything longer.
Has he followed that route with JA, we'll have to wait and see.
All we can do is express our preference which is all I, for one, am doing.

Can't add much to this but to add the man must be given a decent chance stay up or go down. Whether he will want to is another matter or how Raj reacts. I think I am right in thinking that Wrexham have been out of the league now for the better part of 15 years? Stand to be corrected. Southend must have hypnotised the tax man with their staying ability and Notts County look strong and in the wrong division. Then there is Oldham and Chesterfield. Oh dear. Please beat Bradford City at dinner time next Saturday Pools please to give us some hope.

Think Askey will turn us around but he will need Raj to back him take away 6/8 players next season for a bit more quality in.Then we may have competition for places up for grabs in the first team.We have some half decent players here at the moment but a few very moderate ones.

Southend owner Martin go a massive loan out on the club. They be in the same position next season, plus Roots Hall is falling down, the council do a monthly inspection on the stadium and bit by bit closing parts down.

Unfortunately, I for one aren't to bothered about going down, I think while Raj is the owner, we are screwed. No ground improvements (expectation of Mill House seats), no stability of management (expectation DC), wheel and deal our best players.

I hope Askey will stick around and is going to be given a chance.

Then of course there is Sutton who were PT i believe, And of course Barrow.
You can throw any amount of cash at it, But its about how its spent.

The amount of ex EFL clubs in there now far outweigh the tinpotters.

It is overwhelming, they should make it League 3.

Think I read Askey is on a 18 month contract,but could be confused by the number of managers coming & going.
If it is 18 months,it would be mad sacking him,although the results haven't come,the quality of our play has improved immensely in a short space of time

Yep agree entirely.
Did someone on here say it may be 3 up and down next season?

Would be ideal if it turned into a League 3 - there is more full time pro teams in there now with a credible FL history than there probably has ever been - even more so if we add to that again plus Rochdale. It doesnt phase me as much going down as we know what to expect this time and i think having a manager in Askey at the healm from the off with help us even more ! Criminal if Raj decides otherwise and thinks there is better out there ? needs to be given a chance and his own recruitment pre season the lot !

think it be more of JA walking away or having better offers if out else

and if he does manage to keep us up - he will be a very wanted man as his CV will of just gotten stronger !

With regards to RS, I don’t think it’s a case of won’t invest, I don’t think he’s got the money. It was always the case the he had a limited pot of money, didn’t he say so? Then comes lockdown and the fall of revenue in care homes along with increased costs. Most care home owners are close to bankruptcy. I don’t think he’s skint but I don’t think he’s got the spare cash to throw at Pools.

To be clear Raj invested £2.1M within a couple of years of taking over. He didn't intend putting more in and we were run on a shoe string budget with tinpot infrastructure off the field.

Around 18 months ago he took £1M out as we had Covid loans and cup runs etc.

He invested around £500K in Epos system, new pitch and mill house seating, as well as a make over.
This came from the success we had last season, reinvested profit.

What isn't clear yet is what he has put back in this season, I am almost certain he has had to fork out of his own pocket for the January transfer window and the sacking of Hartley and Curle.

Me
https://www.theguardian.com/football/bl ... d-efl-talk

The fly in the ointment is this sentence:
"This should also be contingent on governance reforms for the National League."

The NL Management Committee is run by a cosy little clique of going nowhere part-time clubs. They didn't reform after a ton of protests two years ago when they misappropriated the first lockdown grant. Can't seem them changing now to give the likes of Chesterfield a better chance of going up. They won't do anything that erodes their independence from the EFL - it'll take the new government regulator to sort them out.

This is a good watch in how bad the National League is ran with the committee, I don't know if any put it up before. My apologies if someone has.

https://youtu.be/lhs6B8FyDKc

I am no expert but it seems to me it is the best interests of the NL to capture as many ex FL teams as they can cos that means more crowds and more interest in tv rights so price could be raised.

forget the trophy and cup runs getting back in the league has been a damp squib. our best season for years was the promotion season from the NL even though we saw very few games live. a catologue of mistakes and poor quality games. if we do stay up what will it mean. another season of struggle in the next. relegation is not the end of pools and possibly it would be easier to re group down there for some type of promotion push. no guarentee as we saw last time but i have more faith in askey who had done it before than i had in harrison. really is it that bad playing barnet than bradford especially if we win. 2 wins on a saturday at the vic all season, surely anything is better than that.

I once heard a Boro fan who said he was never too down hearted when relegated from the Premiership as he had a season of promotion or being in the mix for promotion to look forward to….. which was better than hanging about the relegation zone in the Premiership.
Not quite the same for us, but I get the theory behind it.

yes, i,m totally with that. so they played big name clubs so what if they lose to them season after season where their highlight is a shock result one a year. bet burnley fans are having their best season for years by walking the championship. they had better enjoy lack of defeats as next season they,ll be watching a losing team more often than seeing a winning one.

My own view is that league two isn't a great division in terms of quality, no one has blown me away except Stockport - but we were basically a pub league team when we played them.

What is good about the division is fitness levels of the average and higher teams in the division are high, those teams demonstrated that over the years, including this one, with cup runs - being difficult to break down by league one+ teams.

This is why anyone can beat anyone if you work hard.

Next season players like Dodds, Umerah, Cooke (who are actually our players) do have that quality to open up a team or score a worldy. If we stay up, keeping those players and building round them is important. We need to add to those 3 in terms of attacking quality and then build a solid defence/keeper.

It may seem like a tall order given our previous recruitment experience (generally poor) but with the changes being made off field hopefully they can pull it off like Carlisle, Stevenage and Barrow have done.

IOR ‘bailed’ Pools out for 10 years, we are back to the days where unless an investor who has money to burn we will struggle year on year.

Not necessarily, it all depends on how you spend your money. Even under Raj we’re a better supported club than we were pre IOR.
Getting the right people in the right places has worked for plenty of clubs smaller than Pools.

IOR did nothing for the 1st 18 months.
Remember Hodcroct getting greef off poolies on the way back on the Orient train.
Then the weres the money chants at home games after no investment frol the Tommy Miller money which was huge back in them days. It slowly but surely changed the season after though 2200 crowds that gradually increased.
Dont see why we should struggle in this day n age given the crowds we get.
Maybe Hodcrocts buisness skills are well in front of Sings.
But we are were we are and it looks very bleak.

The one thing that wound me me up with IOR, was every time there was a managerial vacancy , it took bleedin ages to sort out.

3 up and down sounds sensible by me.

Got to agree.

I posted this before, not sure many watched it but they should, it was criminal how the money was distributed.

Once Larsen Oil and Gas got involved Pools picked up again after their chairman was up for tax fraud in Norway, their backing disappeared. IOR as a company who only employed 20 people couldn’t afford to support Pools. Bearing in mind as I said before Hodcroft admitted that Pools were used as tax write off in the Switch of Play video, attached, it’s 1 hour 45 minutes long. It gives an insight why IOR bought Pools and why they more or less had to offload Pools.
https://youtu.be/mliugJG0tZk

a tax write off. well isn,t that what all those so called suger daddies do at these other clubs at our level and above who would love to get the number of pools supporters we have. its the system thats wrong that allows this but i will not hold my breath that it will change any time soon. the problem started at the top and now has gone down to non league level with these non jobs having to be paid for because if man.united thinks they need em so do the rest.