Marske United new boss,
https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport ... pointment/

He makes no reference to how poorly Pools finished the season in 2020/21- 1 win in the last 12 games. If he'd won a few more he'd likely have kept his job, so all the big talk of how he was going to improve the side for the season just gone is beside the point.

To be fair to him would we have actually done any worse if we had kept him instead of bringing hartley and the tartan tribe in. the worst that could have happened was a similar start to the season we had. just another case of sacking a bad manager to bring in someone who proved to be worse. how many times does this happen in the game when owners think the magic bullet for success is sacking one without any proof the new broom has more bristles in it.

Can't understand why he was sacked without a replacement already lined up?
Crazy decision which meant we were scrabbling for a new manager and ended up with a guy Raj had never heard of who was 5th or 6th choice.

I have no ill will towards Lee and hope he makes a success of himself but let's be honest here, he was sacked cos he was hopeless, him and Nelson, his spell as manager was buffed up by run to the semi final in the Pizza Cup and a 4th Round trip to Palace, but the performances were shit and the fans had lost patience with the pair of them.

But the collective failures in the boardroom who had months to line up a replacement fucked it up spectacularly and somehow replaced him with someone worse.

exactly. blame the suits far more than how poor lee was. then blame the same people for employing the guy in the first place with zero experiance in mens football. we were a better bet for a decent manager to replace challinor than we have been for many years prior to him.

Not defending Lee as manager in any way, it was the fact that he obviously wasn't up to the job for months so to sack him then start a long drawn out recruitment process meant we ended up with an even worse replacement.
In some ways we are in a far better place now with a manager already in place who knows what we've got and what we need for next season.

Not many managers will survive long at Pools, until things drastically change.

I died a little when I heard of Lee’s appointment, the voices told me it was the old tired trick of bringing back a former crowd favourite and we all know itdoen’t work.
He was an academy manager, where you’re basically working with kids and expected to transition to dealing with men, a tricky business.
I found his media appearances uncomfortable and a bit rambling.
I’d like to know at this time was Raj selecting managers himself or being ‘advised’ by so called ‘experts’…..?
The biggest disaster was losing the advantage of getting in a manager straight away to mould the squad with the advantage of leagues games left to assess the players… a major cock up.

We did well with Turner who only had youth team management experience with Wolves. So it can work, mind Turner brought some great young players to Pools, Lee went for the tried and mostly failed route of kids from Boro and Newcastle who basically either didn't want to be here or were not good enough.

I’ve no issue with bringing a Manager from an academy, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, same as the way experienced managers don’t guarantee success either (Richard Money, Keith Curle). Look at Rob Edwards, before Forest Green he was in charge of Wolves’ academy and had been working with England u16 squad, he joins FGR in June, wins the league, gets Manager of the season award and within 2 years he is managing a team in a Play-Off final to take Luton into the Premiership.

The level of experience of the manager prior to taking over isn’t the main factor, it the ability and capacity to make the step up and be a leader. Anyone who saw any of Lee’s media interviews would be able to tell straight away that he’s a nice guy and has a decent understanding of what is needed from a tactics & playing style, but doesn’t have the gravitas, authority or charisma to hold the respect of a squad, to make difficult or ruthless decisions and motivate the team when things are going wrong. Unfortunately I think Sweeney is in the same boat. Great coach, but I can’t see a step up working out.

I think he will find it tough getting respect from the players, they are not kids and obviously aware he was sacked by Pools.

Good luck to him but i was not impressed when he was here.

Agree with all of that.

Not saying it can’t happen but after his first interview you could see he was someone you’d follow, but only out of curiousity.
He didn’t inpire or motivate me let alone the players.

Even PEP would have to excel himself to get past the 6 months Barrier

could he have been also a bit of a nice guy. if so it does not work as tommy greenoff proved in the mid 80,s in a short stint at rochdale. half the team did there best for him and the other half took the piss causing a really split dressing room. still think if a replacement had been lined up to replace him straight off we,d be playing league 2 football next season. we only missed out by a handful of points in the end even with a clown and a joker in charge.

Seems to me after the Bolton game he let things slide knowing we were safe, That was a massive mistake.
After all fans did not stop going to games cause we were safe.
I would have rather had his dad as manager, great bloke.

I'm surprised his dad never got a shot at Pools, very well regarded at non league level, similarly Jason Ainsley who had Spennymoor punching well above their level for a lot of years.

Ainsley had a far better budget than most other teams during his time at Spenny.

Appreciate that, but having the best budget doesn't guarantee anything, it needs to be spent wisely and then the manager needs to build a team that performs consistently. By all accounts our budget last season matched Carlisle and Barrow yet they were challenging at the opposite end of the table.
Being an ex Pools player and doing so well at Spennymoor I thought at some points he must have been in the running, although he maybe wouldn't have been interested in giving up his safe day job.

Paul Hartley had a better budget t Cove than the rest of the league and won league titles with it, and he was an utter imbecile.

I think if a more experienced assistant manager was with Lee instead of Nelson then he would have faired better. He was pretty good tactically but let things slide once safety was guaranteed. He was giving people games to see if they should be kept on but we were mainly playing play off challenging teams at that stage so we couldn’t afford to go easy. He also had some good contacts and had players lined up for the Summer.
At one stage we put a run of 4 wins together and we were dreaming of play offs ourselves. People were even saying who needs Challinor. Maybe a stronger assistant wouldn’t have allowed the drop off in form.

Lees appointment of Nelson if it was his decision was his biggest mistake, Nelson had been sacked from all of his previous managerial positions. All he ever did was stand on the touch line with his hands in his pockets.

yes, but his fan said it was because he was a deep thinker in the game.

[quote="PTID"]Appreciate that, but having the best budget doesn't guarantee anything, it needs to be spent wisely and then the manager needs to build a team that performs consistently.
but its easier to spend a tenner wisely than a fiver. it doubles your chances straight off.

Tell that to Chelsea fans. Their new owners spent £600 million last summer to finish in mid-table in their league!

BTW, as I recall Pools' playing budget was compared to Barrow's last season but never to Carlisle's. The Sheep Shaggers are relatively big spenders.

again its easier for barrow to recruit than for pools. they can sign more players that need not move house or drive miles for training due to where they train. they only see barrow itself on matchdays.

If a ‘more experienced assistant manager’ came along, I’d have appointed him instead of Lee!
Lee’s interview’ were painful to watch and seriously doubt he had the impact required to manage the team.
As for ‘good contacts’ and ‘players lined up’ can we add the word allegedly, because after the Cup runs ended we immediately went into a nose dive and Lee went missing, it was the old sign a blast from the past routine sadly.

even taking everything into consideration after the rotherham defeat on penalties our season was really over. we were never going to get back into a play off race and the club achieved what it possibly wanted from the outset. being safe from relegation. it was though a bit disrespectful to the fans by having to suffer end of season games as early as they happened after spending there hard earned cash for months before.

Exactly.
And as Raj has said "Value for Money"

Lee,s sacking was his own fault, Any manager should not be ok with substandard performances.
And should call the players out, At least to try and get a reaction.