Dear Members

'Well to say that the recent ticket price rises, and the way they were communicated, came as a shock would be dishonest. In fact, it was sadly predictable that the club would talk at length about wider financial pressures while ignoring the lack of investment and short-term thinking that is apparent to anybody of us who have watched Pools regularly over recent years. Heavy use of the loan system to cover for a squad that lacks depth, and the declining state of a pitch cared for by the same groundsman who used to win awards, are clear signs that there is no real plan to take the club forward and that any investment that is taking place is mis-directed. The financial burden of the managerial churn alone must be enormous.

Still, given the size of our support and the income levels in our town, should we be asked to pay considerably more than fans at Woking, Dagenham and Redbridge, Boreham Wood, Altringham and York? For an extra £60 Poolies could watch Championship football at the Stadium of Light. Clearly none of us would be tempted but it makes you wonder how wisely our season ticket money is spent.

To make matters worse, ticket prices are probably the most important thing that supporters could be consulted on and yet there has been no attempt to talk to HUST about this. We would have argued that given the lack of progress on the playing side increases should be carefully and transparently justified with an explanation of where the money would be spent. We would have suggested that a better early bird incentive would benefit the club. We would have pointed out that a properly organised payment scheme might encourage some hard-pressed supporters to access season tickets, whereas being told to contact the club to ask for their approval for an individual plan is likely to put them off. We might even have reminded the club that previous cut price season ticket offers boosted attendances so much that match day revenues made up for the shortfall.

We’d certainly have tried to engage positively, as we always do, but there was certainly no contact by the club to gauge opinion. We’d got used to this approach over recent years but had hoped that the club’s appointment of a supporters’ representative might lead to change. Clearly it hasn’t, but maybe real change isn’t the point of the new ‘board’? Overall, it’s fair to say that, like most supporters, we’re fearful that off the field the club is making no real progress.

Season ticket purchases are, of course, always an individual choice, however it would not be a surprise if fans opted to ignore the poor early bird offer and wait to see the scale of investment on the playing side before parting with our money.'

Well, the gloves are well and truly off. If Pools don't make progress 'on the field' next season there'll be hell on. It's make or break time.

well said, can see our 'fans rep' spitting out his cornflakes reading that tomorrow- !

Sounds like absolute sour grapes to me, and if anything just drives a huge wedge between HUST and the officialdom at the club.
The criticism of so many issues at the club may well be warranted but I wouldn't expect it to be done in such a way by a group which purports to want to help the club, if anything it's probably done the opposite. HUST sounds just like a protest group looking to pick fault at everything within the club rather than a supportive organisation. A simple statement of disappointment would have been more appropriate imo - the hatchet job on everything from the state of the pitch (not taking into account the worst and wettest weather we've ever seen over the course of acseason) to the financial business of the club.
They suggest engagement but don't say if they've approached the club (engagement requires both sides to communicate) before the public hatchet job?
This is not in defence of the club, as I say there's been plenty to criticise on and off the field, I just find this confrontational and challenging in the extreme and if the new board actually do engage at some point with supporters groups then it wouldn't be a surprise if HUST were excluded.

Totally agree with you PTID, ffs it's only about £20, they are whinging about lack of investment but where do they think the funds are going to come from for this investment. £20 over a year is next to nothing if you think about a lot of other domestic annual bills or costs, how many of our own bills have gone up by less than £20 over a year, I know my insurance (house and car), mortgage, council tax, petrol etc etc have all gone up by much more than £20 over a year, what is it that makes people think that a football club won't also have these sort of cost increases, just to keep going, never mind invest.

I can see yous 2 getting on the board. .

Seriously though let's see what this new team performs like in August.
Save the shit crack till then hey.
Anyhow look forward to England winning the Euros .
Everyone be happy today its beer garden weather.

It’s been make or break time most of our excistence……there really isn’t gonna be that Apocalypse if we fail to make the playoffs…..but regardless of that the club will continue no matter what happens….on or off the field.
But apart from that sentence I share your concerns.

Over the last year or so everytime we leave the house we have got it in our minds now that everything will have gone up since even a week before. how many seriously didn,t expect pools to follow the trend. we know the clubs bills would have gone up as ours have but goodwill cannot have a price put on it and it would not take many not to purchase for next season for the 20 quid increase is wiped out. in many households something has to give and the main wage earner might be forced to cut back on leisure which pools are.

for most of pools existance fans turned up more in hope than expectation and any win was regarded as a good start to a saturday night. now for some reason fans expectations have raised to a point of every game must be won followed by promotion. anything else is totally unacceptable. it isn,t just pools fans its the same at every club now.

My take from that is about communication. Doesn’t actually say prices can’t be justified but like others have said on here, it’s that feeling of being taken for granted.
The backlash against the way pools launched STs this year was beyond anything we’ve had for years. Twenty quid gets mentioned but if you take a kid with you, it’s much more.
But fundamentally, where is the club going under Raj? Hire and fire managers, no real plan… no wonder there is disillusionment It’s a strongly worded statement and won’t be to everyone’s taste but having read it a couple of times I actually think fair play to them. It’s actually quite restrained!

My take from that is about communication. Doesn’t actually say prices can’t be justified but like others have said on here, it’s that feeling of being taken for granted.
The backlash against the way pools launched STs this year was beyond anything we’ve had for years. Twenty quid gets mentioned but if you take a kid with you, it’s much more.
But fundamentally, where is the club going under Raj? Hire and fire managers, no real plan… no wonder there is disillusionment It’s a strongly worded statement and won’t be to everyone’s taste but having read it a couple of times I actually think fair play to them. It’s actually quite restrained!

I'd say a lot of the criticism is at least partially justified, but to criticise the state of the pitch and the groundstaff, really? I don't know about anyone else but my garden with is normally reasonably tidy has been like a paddy field since August last year, managed to get the lawnmower on it for the first time since September just last week? How on earth did they think the pitch would escape the weather?
Anyway, the point I'm making is that whatever relationship there was between the club and HUST must surely be damaged significantly by such a provocative official statement.
And these people want an interest in running the club, I wouldn't let them run a shoeshine stall.

I read it that they’re sympathising with the ground staff? Anyway…
Agree any relationship with Raj, if it ever existed, must be well and truly gone now. That being the case, they can say what they want on behalf of their members.
Will also give them their due, it’s well written!

How many members are there in HUST? I’m not against them and indeed was a member sometime ago.

HUST has spent the last 6 years trying to engage with the club under Raj Singh's ownership. For 5 1/2 years their tone was very respectful, pointing out the benefits of fan involvement and seeking to raise money to justify a seat at the table. Last year, when Raj spat out his dummy (not for the first time) because other fans objected to the team they support being in freefall, HUST took him at his word when he said he wanted to sell up and tried to set up a consortium to buy the club. The thanks they got was a "provocative official statement" rubbishing their efforts.

For the minute (and nobody has a clue how long this particular minute will last) Raj is carrying on. He has appointed his own "fans' representative" who has already shown that he is as cack-handed at communicating with the actual fans as he is himself. Meanwhile, HUST wouldn't be doing its job if it didn't continue to pass comment on matters of concern to the fan base like the season ticket increase, "the lack of investment and short-term thinking... Heavy use of the loan system to cover for a squad that lacks depth...The financial burden of the managerial churn..." How much of that isn't true?

As for the pitch, every other club in the NL has had the same weather (or worse) than North-East England this winter, but a number of visiting managers have gone out of their way to criticise the state of it. Is a new pitch being laid this summer? That used to happen quite regularly. Do we know if our groundstaff think they have the backing they need to do a good job? Maybe our fans' representatative will tell us!

the pitch looked poor even in our first home game. never used to be as bad as it was last season. did they get some travellers in to do it who had turf instead of tarmac to lay.

Nail on the head.

I think the huge wedge was put in place when Raj took the PISS out of the trust.
Stringing supporters along , When all the time he had no intension of selling.

Unless serious signings are made proving intent for the coming season, Ticket sales will be poor.
I can see the club suffering badly.

Planet HUST is a strange place. Time seems to stand still. Six years to get nowhere and then a failed consortium proposal. Now a statement criticising a £20 increase in a season ticket when we’ve been through the highest inflation for decades; criticising the state of the pitch; criticising the high use of loan players when we’ve had an unprecedented number of injuries and the majority of teams in our league have the same reliance on the loan market; criticising the cost of managerial churn when it’s a much-reduced commitment given the one year rolling contract model, as if it’s only Pools who change managers with any frequency. Now the big focus is on the fans rep on the Board. I don’t know the guy but thank Christ he has nothing to do with HUST.

Don,t think the ground staff are being criticised, Think they are saying their hands are tied behind their backs.
Just my take.

The pitch has been an embarrassment, NOT the ground staffs fault.
If money is not spent, Then you end up with what we have now.

And he never will have anything to do with the Trust, He hates them.
Unless of course he would like to state otherwise.

they can only work with the tools available and something decent to work on in the first place. Its not as if the vic is somewhere with a constant bad name for its pitch like bradford city or halifax have.

The only thing we know about the state of the pitch is what's in front of our eyes. We dint know anything at all about if the budget fir the pitch maintenance has been cut do we?

Pools are so firmly in the basket case football club category right now and have been since the Lee escapade. Voted the number 1 worst run club in the country by the Athletic, It is just fuck up after fuck up, it has become funny. There’s one consistent within all of this. It has all gone too far, whilst there is absolutely no other solution, it’s such a far cry from what it should mean to support your local, lower doldrums football club. Folk don’t ‘expect’ success but what has happened over the course of 3.5 years has been negligence. We are now in a position where one of the leading supporters groups is publically damning the owner and the football club. We have a fans rep on a board who has only led to further vitriol amongst the supporter whilst Raj claims he takes a backseat - and everything around him goes up in flames.

Sarll might be able to use all of this outside noise and controversy to create a successful side though. It has happened at other clubs in a mess before across the years where the team manages to perform over the odds vs the rubbish that is happening off it - be it toxic ownership, administration etc. Think Sarll dealt with quite a lot at Yeovil and managed to spin it into motivation to go out and win. On a positive note, Parkes, Waterfall, Dodds, Mani D and Grey is the startings of a decent team. There’s an opportunity there, finally, to get the recruitment right without heavy baggage of Hartley and Curle’s recruitment chaos.

there are really 3 layers of people involved with pools and any other club. fans, players which include the coaches and manager and the owners and directors. none of them really get on or are comfortable with another layer and if you attempt to be all things with your group and another you,d come a cropper. each group have their own agendas and only really good times will bridge the gaps.

well its obvious there is a problem somewhere if the staff have not changed or their numbers cut. what the problem is we can guess but do not know.

Understand where your coming from, However there are remedies, But theses cost MONEY not cheap.

PS: think the pitch will have a little better drainage than our gardens.

BigDog
You hit the nail on the head when you said the opportunity is there, Exactly as it was when we rejoined the EFL. Look what happened there.
Only a FOOL cannot see the potential, But then some cannot see past the end of their noses, They are full of negativity.

Both bang on quotes
UTP.

Sounds like a great big slice of the truth to me. HUST tried and tried and tried.

Its about time someone came out and made astatement, good on them for having the balls to do it. To increase after the last couple of years is beyond cheeky, they like most others know what is about to happen this summer, a team that will sign very little quality backed up by loans to fill the squad. 60 quid less than man citys cheapest ticket, its almost laughable, whats more laughable is some even justify it. A few years back fans said cheap season tickets was killing us, the standard of players signed back then are on another planet to most of the garbage brought in.

Spot on the guy lead everyone down the garden path saying he was leaving, to get fans off his back, as for the pitch we have had bad weather but its amazing how many other grounds are like bowling greens still, mind you its the least of our problems now, staying in this division until this man has gone will be an achievement.Hust have called him out before the season has started knowing once again the standard of players brought in will be questionable. When do prices stop goung up will fans pay 30 quid in 5 years time, to watch sub standard players, giving very little?

None of us know the standard of player we'll be bringing in though do we? Also we could sign a load from the divisions above who've performed very well elsewhere but could turn out to be duff.
To be criticising future signings before they've even been signed let alone kicked a ball for us is strange indeed!

Who would you believe mr imp? Fans of pools who are the hardcore or a man that keeps promising but never seems to deliver?

The cynic in me says though that we’ve stripped some of our highest earners off the bill - will benefit from reduced parachute payments as we’re in the second year - and will pick up cast offs in signings. I’ll get me coat…

That's a tough one.

Every sports ground has been impacted by the wet weather, golf courses closed, football matches called off, race meetings abandoned, in fact it may have escaped people's notice but farmers are only these last couple of weeks getting fields turned over and sowing crops which would normally have been in months ago.
Or am I imagining things?

Wouldnt that be a total shock though. Surely that wont be happening?

It has affected things but theirs a reason why virtually every manager complains about the pitch, it should be an advantage to us if its that shit. But when every manager comes and moans about it, maybe their is more to it than just the weather, unless of course they are moaning about every other pitch in the country.

Its not strange at all we have signed the same piss poor standard players for the last few years, probobly its because its all we can get our hands on. Yes we will pick up the odd decent player along the way. Things arent going to change anyone that thinks it will id say are a little bit deluded. Last few managers have come in and said i dont like loans, guess what happened? An influx of loans i wonder why?

Yep theres also been the wrong kind of snow and don't forget those leaves! Oh.. and brexit.

So because some signings haven't worked or were just shit choices we're forever doomed to signing these types are we? Might as well give up then if that's the case, no hope is there?
Can we not just see who is brought in to supplement Parkes, Waterfall, Mancini, Dodds, Fev, Grey, Mani D before consigning the new arrivals to the shite / cheap / shite and cheap categories. I mean we did actually get some signings right only Grey of those 6 is home grown and I'm sure the other 5 didn't just fall out if the sky.

While this man is in charge yes we are basically doomed he is not going to change over night while he wants out.

The statement is spot on and as for the board of they want to form some sort of insulation for Singh then they can expect criticism to come their way, especially the board member anointing himself as the voice of the fans

I think the trust are hitting out in desperation and are smarting at being left behind.
There is obviously a rift between them and the club and this latest outburst is only going to widen the rift. If that is their aim then they have hit the bullseye. Their problem is now where do they go from here. They are effectively a voice crying in the wilderness. Is this the best they can do??
The guy who founded the trust in the first place was ultimately left out in the cold after a ganging up against him and now, they in turn,
are getting the same treatment and they don't like it.
A sort of turning of the circle as it were.
The founder they got rid of was our own Mr I. What have they actually achieved since then??????
They talk a good game but it stops right there.

Thanks Mr D. Although credit must also go to Phil Dunn and Mark Dobson. (ECG & Chip Fireball as was)

I think it’s worth pointing out that the Supporters Trust is not supposed to be a ‘we love the board’ setup. The whole point is to ask the awkward questions. It was described to be by the wonderful Jacqui Forster (RIP) as an difficult relation. I seen no problem with the statement and had I written it myself it wouldn’t have been much different. I agree Richard.

Of course there were others involved and you are right to point them out but the statement as such is going to achieve exactly what is my point.
Whereas awkward questions is the norm, we have to take into consideration where those questions land and what they will actually achieve.
We are dealing with an unique individual who holds all the cards and therefore there is an imbalance.
It is not a level playing field.
He considers being held to account as a no no.
Therein lies the problem and a route around that problem has to be negotiated.

There’s no win against an owner no question, the only card the fans hold is the bums on seats one.

Absolutely but even that is fraught with danger insomuch as should the revenue decline so probably will the investment and, apart from that, do we want a sort of tit for tat which will inevitably increase division, whilst furthering the club's decline.
We have to close the gap between the fans expectation and the owner's commitment.

I joined the trust this year with the consortium stuff but thought what they articulated before that was spot on. Really every club should have a trust or group that represents fans, and if Mr I and others set it up (which they obviously did) then fair play. It’s a bit no win for HUST. Clearly they did a fantastic job pulling together a consortium and it showed Raj up as totally untrustworthy. He was the one who said he wanted to sell remember.
What should they do… they’ve got something like 700 paying members, there’s widespread discontent. Do they just keep quiet incase they upset our leader? Does saying something online really affect whether Raj stays or goes? I say good on them and as a new member happy with the statement.