...squad wise 1 game in

Sounds likely Waterfall wont make Saturday--and he may even have a muscle tear (lets hope not), Slogget still out, Wallace just starting to train and a couple of the kids shipped out on loan

Not clear who comes in Saturday to give us a full bench?

I know we don't want to rush etc---but we are 1 game in and have picked up injuries, and will soon be moving to 2 games a week--we have to get players in asap for cover and to give the regulars a rest.....do we really think Mancini, Dodds and Parkes should be playing Saturday-Monday on a bank holiday weekend?--we saw what happened last year

I am warming to Sarll a lot (am sure he will be relieved) he is talking more sense and seems to have a plan (though everyone looks smarter when they win)--but it will be all for naught if we don't get players in

Can't have another season where 'we'll get better once everyone is fit' gets trotted out that never happens

Come on Pools get some players in !

First all, come down from the roof, it’s dangerous …. and be an optimist like me.

thought we might have heard about Henry aswell by now - he was still training with us up until last week i think it was.

Sloggett will be back in side next week id reckon - hopefully waterfall is just a knock and nowt serious. He may have entered training for contention today but least we have S-Davies for cover there.

i do agree in some sense that we need more players through the door - but not just panic stations yet. think DS knows fine well where he needs cover and what players he would like through the door - lets also hope this Madine thing has weight in it an he signs up

if the trend continues it will be hard to cover positions - we all know how hard the 2 games a week can be.

So 1 player who started Saturday might miss the next game and that puts us on the bones of our arse?
Sass Davies or Mani O can both cover as can a few of the midfielders or Dodds.

Hope is not a strategy....

If Waterfall and Slogget both miss out as expected....tell me how we get 7 players on our bench of the squad we have available to us...

does it actually matter if we only have 5 on the bench who are named on it because they could be expected to play a decent part of the game. or fill it up with a couple of lads who would never get on the pitch no matter who got crocked. its not as if the club is going to get a fine is it.

later in the season a player will pick up a cold and next we,ll here is that a virus is rife amongst the squad.

But Sloggett wasn't in the squad Saturday so we're down to 6 on the bench which Sarll might supplement with a young un or another signing or he might just be happy with 6. It's not a crisis. In the same post you say no panic signings and then finish with get some players in? Is it just numbers you're looking for then or quality?

If we cant fill a bench the 2nd game of the season we are asking for trouble once the games come thick and fast--no its not a crisis but its a warning sign we are nowhere near deep enough squad wise to compete over a long season--hopefully the chairman gets this !

It just numbers Loyal looks for he loves his Saturday night bingo at the Mecca.

ok then lets go out and bring a few crap kids in just to fill the bench from out of div.2. if some we had recently came on it would have been better playing with 10 men for what they ever did. not even nuisance value.

We’re not the only team in this situation,plenty of other teams in the league have injuries already

I dont want us to fill up with anyone--but at the same time I dont want our chairman thinking we have anywhere near enough bodies---another 3 or 4 minimum is needed given how hectic the season is

Sarll has made it quite clear any delays in bringing players in are down to him doing his due diligence on targets to make sure he gets the right ones. So nowt to do with the chairman this time, in fact if Raj has pulled the purse strings tight I can't imagine why Madine would be training with us cos I doubt he'll be a cheap option.

Cos stuff that someone at the club says NEVER turns out to be bollocks

Why would he put himself on the spot by saying the fans frustrations are down to him though? And I very much doubt Madine would be even thinking about playing for us for peanuts.

whatever happens the anti raj brigade will blame him and not the manager if we sign crap or nobody but sarll will get all of the credit if he uses the budget wisely.

I don't know but the club seems to keep doing it time and time again. Why do you think even the optimists are saying wait, see and hope? Taking what comes out of the club and expressing certainties based on that (whether optimistic or not) is very daft.

Maybe Madine won't be a cheap option and he'll laugh at an offer we make? Maybe we got loads money? Maybe the lad is desperate enough for a club to take ten bob? I would sign him.

There is no anti-Raj brigade, just an anti 'Pools being run crappily' brigade. If Jesus Christ himself ran pools and made a shit job of it I would be calling out him too.

Interesting post loyal, certainly gets some debate going.

The logical part of my brain tells me that we are potentially one player down on last week, Luke Waterfall, on a squad that comfortably won 3 points away to a difficult side.

This is a position where we have two able (but weaker replacements), Sarll has a choice.

Saturday vs Southend we will have a strong 11 with at least Featherstone and Mancini who are very good options from the bench. Not a weak bench at all.


On a seperste note in this thread is a minority of fans who won't believe anything that comes out of the club.

It's worth pointing out that in a short period of time Sarll has proven convincing in what he says.
Sarll said that he's happy with how fit the squad is, that's been proven true.

Sarll said he wanted a small squad, that he does have.

Sarll said he was pleased with the recruitment he's made and also pleased with the players we have retained to compete at this level - point proven with the clean sheet away to Yeovil.

Sarll said he wanted his team to work hard be strong and press high up the pitch. This is exactly how we have been playing.

Now Sarll has said that the only person to blame for the limited number of signings is down to him and him alone. He has been clear that his strategy is to finalise recruitment towards the end of August, indicating he wants around 3 more players. He shared that he had fell foul of finalising his squad earlier than this in the past and it hurt him over the season.

It makes total sense, we don't know if Fergy can manage as the only LB, if Dixon will revert back to last season where he appeared to have no hands, whether Mani D might get a serious injury etc.

Sarll is the right man making the calls, he is the man accountable and will lose his job sharpish if results aren't putting us in the playoffs.

Sarll has been telling the players the aim is promotion, that's a tool he used to convince them to sign.

We have a structure in the club that allows Sarll to focus on managing whilst enabling him the final decision.

It appears that amongst peoples own network in the game we rely on Ronnie Moore to scout and make suggestions. Joe Monks then makes contact with the club, agent and or player to negotiate contracts.

Things don't happen quickly, nor do they need to at the minute. We are on a good trajectory.

Personally I plan to enjoy it, I'll be there Saturday and even have a ticket for Tuesday night.

All fair enough but it is disappointing that you missed (or deliberately overlooked) that I was describing well evidenced scepticism. Scepticism is not a term related to certainty. Nobody has said that everything that comes out of the club is not believable. Bit of a straw man thing going on there.

I'm glad you plan to enjoy it but most people do.

I would argue ouor bench is very weak, especially in terms of attacking options--Mancini and a kid whos never started a game..

Its not just the injuries its the fatigue/players not able to take a break etc so become more prone to injuries--I am not expecting us to spend a fortune but if we learned nothing else from last season its the fact you need to be able to rotate without severely weakening your team to account for fatigue/lack of form

Would think it's a bit early to be talking about fatigue or lack of form after a single game.
Mani O, Fev, Sass Davies, Stephenson, Mancini is probably a bench most teams in this league would be happy with. And it sounds like Sarll knows what he wants and has irons in the fire.

Scepticism of the chairman I understand 100%.

Raj is incredibly emotional and has been very naive at times in what he says and how he behaves. Not a good combination.

Personally I wanted rid of him.

I suppose what I am saying is that now we have different people communicating and taking action. Raj isn't overshadowing Sarll with emotional outbursts about selling the club.

Off field appears to be stable, without the nonsense.

The friendlies I attended I sat near Raj, he was all smiles and relaxed. He needs to stay out of the limelight, fund the club appropriately and let the people he's employed run the club.

Interesting post Bosh. You seem to know more about the real Raj than any other member of the bunker. I always appreciate the information you post but got to ask you how do you know so much personal stuff.

I met Raj at the fans forum when Curle was manager, anyone can buy a ticket in the Cyril near where Raj sits.

The rest I've just listened to his interviews and the club statements on how the club is structured. I know one of the youth players who's shared a couple of bits of what Joe Monks role is.

Lets take Bailey Adamson who someone mentioned on here they spoke to in a game at his new club Hebburn. Bailey said he didn't sign for us as there were some arguments.

Sarll has been quite open in his interviews that he and Joe Monks don't agree on signings and things have been quite heated. It's Joe Monks role to get a squad of players into the club, using our scouts and he agrees terms and conditions with agents. It's Sarlls job to get us promoted with those players. Reading between the lines Joe Monks set us up with some promising young talent and Sarll has said no as he wants the budget to be spent on getting us promoted this year.

Thanks for the reply.

I thought Ronnie Moore was employed to identify potential signings or is it just the waste of another wage ?

What exactly Ronnie does or earns I don’t know but I do know Raj appears to be ruthless with staff so I can’t see Ronnie just picking up a wage for nothing.

DS using his experience knowing fine well that very good players are still available and come available this time of year and into september. We could of wasted a wage or part of it on Adamson who we all knew wasnt good enough. This then could of set us back in getting better recruits in i.e the Madines of this world (should this come off).
I think DS is the first gaffer we have had since the IOR days whos actually looking and hand picking the right players to go out and there and actually challenge - hes not just picking his pals or lads he knows (albeit Smith and Sass but they had to impress him still). The fact hes knocking lads back and not just taking on trialists to fill the bench installs so much more respect for him than any manager we have had since DC tbh. He will get us promoted with this attitude and approach - lets just hope the money is there to back him. Plus we get lucky with injuries and sign another few star players !

I agree DS seems different.

If we rewind, Lee Rust has been a key figure for a long time at the club, he joined as an advisor not long after Raj took over and in Sept 21 was appointed a director. His role included the negotiations with players and agents.

Lee Rust experience? Zero football. He used to work for Newcastle Falcons.

Bryn Morris, Hartlepool lad with friends and family in the town. Bryn was in negotiations to join Pools after his loan spell, between Raj and Lee Rust and the delayed appointment of Hartley they ballsed it up. They were meant to pay for medicals and completely messed Morris about, he got fed up and went elsewhere.

Graeme Lee came out after he was sacked and said Rust messed up negotiations with players for him.

Change of tact by Raj as it wasn't working with Rust and he brings Darren Kelly in Mar 23. Although Kelly claimed he'd helped secure some Jan 23 signings and bring in Askey after Curle was sacked. Shambles really.

Kelly was a footballing man but only lasted a few months.

Kelly left summer 23 and Joe Monks joined Oct 23. Monks is young, but has experience with Stockport and South Shields.

Something interesting about Joe Monks and Kevin Phillips. They held a meeting with Matty Dolan (Hartlepool lad with friends and family here) regarding his exit from the club. Monks drove those talks whilst Phillips observed.

That's perhaps relevant as evidently Monks is ambitious but Sarll can keep him in check.


The point of all this waffle? We have been ran in a chaotic manner with people not qualified for the roles they have.

Now we have Darren Sarrl who is more than qualified at this level.

Ronnie Moore who is well connected cares for the club and qualified to assess players capabilities.

Joe Monks doesn't have masses of experience but he does have some football experience.

These three working together, on the face of it, appears to be working. Fingers crossed this continues.

Ive said this all along but some just cant see it. If you have the opportunity for 7 players on the bench then what an advantage bigger clubs have it doesnt matter if you can only make one sub, if you have a quality bench then options are vital.

Its like man city saying tommorow we might as well have 5 quality players on the bench and not filll the rest because you can only make 5 subs. The point is if you cant filll your bench after 1 or 2 games whats it going to be like after 10 to 15 games when half your team has little knocks and sniffles. Some just cant seem to see the bigger picture as it will eventually cost us.

I reckon we'll have 7 on the bench tomorrow contrary to the title of this thread.
Nobody including DS has said we don't need a few more players, but we don't have an injury crisis or loss of form issue at the moment. So the strategy of taking his time and getting the right players is wise is it not?

I think you would find it useful listening to the Sarll and Rob Law interview yesterday, he literally answers your valid concern.

You should not be waiting for an injury crisis or loss of form before bringing in enough strength in depth. In this league you need to win some 30 games out of 46 to win the league, very little room for losses of form.

Wait and see.

Only 29 more wins needed, Cheers

Listened to Sarll interview and he is growing on me--he even admits its easy to sound clever after a win so lets see how we do over next few games.
I just hope he is backed---getting Madine in will be a good start

going back to what Bosh said which i totally agree with ! The club looks to be alot better place behind the doors.

Seems Raj has finally given someone who knows what they doing with a football club the reigns.

plus DS in charge of footballing matters the full thing is looking much much better !

So...
No Waterfall. sloggett, charman and Dodds on Tuesday--this is 2 weeks into the season having only played a game a week.

Hopefully the 'we dont need to fill a bench' and more importantly the chairman see some sense and fund getting some bodies in--the way we play we can expect a lot of injuries and suspensions to come...

No way have we got so many injuries after 1 week of the season who would of seen that coming hey.

Charman also going to be out for quite some time. Looks like a bad ankle injury.

Discipline in the team is a concern. Big fan of the attitude change but thought we were crap before the red and also Waterfall’s red was avoidable. Deserves fining. Basic. Sunday league stuff.

Don’t get me wrong, good point but eye opening quite how bad that game of football was. Don’t think Pools strung more than 4 to 5 passes together at any point. Happy to be disagreed with here by the way.

As first home games of the season go it was probobly the worst ive ever seen. Great battling, pretty organised but excitement levels were none existent. At least we are no soft touch anymore.

Last few seasons we’d have lost that match, we didn’t and he didn’t panic when Waterfall went off.
I want promotion.
If we have to slog our way out and upset the purists ….fair enough, at least we have the characters for the job, a big relief after the last few seasons of Lovely tippy football that got us nowhere.
Points win prizes.

How has ‘points win prizes’ worked for you the last few seasons. Oh I’ve missed your horrendous football patter.

I remember points win prizes in the Hartley season. Unreal Snowy, I love you.

And your ‘horrendous’ ego…like a vulture you only turn up to pick over the carcass…Watch out for the laughing hyena’s…
Fear not…I’ll keep you company.

‘I want promotion’

Well durrrrrr. We are analysing the game on face value. Pools didn’t pass the football at any stage, it was turgid without a single chance created in the full first 45. It’s a good point but that level of performance will not see you out the division. So points do mean prizes, but draws do not. We move on to the next game, lots of work to do. Up the Pools.