It seems like the bad old days have returned. Ever since Scooty fooked up and got us relegated our squad has become more and more depleted.

Are IOR willing to do something about the situation or they not really bothered if we flirt with relegation but manage to stay where we are.

Would middle to low team in league ones ground be far cheaper than a one with championship status??

Is the full sum of their ambition for us to be a middle to low team in league one??

The way they've skimped on EVERYTHING since 2005 -06 makes me wonder....

Some fair points there. If you are right, I suspect they will have to reduce admission prices as people just wouldnt turn up.

That's not true though.

I wouldn't say they scrimped in the promotion season when we could have sold Dimi for over £100,000, or when they paid over £100,000 for Barker, or the money to buy Monkhouse. Then Wilson was given money last season, do you think the likes of Elliott and Moore were on peanuts, what about the money we paid for Collins? Thy took a loss of £1,300,000 last year hardly scrimping and saving.

They try and run the club prudently, we need a few new faces to bolster the squad but lets not go over the top or be ungrateful of what we have.

Only problem with being happy to hang around lower midtable is, and more so these days, we are in a much greater risk of going down. Two/three games lost on the bounce and one team hitting some form can really hurt teams in our postion. We are just as capable of going on a 5/6 game losing streak as we are going on a winning one.

Perhaps they're saying to themselves that for all their spending since 2005, there's no further progress to show, whereas prior to that we were fighting it out with the leaders on an outlay of just 80K for Nelson - so let's get back to the essential squad ("bare bones" if you prefer), get a permanent manager, then we'll see.

Who is happy? It's the position we find ourselves in I doubt anyone at the club is happy with it.

I know it didn't particularly work out, but you can hardly call the two loan spells of Kevin Kyle 'skimping' can you? We know he was on big wages at Cov and we will have paid a decent chunk of those wages whilst he was here.

I could go on and give several more examples, but I don't really want to waste my time. One more though, the Vic, have they 'skimped' on that??

A year ago a barrel of oil was 147 dollars, now its less than 50 dollars, doesn't a lot of Pools funding come from some sort of tax write off from OIS's profits. There is a lot less profit around and hence a lot less tax to write off, they are not going to fund us out of their core business turnover.

I will give Hovercraft the plaudits for gaining us 15 points a season over a number of clubs (the ones penalised for going bust) I know its not very ambitious but its also not reckless - I would rather be mid table-mediocrity than bust. I hope they find some money from somewhere.

IOR lost the 1.3m when oil was at a premium price per barrel, it's less than half the price it was last year, I bet IOR are feeling the credit crunch as much as everyone else, cut back have to be made. Having said that I do think they are taking it to the extreme this season with just 3 kids joining in the summer and one on loan, Kevin Kyle was a big gamble that didn't pay off but we do need a couple of loan players in pronto.

My response was in relation to the orginal post. If the club arent happy with the last two season then they are not getting the right people through the door to stop it. We are in the same place we were last year. I take my hat of to IOR and hope they never leave the club, they have been fantastic for us, but they are either happy for us to stay as we are or they want to move us forward, even a bit a season. Not all the players who have come in over the last 18 months have been to take the club forward, this isnt IOR's fault but the manager and that is the situation IOR need to address. Im happy to get to the summer in this league. It will be a big summer for the club and they need to get their decsions spot on both now and in the summer.

Aye good post I can't disagree with any of that.

Things have certainly gone flat, and the crowds have dipped, it's a double edged sword you have speculate to accumulate, it's a game of two halves and I've ran out of cliches.

I was under the impression that IOR were now operating out of Malaysia. I think you will find they are making plenty of money. You NEED to be making plenty to write off debts that attribute to HUFC. Pools have no excsuses for leaving us with a squad this bare.

IOR is not an oil producer. The price of crude has bugger all effect on them in the short term.

how many people on here can not face the prospect of the club making do and cutting its cloth?
Then they should leave the room now!!!!!
This is still a hundred times better than 900-odd crowds, and watching players who weren't as good as some of the lads stood on the terraces watching!!!
When things improve financially, and players stop being so greedy, then football will become more affordable again. However, who is going to be the first club to carry out swingeing pay cuts? They'll sink unless they all do it - which they won't.
A vicious circle indeed

i know it's a longshot but maybe they are just waiting to see how much the greedy fooking council want for the ground before investing any money in the team,maybe once they find out then they will know how much money they will have to strengthen the team,and the way the council work it could be quite a while.

To be honest, do we need to attact 'bigger named' players? I would love Boydy to come back and help the cause, but if the players knuckled down and stopped stupid defensive mistakes, i.e. concentrated for 90 minutes. I'm sure we would do a lot better, results will change, however as soon as ALB is removed from between the sticks, he does nothing but make me get anxious even when we are in attack!

Now with the difficult financial times, it just shows football is a huge business, dragging the cash from the fan who they know will pay the money to see their club. Why don't we just fook the premiership off and all football league clubs form their own leagues. We will have our own fa cup (well i suppose we have the JP trophy) and negotiate with equivalent lower league european teams for a european cup for the winners of the Fa cup and top teams of the 1st division, to prevent the 1st division becoming like the current premier league, salary cap will be enforced, along with ticket prices being equal for each club. The premier league can do what they like, who needs it apart from the big wigs? I'm sure Pools would attract support from nearby villages and towns as the premiership will become boring, dueto ticket prices continuing to rise, our economy continuing to suffer even more and with the strain on families, people will end up taking their children to the cheaper and affordable new english league.

Its worth the crack, and games are sure to be televised. I know it will never happen, but I just love talking cack and thinking of new ideas. Plus I'd love a piss up away at a lower league team in Prague. Maybe a European FA cup saturday!

The future's bright, the future doesn't look to be Boyd.