Simple question,if it wasnt for I.O.R do you think we would still be in business ?

Yes, we would - but chances are we'd be in a similar position in the league below.

How many league clubs have actually gone out of business in the last 20 years because of financial reasons?

No - Look at the clubs who have gone bust who were a similar size to ourselves.

God bless IOR.. But maybe IOR need to change the man in charge at POOL's after all Hodcroft is employed by IOR is he not?

Who?

Scarborough?

It's an impossible question - who knows what could have happened if IOR didn't come in?

I very much doubt we'd have been in the play-offs five times or promoted twice if they didn't buy the club, like.

In spite of all of the faults that are currently perceived to exist I wouldn't swap IOR or Ken Hodcroft for anybody else in charge of a lower league team right now.

Hodcroft isn't the anti-Christ that some people like to paint him and IOR are the best thing to ever happen to Pools. In addition they are pretty much one and the same so asking for rid of one is asking for rid of both.

I believe that we would still exist without them but we wouldn't have had our day out in Cardiff nor would we have spent the majority of the last ten years outside of the bottom division. I defy anybody to put forward a sensible and credible counter argument to that.

There isn't one.

Without I.O.R I certainly dont believe we would be a football league club.


And god bless Harold Hornsey for being able to see that & allowing it to happen.

Anyone?

Two isn't it?

Maidstone and Aldershot.

OK then, how many league clubs have gone out of business in the last 17 years?!

So would you be happy for Pool's to be flirting with admin? Cos technically admin is not going out of business, IMO it's just as bad

I'd love you to (applying some logic) explain how? Surely nothing is as bad as going out of business, apart from some greasy haired bloke relocating your club 70 miles and calling them MK Dons!

I think we would still be in business but wouldn't like to hazard a guess as to which level.
It is common knowledge that IOR have pumped millions into the club.

We don't know what would have happened if Harold Hornsey had sold the club to someone else, so it is pointless speculating.

The situation that we have is that the fans can see vast amounts of money being poured into the club but, in terms of league status, they can also see that it is a fair bet that we will start next season as a bottom tier club, same as we did in IOR's first full season.
The fans can also see that we have a man sat in the manager's chair whose record in football management since he left for Wednesday is nothing short of atrocious. They look at his record since he took over the reins in December 08, which is also atrocious.
The fans are flabbergasted that a successful group of businessmen are willing to put up with this situation.
Not only that but this same successful group of businessmen have done it before, in the Scotty era, where they sat and watched us going down without doing anything about it. They subsequently apologised and assured us that they wouldn't sit idly by and let it happen again.
But it looks as if that is exactly what they doing.............in the eyes of the fans at least.
IOR have a business plan for the football club and, to all intents and purposes, it is working satisfactorily............I think. Although when you look at events down Clarence Road from time to time you wonder if the selection of personnel to carry out this business plan is as good as it could or should be.
However I don't buy a season ticket to watch business plans. The missing fans obviously don't go to watch business plans either.
There is something radically wrong with the experience of following Pools at the moment...........I think we all know that........but wouldn't you think that this group of businessmen would be so switched on that they wouldn't let it carry on more than was absolutely necessary.
IOR have an agenda regarding the football club and are happy to just tick along merrily pumping cash into the club whilst ever their agenda is being fulfilled.
The fans are grateful for that in itself but they just can't come to terms with the way things are just allowed to go on regardless of whether they are good for the club or not.
I don't think anyone would be daft enough to say IOR have been a disaster, far from it. They do it their way though and sometimes that can be a bit frustrating. In fact you can cut the frustration with a knife at the moment.

The major difference between us and the owners can be summed up in one word..........passion. I have no idea how you bridge the passion gap but this perceived indifference by the owners at the moment is driving me crackers..............along with three thousand plus more people.

Course you'd still be around, probably flirting with the trap door of the BSP like we are. You'd be shopping around the Northern league looking for the next Steve Howard, Jon Cullen or Jason Ainsley, just like us. No Neil Austins, Joe Gambles etc etc. Crowds would be back to the 1600 mark like they were for donkeys years before IOR. At least it would be the true fans & not the bandwagon jumpers though, sometimes that can be a good thing.

I look at the Notts County situation and realise how grateful we are for IOR.