Anyone know if he was in the dugout on Saturday?

Aye he was.

Was he? Must have been sat down out the way was he?

He wasn't in the dug out. Helped with warm up but was then stood on his own at top of Cyril Knowles stand.

Yeah thats what I thought, i was specifically looking for him as thought he would be there with Hignett having no assistant in yet.

Clearly not held in high regard by Hignett I guess!

Maybe Hignett was going to start as he means to go on. Could be have just fancied being left alone to daw his own conclusions...?

Think the plan was to give Hignett chance to make his own mind up about players - without a #2 who has worked with these players for a while and will obviously have his own opinions and pre- conceived ideas about certain players!

No offence to sam but this is a good move. New manager needs his own people. Too many times over the years managers haven't been able to bring their own people in. Hopefully that has changed for good.

This has been a problem for many years. It's finally over. After listening to Phil Brown's interview on Talksport, I was shocked as he related his job interview here.

What did he say Snowy?

My bad, thought I spotted him.

Has a post been deleted here? Sure I read a reply from Snowy?

Much as I opposed the appointment of the orange cock I was a bit shocked when a Pools fan who knows Brown pretty well from years back told me his understanding of what happened.

In a nutshell, Brown was prepared to work for an unbelievably low wage to get his career back on track. He wanted his own people in though because he didn't think he could turn the club round without them (also probably understood the politics of football clubs and knew he'd need his own eyes and ears about the place). He turned up to sign on that basis thinking it was all OK and then got a last minute no on bringing in his people. Given that their wages can't have been a serious concern and he thought the club had tried to manipulate him he called it a day.

Yep I worked with a friend of Brown at the time and that's exactly my understanding of events too. He had no reason to lie or make it up and Brown had genuine intentions towards the role, he just stated that he needed his own people to shake club up from top to bottom.

To hear John Hughes quoted as "the first choice" shortly afterwards was a surprise to say the least.

To be fair to Phil Brown he's done a pretty good job with bugger all money down at Southend

I heard exactly the same, from a very reliable source cloe to Brown.

I wonder if Russ Green will ever admit to it?

If you all heard it then i heard it too aswell.

This chapter is over now, the club have stated intentions to try and really build something for the future, can we let it go and all support that now?

Yep I do!!

I'll qualify that, I thought the chairman's interview last week was very good and it appears a manager has been given a mandate for the first time in years to build something at the club on the football side his way. So in terms of the new chairman he seems to be backing his words with actions. That I fully support

How does talking about the past mean that you're not supportive of current developments? I think the current owners gave decent backing to Moore with players and they seem to be giving decent backing to Hignett with bringing his own people in. I don't think anybody could lay the blame for our iffy position at their door.

I would say that the continued presence of Russ Green and JPNG's murky background leave me with some worries but how many clubs have a Harold Hornsey at the helm?

Go on, I'll say it. That sort of shite was entirely down to Ken Hodcroft and his obsessive control freak management style.

Hughes was always number 1 choice imo.

During his interview the subject of him applying for the Pool's job wad brought up and why didn't he get it. He told them of his dealings with the club and everything was fine till he mentioned bringing in his backroom staff. He left and heard nothing from the club again.