Easy that so how come we didnt sign the best players this year for this league? why cant darlo do that now? What about stockport, kidderminster, York i bet they all thought the same. We have 3500 average gates and cant beat part timers what makes you think a new club with 1500 to 2000 gates can beat them so easily?

I don’t think anyone is saying he is the ideal option, but to keep the club as it stands he is the only option.

Whats our current situation got to do with it?
End of the day its your choice, get in bed with a man with a proven track record of going back on his word and almost destroying a club or start again under your own steam and shape your own destiny.
Just if it goes tits up I would hope you dont come on here and say "we should have listened to the Darlo fans".

Because your situation is probobly the mirror of what would happen to us. You did remarkably well to have achieved what you have but lets be honest the chances of you getting back to where you were and probobly deserve to be is a million miles away.

Because your situation is probobly the mirror of what would happen to us. You did remarkably well to have achieved what you have but lets be honest the chances of you getting back to where you were and probobly deserve to be is a million miles away.

I totally understand what your saying but we have no choice at the end of the day.

My twopenneth is this:

I have met Raj Singh. I discussed his investment for with him for about four hours and I found nothing to dislike. He admitted that he'd made mistakes at Darlo and when he pulled out the Darlo fans had renegaded on their side of the bargain by turning up en masse. They didn't and he was left holding the baby so he got pissed off. I spoke to Scott Thornberry in some depth before that meeting so I had a handle on the Darlo end.

This deal is no different to the one that we discussed then. Raj Singh will not take the whole burden but he will go in with the supporters as long as they put money up too. The shareholding will be pro rata.

My issue all along had been with paying sage off in any way shape or form. If far rather have a new club and tell them to sod off. If RG/JS have convinced Blakeledge to walk away then what's not to like in the deal.

As always though, the devil is in the detail and we haven't had enough of that by a long chalk.

Because we aren't easily the biggest club with the biggest budget in this league????

None of the clubs you mentioned are phoenix clubs and they are all a lot smaller than Pools.

We cant beat part timers due to mismanagement, poor playing staff and not having a top down plan. It is not because the teams like SS and Harrogate are world beaters.

Except you have a ground. We had zilch thanks to Singh. And because we tried to do the right thing, like you are doing, we ended up saddled with a lump of debt! All the other stuff, like the sell on clauses, club identity and history could still have been purchased from the administrator.

So how do we beat the salfords? the fyldes? south shields they have money behind them. Ask darlo fans how easy the conference north is.

For me this is the important part of the Trust statement:

"an offer has been made to Sage Investments to acquire the club for no fee, with Sage Investment clearing their significant debts, (and therefore without interest payments accruing) and without any security held over the club by Sage. A performance related payment which would total a small fraction of the money owed to Sage would be made on the club’s promotion to back to League 2 and with another similar payment should we be promoted to League 1."

In other words, for as long as Pools stay in the National League (or fall even lower) Sage get nothing. If and when we get back into League 2, they get something, but of course at that point Pools' share of TV money would be right back up, season ticket income would be up...Having to budget more tightly for a first season back in the League than might otherwise have been the case isn't the end of the world, especially as we'd have a squad that was used to winning games rather than being perpetual losers.

Raj Singh's involvement is a separate issue and it would be great if the terms of his investment could be spelled out as clearly as possible in advance and in a legally binding form that all parties were happy with.

Thats not the point though is it. We are where we are off our own backs. Its been a hell of a ride to this point with some cracking memories watching players who have a damn sight more pride than some professionals I have seen over the years. If it fails its down to us and not some egotistical person who's loaded and who really doesnt care about the after effects of pulling the plug.

sorry loan that wasnt meant for you. Yes you should be proud of your efforts. How do you get back to the football league though? without a money man?

A bit of luck, a cup run, selling a player for a few million. Just like it was back in the day when Cyril got us promoted on a scratch budget.
We may never get there but I can think of few worse things to happen to the club.

Where are we holding the top of the table conference north cladh next year? blackwell meadows or the arena?

Glad you're enjoying it. Hope you miss the drop back down to the Evo-Stik Northern Premier - getting the derby back will be something to look forward to if we miss Administration (unlikely) but get relegated anyway (nailed on).

That still doesn't make liquidation and a phoenix club look like any less of a leap in the dark than what HUST is currently advocating.

Ps: just the small matter of finding 250k and police investigations and the legal claims on the crony invoices, aka litigation, to get past.

Surely these are football related issues. We have no God-given right to play in the football league.

If we are not good enough to play these teams then we won't deserve to beat them.

What we need is a root and branch rebuild and develop the football club in all aspects, on the pitch and financially.

If we attract the best talent from round the north-east we can build the best football club both on and off the pitch. I see this as a more exciting venture than limping around the lower reaches of the Conference (North) with a bunch of tired, half-arsed professionals on the pitch and a mountain of debt in the bank.

Football is a great game, let's make HUFC a great club (for once)

It wouldnt be the arena, doubt league rules would allow a switch.
Interesting point raised on Uncovered, if FA rules had changed in 2009 rather than 2010 then Singh would be classed as an unfit person to be involved in a football club having been involved in two insolvency events with a football club.

The risk that Singh poses is substantially reduced if he doesn't have a controlling interest. Its pretty fundamental to need to know how the shares will be divided between Singh/Stelling and the Trust.

He absolutely will have a controlling interest. Roughly 80%

Is that "will" or "would"?

Yet probably still more fit to run a football club than most of Pools' and Darlo's recent owners!

Singh wanted a controlling interest at Darlo when he stuck his nose in last year.
He will want the same at Pools, have no doubt about it. He wants control but wants others to help fund it.
To be fair anyone putting the biggest wedge in would want the same but its his previous actions that would set alarm bells ringing for most people.

If the Trust want 20% and Singh is after 80% then whats Stelling getting?
Seriously, your Trust need to be speaking to the York Trust. This is them all over!!

I can tell you that Singh was asked on numerous occasions if he would hand over the football share. He is being less than honest suggesting otherwise. That share, on its own, had no financial value at all for him so you can make your own judgment on why he didn’t / wouldn’t transfer it. How you proceed with Singh is your choice but I would ensure all financial transactions are minuted for probity.


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80% ? That's not healthy.

Some consortium

If he's putting 1.2m in out of 1.8 that's two thirds so 66.66%. That's if the consortium can raise 600k which I don't believe for a second.

The final figure will be pro rata.

Exactly, it'll just be the trust saying oh we don't agree with this and Singh just doing what he wants because he owns the majority.

That's the risk. Paying extra for something we previously got for free, save admission fee, and nothing really changing for the better on and off the field.

80% to the man with a track record of pulling the plug, who was involved in two administrations at the same club.

My understanding of the situation is that there is a deal in place with HBC for both Singh and Musgrave that if either of them step in to save Pools then HBC will give them the ground, the land around the ground plus some land down the marina at below market value. And that both of them are so keen on that deal that they’re basically waiting for Sage to get into the real world before competing to get in before the other.

I’m not convinced that this is the last twist or turn in the very short term never mind the medium or long.

Houses on Clarence Road and a small cheap new ground behind The Mecca anybody?

Thats going to go down well with council tax payers with no interest in football.
I know from experience the council tax in Hartlepool wasnt exactly the cheapest either!

If Musgrave is waiting in the wings Singh doesn't stand a chance. I doubt very much that he is as he seemed reluctant to get involved in the first place.

Having more than one interested party would certainly make things interesting.

But he isn't.

“Give them the ground”? Madness!!!


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I still can,t see any of this ending well for Pools and the fans. Just a gut feeling and the fact it,s Pools, nothing goes our way.

What about the money Jeff is putting in. Singh might be majority shareholder but it would be less than 80% ....unless Jeff wasn’t putting anything in.

What about the money Jeff is putting in. Singh might be majority shareholder but it would be less than 80% ....unless Jeff wasn’t putting anything in.

Absolutely. Ground security is the only thing the club has going for it.

Definitely not and the council need to say so.

Council gets 250 houses on brownfield site on Clarence Road- tick in their development box (and probably frees up some kind of government funding in addition to the numbers below).

Property developer makes c£30k profit per house = c£7.5m profit.

Property developer builds small cheap new stadium for c£5.0m.

Property developer puts maximum of £1.5m (recognise that figure from Mr. Musgrave?) into HUFC.

Property developer turns a profit of c£1.0m.

Now don't get me wrong on this I'm not saying that any of the above is a bad thing given our current plight, just trying to answer the questions regarding why Singh (or any other "investor") would want to put a chunk of money into HUFC.

It's also a bit of a catch 22 situation for me, as Pools anywhere but The Vic just wouldn't be Pools in my head but without any very quick rescue solution then Pools might not be anywhere including The Vic so I guess the lesser of two evils is to run with this and accept that to survive we might have to move.

And the big worry is that all of that could happen but without the new ground. There wouldn't be anything to stop a developer doing all the business with the council and the houses and then deciding that keeping a non-league club going wasn't worth the bother. It becomes an even more likely scenario if the developer picks up the club for next to nothing during administration or buys the lease after liquidation.

These are the sort of possibilities that make me think the consortium is our best bet at the moment - at least some of the people involved would have the club's best interests at heart. Of course, things might not work out that way if we go into admin but, unless you completely trust the council, you have to admit that there is a serious risk that we could end up with a phoenix club and no ground.

By the looks toulouse its our only bet.

Listening to jeff last night, he's in contact with singh regularly, he wants to put right what went wrong at darlo, he wants to be a successful football chairman.

I like the fact there is a 3 year plan to try and stop the rot thats going on at this club, to stop us being a loss making club, because it can not go on like this any longer, every aspect of the club, from on the pitch to off it, needs changing.

That is my gut feeling as well. At least this though will give us 2 or 3 more years. I don't think the fans are ready or prepared both spiritually or financially for a phoenix club just yet.

They may well be in 3 years time

Looking at the recent stadium builds, Rotherham‘s 12,000 seater stadium cost £20m, Shrewsbury’s 10,000 seater stadium cost £11.2m 10 years ago, and that looks as basic as you can get.

Not sure what we would get for less than half what Shrewsbury paid 10 years ago, taking into account inflation, we’d probably get a pitch and one stand for that, so a capacity of around 3,000.

I dont think enough fans would be prepared to pull together for the phoenix club, i could honestly see about 3/4 being formed.

This is the only option, and we have to trust jeff, singh and the trust.

You can bet your life ours would be the cheapest stadium known to man. It would make Chesters stadium look like The Emirates.

Those figures include land costs and ground remediation. Plus access roads and land around the stadium. Do three sides new build and relocate the Clarence Road stand and you could get change from the figures above.

Maybe Raj has the keys to that ex Darlo stand we have "in storage"