Sweeney till end of the season because he would mold this squad into a team capable of getting results before the last bit of confidence goes down the swanny. The squad are very low on confidence the fans are dwindling away and no one would want the poison challis. As for keeping Hartley that would be total suicide in my opionion. Never have I witnessed such a bad manager at Pools and i go back to Ken Hale the sooner this man goes back to pub football the better for all parties.

I don't think giving it to Sweeney is the best bet at all. A football league manager with a proven record of keeping teams up is what we need.

Sweeney lost all 4 of the League games Pools played while he was caretaker manager after Challinor jumped ship. He did better in cup games, but you could say the same about Graeme Lee's spell in charge.

seem we have quickly got back to where our ambition is to avoid relegation again and sod all else.

At this moment in time its our only Achievable Ambition.

might be so, but why does this always end up like this. remember back in the national league there was more talk of relegation cropping up even with mid table obscurity at the time.

I am genuinely concerned about what is happening to the club.
The next 5 days are going to be pivotal and without some signings or good performance i think the club should do something drastic.

I agree but like I said it's a poison challis so doubt any good or experienced manager would go anywhere near it given Raj's terrible sacking record. The problems have all been self imposed by Raj because he picks then sacks every manager. Only DC was different but if I remember correctly he was recommended to Raj by that Commercial guy we had from Chester sorry can't remember his name.Raj has not got a scooby do when it comes to picking managers and Pools now have one of the worst if not the worst manager casualty records in football.l remember Garry Gibson going to the Mail and asking fans which manager would be a preferred choice and fans voted for Cyril Knowles and he went and got him.Gibson was far from perfect but he was ahead of his time when it came to employing Cyril.

[quote="Leggie43"][

I agree but like I said it's a poison challis so doubt any good or experienced manager would go anywhere near it given Raj's terrible sacking record. The problems have all been self imposed by Raj because he picks then sacks every manager. Only DC was different but if I remember correctly he was recommended to Raj by that Commercial guy we had from Chester sorry can't remember his name.Raj has not got a scooby do when it comes to picking managers and Pools now have one of the worst if not the worst manager casualty records in football.l
the other problem is actually we have no idea who has ever applied for these jobs in the first place. or does the job get advertised anymore. surely raj by now knows many people in the game and sees who are doing decent jobs on a similar budget at clubs who will also not making millionaires out of their managers. that commercial bloke was mark mcguire.

You can’t say Hartley is the worst manger Pools have ever had after a few game. What about Craig Harrison Dave Jones, there have been loads over the years. As far as sacking managers. IOR were no different in their track record of getting rid of managers over the years, Danny Wilson after he had got Pools promoted and John Hughes’s to name a couple.

No he was fly….let the fans choose…and if it goes tit’s up, YOU the fans chose him, can’t blame the chairman. Genius.

However, if the manager’s a success, you’ve empowered a smallsection of your support to think they know best, a two edged sword.
But….if you aren’t planning an extended stay as Chairman, no problem.

Gibson had his faults but he did some great work for the club.

Met him a few times, had dinner with him once - cracking company - told some great stories about having to act as 'Mum' to some players (paying their bills, wiping their noses, etc), persuading the likes of Lenny Johnrose to move to Pools, etc. Like Vince Barker, Gibson got some unnecessary criticism and was not respected for his good work - and so I agree with Snowy - Gibson was a genius...................


So lets forget the story about the bailiff and the cross bars (also true!)

Gibson was of his time. We got promotion under him, the Palace FA Cup and some cracking players as well. It was a bleak ten years either side of his reign at Pools,
Personally, I liked the bloke.
Like I said somewhere else on here, it was a roller coaster ride with no brakes, you knew the wheels were loose and gonna come off, but you enjoyed the ride anyway.

brain..."Met him a few times, had dinner with him once - cracking company -"

...yeah "cracking company"...but tell that to his creditors pal...as usual "stunning" insight from you yet again brain..and had dinner with him too did you?...hilarious and embarrassing in equal measure...

"29 Nov 10 Father and son directors of Edinburgh property developer Roxburgh Homes Ltd have been disqualified from acting as company directors for a combined total of 19 years following an investigation by The Insolvency Service..

https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/ ... squalified

The bleak 10 years after his 'reign' was a lot down to Gibson leaving the club in a terrible state when there was nowt left for him to help himself to to pay for his lifestyle. He was a con man much like Coxhall, the only difference being that he started out with good intentions and some money in his pocket before reverting to type. Not fit to lace Harold Hornsey's boots, as this tribute from HUST makes clear:

"Hornsey had always lived in the town and followed HUFC; and in the mid 1980s he was involved in efforts to buy the club. He wasn’t successful, but retained his interest in the club – and had he not, there would probably not be a club today.

Wind on a few years to 1994, and Hartlepool United – a club with a long history of struggle – was fighting for it’s life. Garry Gibson had delivered promotion, but this had been followed all to swiftly by revelations of huge debts (for the time at least), broken promises, and growing protests from the fans. Players had been allowed to leave left right and centre, we were about to be relegated, and the new stand had still not got further than an empty side to the ground. We were on the verge of bankruptcy, and with automatic promotion and relegation in place it looked likely that if we didn’t go bust we’d be heading through the trapdoor into non-league. Who in their right minds would want to purchase such a club? The answer was, “Harold Hornsey”.

Hornsey took over the club, injected cash into it to keep it going, and got stuck in. Fan he may of been, but he was a canny businessman too – and he didn’t let his heart rule his head when it came to Hartlepool United. He worked long hours, put his own money in – even passed the running of his business on to his sons to give him more time to work at Pools. As he tried to get things together behind the scenes, Pools were usually struggling on the pitch – but Hornsey had the intelligence and common sense to realise that spending money the club couldn’t afford would only lead one way in the end."

"cracking company"..idiot..

https://suite.endole.co.uk/insight/comp ... es-limited

Alan Bamford told me a very interesting story regarding G. Gibson. He said at the time no-one was overly interested in the club and it was left to him and another director to find a new owner. Gibson came along and wanted the club but seemed a player / dreamer with no real collateral. He basically wanted it for nothing anyway time was pressing and it was becoming a real problem finding a new owner. Gibson knew this and turned up one afternoon with the Mail reporter and a giant cheque for £100.000 money he said was to going into the club if they agreed he was to be the new owner. Well it was signed over to him on the spot but the cheque was simply a ploy to get the club and was never invested because he did not have that kind of money avaliable.He must have persuaded his business bank manager get him this large cheque based on property's he had in his portfolio.

"cracking company"...oh and remember the bouncing cheque brain?

"Best forgotten
Gary Gibson ~ Gibson was running the club when the team played Tottenham in a testimonial in memory of the recently deceased managerial genius Cyril Knowles. The consequent cheque to the bereaved Mrs Knowles bounced. The only time I’ve ever been truly ashamed of Pools."

https://www.wsc.co.uk/the-archive/950-t ... ool-united

The point I was making was he produced the goods he said he would and we had a brief spell in the limelight after the previous spell over 20 years earlier.
Fans really don’t care when their club is successful about the background, they just want to enjoy the feast after the famine, but the cracks eventually appeared and his house of cards collapsed.
We thought we’d got a sugar daddy, turned out he was sugar free.
Harold Hornsey saved the club by diligently managing the business but even he was overwhelmed by the costs involved and luckily found IOR.
I think Gibson liked the limelight, the other one, whose name I can’t even mention, was a shark in shark’s clothing.

Shocking this shirt n tie burglary in football.
Its never ending.
Can remember the crowds 91/92.
2800 half full
4100 when rammed.

Its Stella signing Day.
Oates n Armstrong a done deal courtesy of the Palace gate receipts.

UTP.

Tuesday’s crowd was about average for the seventies, 2,000 was oxygen mask time as the big crowds made you giddy…

The Oates and Armstrong signings are definitely on…,Terry Oates from ‘Hinton on the Hedges Young Farmers FC’ and Julian Armstrong star of ‘ Frinton on Sea Gentleman’s Bowls and Quoit Club FC’.
Two for the future. Stella Artois signings….?

if we sign the proper oates and arrmstrong i,ll walk bollock naked up the A19 at the doncaster game. tickets available on line to be picked up in thirst market place on the day of the event. no ifollow though.

I’ll pay you not to.

Plenty of dodgy chairmen have liked the limelight, Michael Knighton and Owen Oyston to name but two - it's a terrible reason to take over a football club.

Gibson and Coxhall both took money out of Pools, which is an actual crime in my book as opposed to chairmen who don't invest as much as the fans would like.

I remember the good times under Gibbo's ownership too, but also the fire sale of players that ruined the 1992-93 season then watching what was left of the team regularly getting their backsides kicked all the way to relegation and losing the last home game of the season 8-1.

"cracking company"....

...."So there was a period where we were getting paid off the turnstile money and walking out of the ground with bags of coins.”

https://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/health ... fe-2923475

Trouble is we had no say, so we were in effect hostages to fate, along for the ride that is and it was never gonna end well.