Hmm seems to be one extreme to the other…has he acctually had any success anywhere in last decade?-edit I see he took Northampton up
Always had him down as someone who went from one struggling club to another

Non plussed but onward and upward

It could work. A kind of short term 'fixer'.

At this stage open to anything, he’ll soon suss Murray and Lacey

There's probably quite a few he might soon suss, especially Hartley's signings. He hasn't got much to work with, the weakest squad in years. Good luck to him

He was quoted as being the ‘interim’ manager’, so maybe Raj has said do a job and you’ve got the job full time.
Didn’t do too badly at Carlisle then something appeared to go wrong…..just want someone to fire them up and build a team spirit that was never there.
Interesting appointment, but time will tell.
Mind you, if IOR had still been here there’d have been a six week interview period with adverts in the The Times and The Shetland Bugle.

and can do little about it either even if he does think they are shit. curle or anyone else who eventually gets the job needs to have the ability of working with someone elses players. many cannot do this and only have the ability to work with their own men.

Seems similar situation to when Cyril Knowles came in the big difference being we cannot bring in his own players except free agents. He has to work with what we have but get them fit and toughen them up, remember though he is only an interim manager, As Crawford has 5 bookings can he serve his suspension Morecambe and be available for Gillingham. Good Luck think you will need it.

CK to KC.................spooky.

hope he gives Tumilty and Niang the time of day, IMO two lads who put it in.

When Cyril Knowles came in they weren’t his own players but he put the fear of god into them.
Seriously, you can’t walk into a club with a team of your own men in tow. Surely a manager should be able to work with anybody, they can’t just turn up with their own players on day one.

Knowles signed Olsson, Bennyworth, Tupling and McDonald within a week or so of taking over, Curle will need to wait 3 months

The thought of Murray and Lacey manning our defence until the new year is frightening

I think these Scots lads will be wondering what’s going to happen to them.

Will he have to wait 3 months though.

Keith Curle wouldn't have been anyone's choice in the summer but he seems to be the type we need now. Fitness and shape will take some time to implement but hopefully the 'new manager bounce' can carry us through against Gillingham Saturday. I don't imagine Curle would be coming here if he hasn't been told there's money to spend to improve the squad, so fingers crossed for a new centre back or 2 before January and then some quality loan signings to see us through the season.

I suspect Curle will have some money to spend. The reality is, Raj realised his money was being pissed up the wall and decided that if he kept giving it to Hartley, he'd just waste it

When PH was recruited and only seemed to only bring in Scottish players I among others thought of Gordon Strachen. He nearly did for Boro.

It’s well known that Singh is a Boro fan, did he not look back when Strachan was at the Boro and thought it didn’t work there but he still allowed PH to sign players from north of the border. At the end of the day the buck stops with the chairman and the longer he is there the more concerned I become about the future of Pools. Let’s hope he has pulled one out the bag with Curle like he did with Challinor.

Problem with recruitment wasn’t they were Scottish it was they were shite

I think Hartley and the players didn’t recover from Walsall , he likely knew the he’d dropped a bollock and from there has been throwing shit against the wall hoping it would stick.
In hindsight all been a shambles, with no plan, eg have a recruitment head in then let Hartley go on instinct…the signing of the Sunderland youth player who is clearly not ready for senior football summed up the disorganized way recruitment was handled

Very poor all round

Sorry this is nonsense. Are you seriously suggesting ALL Scottish players and managers are rubbish, because if you are you’re sniffing glue.
We’ve had some great Scottish players down the years or didn’t you notice….?

Who said ALL Scottish players and Managers were rubbish it’s just the players PH signed apparently aren’t as good as the previous ones from across the border, I think you need to get your head out the glue pot Snowy

blue.."When PH was recruited and only seemed to only bring in Scottish players I among others thought of Gordon Strachen. He nearly did for Boro "

..lets get this right....we have a first team SQUAD of 25..hartley brought in just 6 players from the scottish leagues who our computer geek head of recruitment will have had nothing to do with...just sick to death of hearing about this strachan/boro comparison tbh....wot...don't sign jocks cos it "nearly did for boro"??....schoolkid analysis ..

You are the one wriggling…How could you possibly know the players Hartley signed were going to be no good, Crystal Ball?
I didn’t know, never seen them play before.
20-20 hindsight ?

4 let in at walsall quickly followed by that shocking shit show at blaclburn. he knew these scottish players so went with what he knew plus his assistants advice. possibly didn,t know many in the english game and didn,t trust the tippy tappy boy.

I don’t need a crystal ball Snowy, I just look at the clubs they were playing for and the standard of football they were playing in. In PH defence it was probably the only ones Pools budget could afford.

1952..."I don’t need a crystal ball Snowy, I just look at the clubs they were playing for and the standard of football they were playing in"

..."clubs they were playing for"..."standard of football"...you wot...remind me who david ferguson was playing for before we signed him ..and how long he had been playing in national league north?....i know he will be crap cos 1.hes a jock 2.he plays in the scottish leagues...absolutely ludicrous

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Fer ... _born_1994)

If Fergusson was that good why wasn’t he snapped up by a higher league club, how many of our ‘decent’ players did Challinor take to Stockport ?

1952.."If Fergusson was that good why wasn’t he snapped up by a higher league club,"

..why ?..would have thought that was obvious..cos like you they knew the "clubs he was playing for" and the "standard of football" he was playing in...same for gavin holohan...same for jamie sterry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavan_Holohan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Sterry


"I don’t need a crystal ball Snowy, I just look at the clubs they were playing for and the standard of football they were playing in"

You know the player’s ability individually? ….and Pool’s budget too…..??
Pool’s so called budget must be known by most people on social media, if only I could access it so easily.

Excuse me if I laugh to myself…on second thoughts…..

just wish i knew all about pools budget and was an expert on scottish football. O forgot i should be after watching my one and only game north of the vorder in 1975 but that was cowdenbeath.

Both Fergie and Sterry are no where near the best full backs in the league, imo.
However there forward play is some of the best in the league, And thats why you play to thier strengths.
To do that you have to have decent CBs, To allow them the freedom to play further up the pitch.

Hartley for me never got his head around that, to busy trying to prove a point, While neglecting the structure of the formation.

Judging by the ‘quality’ individual players Pools have signed and the current results the budget whatever it is obviously is not enough to sustain a team in League 2, players and teams ability are judged on results.

So what about all the teams who have spent generously and are wallowing, explain that.
You have no idea what that the budget is, just blind assumptions.

hound...."Both Fergie and Sterry are no where near the best full backs in the league, imo.However there forward play is some of the best in the league, And thats why you play to thier strengths.To do that you have to have decent CBs, To allow them the freedom to play further up the pitch."

....absolutely correct...and hartley does not come over as a f/wit whatever you think of his management credentials...so how come we recruited only 3 central defenders and no keeper to compete with flapper?..hartley recruited the jocks but has our head of recruitment got any responsibility at all for any of the rest of it?...hartleys record is there for all to see..but what about the computer kid..

1.wheres he worked before and whats his background?
2.has he been head of recruitment anywhere else and been a success?
3.how did he get the job?
4.exactly what was his input to the non jock recruitment over the summer?
5.what was he up to during the last day of the transfer window fiasco?

Pity we can’t identify what players were brought in by who…. Now that would be interesting.

The way I judged the Scottish lads was by thinking about how many former Pools players left us and ended up in the SPL. These were mainly average players for us in League Two and in the Conference and were able to play plenty of games in the SPL. We signed players from lower than the SPL so it doesn’t take a genius to predict they might not be good enough for League Two. I’ve still got hope for Niang though, I think him and Sylla could make a good partnership.

1952..."Judging by the ‘quality’ individual players Pools have signed and the current results the budget whatever it is obviously is not enough"

..team plays badly so budget must have been no good..players are no good but what do you expect from jocks from jock leagues....brilliant.....if only it was all that bloody simple..


"I don’t need a crystal ball Snowy, I just look at the clubs they were playing for and the standard of football they were playing in"

porter.."The way I judged the Scottish lads was by thinking about how many former Pools players left us and ended up in the SPL.These were mainly average players for us in League Two and in the Conference and were able to play plenty of games in the SPL."

..who exactly are you talking about?... name me some players..peter hartley played league one for us and went on to have a successful career in the SPL..john daly the same..trevor carson the same...mickey nelson played up there for a couple of seasons...would rank all those players as at least EFL league two standard without question...after leaving us jake carroll played regular league 2 for a couple seasons with cambridge 80 odd games and then moved to motherwell and just signed another 2 and a half year deal last year....dont know anyone else from us who has forged a successful career up there...kabamba played one season for killie wasn't good enough and was binned...jonathon franks the same a couple of seasons with ross county then binned..darren holden signed by ross county and didnt even get a game..so name me all these players who were bang average for us not league 2 standard but then went on to be a success in the SPL??..

Rob McKinnon left Pools for Motherwell and was capped for Scotland. He was class.
Didn't Nelson go up there for a spell as well.
Maybe we have too many at once because there used to be an opinion that if you had more than one or two they would form a clique. Don't know how strong that theory is but they do seem to cling to each other. which effectively Hartley was leaning towards. How many chances did Hastie get and he was starting to favour his two full backs over Sterry and Fergie.
Anyway it's changed now so onwards and upwards, hopefully.

derwent.."Rob McKinnon left Pools for Motherwell and was capped for Scotland. He was class."

..exactly.. what a player..lets see what the porter comes up with...crap with us but a success in the SPL

Are you still defending the rubbish that's been put before you? You do realise we are heading for the conference due to this great Scottish experiment don't you. Computer geek and hobin are lucky to still be in jobs as well after the rubbish that's been served up so far. I can't believe anybody can still somewhat defend the standard of these leagues we have brought these Scottish lads from, even the premier league lads were loaned out.

Kabamba played over 40 games up there, Carroll has played plenty as you say and then there is Liam Donnelly who has played plenty up there and Alan Power with over 100 games. I hadn’t even thought about Franks so thanks for that one. Only Carson out of mine and your list was a very good player for us yet they have played a good number of games up there. Our signings are from below that standard so there was a good chance they would struggle.

billy..."I can't believe anybody can still somewhat defend the standard of these leagues we have brought these Scottish lads from "

..cant be bothered explaining all this to you again..all jock players from jock leagues are crap and the cheap option/cheap budget shite...we are "relegation certainties" 6 games in and Hartley has been "sold down the river without a paddle" garbage...you live in your own simple little child's world...we is a "big" club with "big" crowds and "massive potential"... and all this the chairman has "missed a trick" balls and btw where has all the money gone?... you know you should get on the radio borer fans panel cos they would just love you to bits...you are their type... year in year out from you the same old the clubs "a joke" its all "rubbish" and its the chairman's fault... blah blah blah blah blah blah..have a day off and go play with your toys..

porter.."Only Carson out of mine and your list was a very good player for us"

..so lets get this right...you think the only player who was of EFL league 2 standard and made it in the SPL after leaving us was trevor carson.. and all the rest peter hartley, mickey nelson, john daly, jake carroll, liam donnelly and rob mckninnon were bang average for us and below EFL league 2 standard ..and for you the fact that these players made a successful career in the SPL shows you how crap the SPL is in comparison to standards in EFL league 2 ....fine... if that's the way your mind works....suppose at the end of the day it all depends if you would know a decent player if one hit you in the face like..but then again didn't you think odusina was the next rio ?..has he started for bradford yet ?

And low and behold we are second bottom of the whole football league. Even your messiah has realised after 9 matches he has made a massive balls up. Or has raj got it wrong in your opinion?

You keep believing a club with 4500 to 5000 fans while sat 2nd from bottom, despite not winning for 18 games has zero potential and we can't compete with anyone financially in this league. While others make a complete mockery of it

Odusina started the last game and they won 3-0. Read one comment from his debut in August which said, ‘ Cracking debut from Timi tonight’. Do you think he would get in our back 3?

I’m on about more recently than Daly, Nelson and McKinnon. I wouldn’t say the others were very good players for us except for Carson, yes, that’s what I said. You go on about people not reading properly yet you write this, ‘ ..so lets get this right...you think the only player who was of EFL league 2 standard and made it in the SPL after leaving us was trevor carson.. and all the rest peter hartley, mickey nelson, john daly, jake carroll, liam donnelly and rob mckninnon were bang average for us and below EFL league 2 standard’. I didn’t say that. The players I listed were ok for us, nothing special and were League 2 standard. These League 2 standard players played plenty of games in the SPL so that suggests to me that League 2 is a similar standard to the SPL. Players from lower leagues than the SPL are therefore likely to be not League 2 standard.
I said this last time but if say, Holohan or Morris had left us for Raith Rovers, would you think that was a step down for them?

porter.."League 2 is a similar standard to the SPL."

..so whats the problem with recruiting players from SPL clubs then if they are now [amazingly] according to you of a "similar standard" to EFL league 2..do you also have problems with the english national league ?...and leagues below? ..what is it to be ..we can only recruit from EFL league 2 and above cos everyone else anywhere is likely to be sub standard??..what do you think goes into a recruitment decision?..you think gumbys go around saying oh no we cant look at him cos of the league he is playing in..he has this and that quality exactly what we are looking for and could do a job for us... but no there is no point cos of his nationality [jock} or he is playing in a league below us..do you honestly think this is the way it works ffs

anyways back to Curle.. good appointment that

well done Raj - no messing about

win tonight - set the ball rolling - smash Gillingham saturday and PH all but forgotten !

Can we bury the Scottish saga because no one is gonna agree and just move on to see what the future is.

Good idea Snowy.

yeah we can knock it off for now...lets move on to "the future" and see where we end up ...

I agree. It’s a waste of time when people don’t read properly.
“Players from lower leagues than the SPL are therefore likely to be not League 2 standard.”

I’m happy with Curle. Has a promotion from this League and another finish in the play offs positions. Apparently he likes 532 formation which I think we are most suited to. Umerah and Maguire (a proven Jock) should score goals with Sterry and Fergie putting crosses in for them.