The squad of players we have definitely have the potential to be doing better, 10 out if the 11 starters were at efl clubs last season. They're playing like a bunch of schoolkids on their 1st day at a new school were they don't know anyone. Is that the manager and coaches fault or the players?
Maybe Askey and Sweeney are just not tough and demanding enough to get the best out of them. Yesterday's performance was as bad as any under Harrison, Hartley, Curle, or Lee - were in a serious rut with no signs of being able to get out of it.
Too many of our players are consistently poor yet seem to be undrinkable, what's the point of a 20 odd man squad and academies if you only choose from the same 15 or so man squad - surely there's someone at the club who can oust Patterson from the starting line up.

I’d be expecting Sweeney to step up for the time being, no chance of getting another manager, trouble is there’s that many contradictions in the whole charade.

Like Sheep

And its utter madness that you are blaming fans. Look at the complete mess of the club, from top to bottom, we have been run like a conference north club and that is were we are heading. Hardly been a murmur inside the ground at raj since crawley game. Just an acceptance that he has royally fucked this club up. But yeah lets use the get out clause that you and a few others will cling too of him.being forced out. Rumours are he will be gone in february and not a day too soon.

He,s done a bad job, And shown he,s not up to it.
If he,s got any self respect(or cared for the club/fans) he would walk
Choose a captain who,s also not up to the job.

He knew the situation in the summer and did not address it.
When we all knew what was needed.

Doubt any players will be brought in.

He,s UNdefendable imo Jamie.
And Sweeny is part of the problem.

Why persist with a system that does not work 99% of the time.

He is undepefendable ?no manager could be so unlucky with the injuries Pools have had this season, even some we brought in on lone end up injured and now our striker is out for weeks.

sometimes managers can be their own worst enemy,s as you need to be confident in your own ability to do the job in the first place. Being like that can hinder you when things are not going your way.

He is undependable, no manager could be so unlucky with the injuries Pools have had this season, even some we brought in on lone end up injured and now our striker is out for weeks.[/quote]
its not the injuries as every team has them its who the players are who have been injured for us. we were never going to replace them with players as good but thats no excuse for starting a season with so few players in the side who can actually defend. its not as if we were looking for the hardest players to sign, goalscorers.

He is supposed to have knowledge at this level, And someone searching for him.
He signs them, He is accountable.

I think performances(Individual) are a mirror of the dressing room.

I don’t see why you persist in this obsession with Raj.
If he goes, he goes, I don’t really care, but what you can’t seem to understand is you have to have someone to replace him and until then I’ll keep my powder dry.
As for going in February, we’ll see, I hope the HUST solution is a goer…but what happens if there’s no one to step in, what then?
Give me a practical solution….I’m waiting.

Sweeny probably will, Also i think there would be no problem getting someone in short term.
With the proviso of retaing the job, If succesful.

Would rather have Andy Monkhouse in the dressing room.
At least we would be certain that no players are taking the piss, As they are now imo.

I know exactly what you mean Jamie, Would you have stuck with this system for this length of time.
I certainly would not.

The players sound like a youth club team who’ve been sharing a bottle of cheap North Korean cider and can’t cope with an egg cup full each.

Askey persists regardless with his system, does he have gas lights at home, drive a Morris Minor and call aeroplanes the ‘Great Silver Bird in Sky’…I’ve heard of dogged persistence but this is ridiculous

thing is if he does get the sack he,ll be the same as all managers who think they have been hard done by and will insist he did a good job with the situation he had found himself in. still waiting to hear of one saying they have cocked things up and could have done better. suppose if you are a quiet truthful individual you,d never get into club managenment anyway unless you have a household name behind you.

Unless a miracle buyout happens - the club ups its standards and rids its losing mentality and identity - Hartlepool United will always be a club that is laughably bad.

The DC era in to this one is painful to see. We had a moment of happiness back in to the grind of supporting the historic and perennial losers.

You have just given the soloution yourself, its not made up nonsense this takeover. Their are numerous individuals involved wanting to help the club. Is that practical enough?

He’ll never learn mate. I tried my best to educate during the Hartley era. He thought that was gonna be a blinder. Football knowledge on a postcard.

Obvious questions:

Why was Raj the only one who came forward when he did to keep the club alive?

If Raj walked this afternoon who would walk in and save us from administration or expulsion from the NL?

And

Does anyone seriously believe that Raj wants to ruin the club (and obviously lose his own money in the process), he could ruin us without losing more money by simply walking?

Darlington and South Shields have sacked their managers. Pools making a hatrick?

That’s nothing to do with the point I made…what happens if Raj goes before the HUST takeover actually occurs…?…..what I’m saying is don’t drill holes in the lifeboat till your safely aboard the rescue ship….I can’t make it any clearer.

So who are we going to get?

What's this Goodlad (Assistant Manager) bringing to the table, never heard the bloke speak, bit of a 'silent partner', doesn't look as though his goalkeeping background is having any benefit in trying to make our defence impregnable, couple of 5 year olds on their first flirt with ball control could meander through our defence quite comfortably ATM.

Now Now Snowy, You know its not the HUST takeover. Naughty but nice.

Raj put the club up for sale last May and so far this consortium is reported to be the first interested party to provide proof of funds.
Hardly a stampede to buy him out is there, much like when he bought the club really.
This idea that there's a horde of knights in shining armour just waiting to take control is for the birds.
We NEED Raj right now, like it or loath it, that's the truth.

100% agree that we need Raj to remain on board until he is confident that they who (currently) shall not be named are in a position to seamlessly pick up the reins and take the club towards the sunlit uplands of the EFL.

However, although it pains me to say it as the guy is a genuine gentleman - we DON'T need Askey. It's fast reaching the stage where anyone (or even no-one) could replace him as he is not even getting a few notes, let alone a tune out of the latest band of misfits.

I can only apologise profusely kind Sir, I should have said ‘The Trust Related Consortium’ but my oversight is now clarified….
I think that clears it up

You seem to talk a lot of sense Snowy

Thought i would step in before others, Who shall remain unstated came to lambast you
Your apology is cordially accepted.

When Raj Singh took over the finances were a disaster zone. I saw the books and they were horrible. Absolutely no one else had shown any interest. It was Singh or bust. In my opinion at the time, and I went through it with a couple of accountants at work, it made no sense whatsoever to take the club over with the convoluted debts and the repayment terms. It happened because RS wanted the Darlo episode to not be his last involvement in football. He wanted to rehabilitate his reputation in the eyes of fans.

Now presumably at least the accounts will be clean but a fair proportion of the debt has just been moved from Sage to Prestige. It will really depend on how much RJ wants to recoup and how much he wants to write off. Track record suggests it could turn nasty if he doesn’t get what he believes he’s due.

Thanks for that input, trouble is a lot of people swallowed the anti Raj mania from down the A66 and anticipated the same outcome without applying a bit of logic and conveniently failing to remember it was Uncle George who torpedoed Darlo, Raj was just left with the flotsam.
I also believe he was out to prove he could make running a club viable and he had nothing to gain from taking over a club to apparently destroy it, that really is patently dumb.
The other sin in some people’s eyes is Challinor going to Stockport. He may have been an excellent manager, but his departure was ham fisted and a perfect example of how not to go about it. The same folk though couldn’t understand or want to understand that money wise we couldn’t compete financially with the new Stockport owner, plus the fact Challinor would be living round the corner from his job, it was a no brainer, yet people still persisted in asking why Raj didn’t compete to keep him when there’s two massive reasons staring them in the face….but they still can’t come to terms with it.
That’s the crazy thing about football, there’s always someone on the terraces happy to advise the owner on how to spend their money.

Again spot on assessment

Just wondering. Would it be possible to send a manager out on loan? It'd send a clear signal to Dave that he's performing like a sack of spuds and needs to sort himself out. But he could do a cracking job at Darlo...

They send managers on ‘gardening leave’ I can’t see the obsession about Sweeney taking temporary charge, he never set the world on fire before, he must be involved in the current tactics so would there be any improvement ?

Sweeney not my first choice, but…..in the real world we aren’t going to sign a manager even though I would like to see that, so it’s Sweeney or the groundsman and even he’s got pitch troubles.

Wonder if Billy Horner is still around?

I just knew someone would start blaming fans for "chasing' Raj out of the club. I thought there might be one ot two still clinging to this nonsense.

This isn't about Raj any more. He saved the club, brought stability (no mean feat nor one that brings no gratitude) but the rest has been disappointing. At least we are here to say that though. No need to break the well appreciated peace that there has been in the Bunker.

This is about Askey. I thought his contract was a good move. Then there were the injuries, things went downhill. I wanted to believe it was the injuries plus Askeys budget still being taken up by previous managers players that was causing the issues. But now I think these players are not as bad as these results they are getting and they are genuinely being mismanaged.

You’ve summed it up perfectly…..maybe he needs players he knows around him who understand his ‘methodology’ and struggles when out his comfort zone and has limited man management skills.

I’m doing surveillance at the Fens shops car park to see if he appears…so far ‘all quiet on the Datsun front’..

it may be about askey but raj has to come into it somewhere. he will be the one that sets the budget and askey has to make the best of it. whatever our budget is i think its all raj can afford. he is rich by our circumstances but not against many other owners. some fans get annoyed by the constant talk by askey of the injuries. thing is they are a fact and have hurt us far more than RS or JA have ever done. every club gets injured players and we all know this. however not their best and most influential ones every time though. pick your least rated pools players and just think how we would be doing if it was them out long term and not the ones we have had.

I dont think there is any belief that Sweeney is a Pep Guardiola, it is simply that he is on hand to take the reins if Askey walks or is sacked because there are folks saying "who would want the Pools the job?" The damage is getting to the stage where it is beyond repair so maybe Sweeney couldnt do any worse and could potentially steady the ship until the alleged takeover is completed. Or if the takeover doesn't happen, keep things ticking over during turbulent times. Seems logical to me. Of course all depends if Sweeney wants to take on the poisoned chalice. Anyway, all conjecture cos JA is currently the manager at Pools.

He has done the job before once quite well but the other not so well.

Looking at the cards we have to play with right now (not examining how we were dealt them, whose fault it is or how we cant put a few back in the deck and be dealt a few more) then I cant see JA turning this team around. Even the players he has had fit could have got better results.

Askey seems to like certain players and persists in plugging away his selection when sometimes change really is called for.

Co-incidentally Donny Rovers fans are urging their manager to ditch the back three system.

On the subject of all things Donny. I regularly check their team sheet and Sterry is never on it. Is he long term injured? Maybe we did well to get shot. Excellent player but not much use if he is hardly ever fit.