Is it too early to send duffus back? For this 100k striker we were looking at the other year.

No i take it back he is going to come good, starting Saturday with some supply for once from the wing.

I'm not sure I would call it a shock but others might.
I think the first disclosure came from a member of the consortium. Paylor was it???? Goffy walking away was reported on social media weeks ago.
I take the announcement of stepping back as stepping back from day to day management whilst keeping an eye on the purse strings. Most people I think would do that.
His backing of Kevin has already produced two new players. You can question Raj in detail when you go to tea.
Enjoy your tea and don't forget the doggy bag.
PS, Do you mind taking Mr Imp to the tea party, he could do with cheering up.

Oh im not sure i can control mr imp, probs have his feet up next to the fire singing rajs praises.

Am i allowed to ask how come we knew we were signing players from grimsby, got a manager in place before the high noon deadline? Or should i just keep it shut and enjoy the fine dining? Kev is going to have to come along too keep us in line.

Hardly backing, but time will tell.[/quote

What is your definition of backing Mr Imp???
Two in on the same day is a pretty good start.
Time will tell a lot of things my friend.

Well, Hartley did sign a lot of players and there were many who trumpeted that as backing

Well it was backing. Backing for Scottish independance, hopefully they will come up with a rule that no scottish player can ever come back to Hartlepool, unless your rob mckinnon . While were at it hopefully it happens in middlesbrough too.

On second thoughts you better not take the Imp just yet.
You can ask what you like. I think Raj hinted to the answer on the Grimsby players in his statement when he said the uncertainty was influencing recruiting players. Now it's settled we might see more activity. Hope so.
I'll leave the decision Kev's involvement to you

Yes he did and it didn't work did it but there's nowt we can do about that now. It's always risky but Mr Hartley took risk to a different dimension. Let's hope we learn from it. There appears to be a lot of regard for Joe Monks and KP seems to trust his judgement so fingers crossed.

Not sure what to make of it.
Get a better idea of how the club looks like in August.
And then I will make the decision to return to the Vic or not.
That's significant progress as I have been in boycott mode for 13 months and vowed never to go back under Messiah Sing..

Mite get a few quotes of shit fan. But that is water of a ducks back. Never a problem.

See we're we are come August.
UTP.

[quote="billinghampoolie1908"]

Well it was backing. Backing for Scottish independance, hopefully they will come up with a rule that no scottish player can ever come back to Hartlepool, unless your rob mckinnon . [quote]

Or Hughie Robertson. Not to mention John McGovern, John McPhail and Gacv Strachan. Admittedly we’ve not done so well recently. I blame Jack Ross - cracking full back but tied to his missus’ apron strings. He Jock Jinxed us.

All about choices mate, go if you want stay away if you want.
I've been going long enough to know we've had better and worse owners in my time and to be honest I haven't been too bothered who it is as long as we put a team out that tries to be competitive.
Got to say if I won the lottery tomorrow investing in Pools wouldn't be something I'd do so good luck and thanks to those that have a d do. Who knows, the consortium bid might arise again, or another prospective buyer in the near future?

Yes jack ross mrs started all this off.

Cant see much changing we have heard it all before. One thing is for certain raj certainly doesnt want us going down, signed a decent player today which should help us. Going to be touch and go but with a new managers bounce, and a few signings we should have enough, shoyldbt we?.

Influx of Scotsmen is nothing new. When I started we had a fair few with Mcguigan, Mckeowen, McClure, later there was Cameron,Fraser,Gardner,Waddell,Hamilton, etc Problem now is that Scottish football is poor, and I regularly see players I’ve seen playing down at Pools playing in their Premier league.

Only the end of season table will tell us.
Don't win games on hope. Kiddy a prime example to that theory after stringing 1 win in a row together.

Lol

Anyone else not shocked at all

Me, I'd like to see Raj gone asap.

Saved the club.. Jesus.. that's like being thankful that some guy saved you from the titanic in a rowing boat, only to realise that's sinking too

We can all have our thoughts on how it is from the happy clappy Raj fan club to those like me, who don't like how the club has fallen.


Let's see if he's willing to stick around once we hit national league north or worse

Well the stalemates over…..just waiting for the aftershocks to subside.

It’s like TMH, Coxberg, Sage Investments and ‘chairman’ Pam Duxbury never happened for some folk.

Wish I had selective amnesia and could only remember the good times with IOR.

Some would say even IOR wan’t good at all, not me, but some.

so he wants his money back even if over the long term.....he is entitled to make that request/demand but I think it doesnt work for the club, constantly having the albatross of legacy ownership being owed money --suppose we go up, what chance do we have if a chunk of the extra money just goes to the last bloke in charge?
I think a clean break would be needed, and while I think Raj has done his best I am not optimistic on the future with him still at the helm

So is Raj continuing to fund the club or continuing to add up debt the club will owe to him so inevitably increasing any price he might accept down the road.

He cant be enjoying himself either and hard to say anyway this doesnt end badly and with acrimony from all parties----really a shame as i do think his intentions were good just some abysmal decision making the last couple of years and failure to take any responsibility for it has led us here.

We’re living through Raj Singh 2024, wish I had selective amnesia for the current predicament in all honesty.

HUST statement is something....Raj not giving the financial detail they asked for, is overvaluing the club which continues to have losses-obviously thats just one side of the story.

Seems like things will get worse before they get better as dont see the club being worth anymore in 6-12 months time.

Never thought he wanted to sell the club, I said so in the past, its too much of a status symbol for him to walk away from. The bloke is arrogant and thinks only of himself. Today is a black day for Hartlepool United football club and all its fans.

Signed two players today that will fool quite a few.

Although other opinions are available.

I know, we sign two solid players from a Football League club. How dodgy can you get?

I’ve read both statements and without clear numbers it’s all he said / she said.

Not many NL clubs doing that. Couple of dozen at the most.

I never take any notice of things that appear after the event.

Happy Clappers, FFS is there any need.

Legend.

Just an aside to this. He’s wasted lots of time and money of an unknown number of local businesses. Does he really think this is going to help him bring sponsors in to help the club? Does he not think that these people will be well connected to other local companies who will now stay well clear of the club. His I want to leave act but actually not now despite you meeting my asking price will put a hell of a lot of people off

The guy aint going anywhere while parachute payments are coming into the club. Someone would have to offer him good money for him to go.

Saw this comment on Facebook, the internet thingy nobody uses, and thought it was a decent summary…

The guy had zero intention of selling from the outset. He’s spent most of the “ negotiating period “ hiring and firing staff, saddling the club with more debt, and it’s clear he only offered to sell the club to take the heat off himself when results started to go against us.

Look at the facts, he’s burned through more than half a dozen managers, countless CEOs, numerous Heads of Recruitment. The narrative is always the same , the last guy was a mistake but I’ve got it right this time.

Every season is the same , empty promises to sell season tickets, good players leave , recruitment is last minute and it’s usually players in the cheap or kids on loan.

By Christmas the latest manager he’s given a 2 or 3 year contract to has been sacked and Singh claims he’s riding to the rescue in January.

It’s not working.

The only manager able to buck this trend was Challinor and what happened ? He was promised a budget for the EFL as reward for getting us promoted and then Singh by his own admission refused to give him it.

Nobody seems able to work for the guy for any period of time which is why the club is in a mess.

Look at Tuesday night, beaten at home by a team bottom of the League on a pitch that looks worse than it has in 30 years due to a lack of investment. A threadbare squad playing for one of the best supported clubs in non league football.

He now seems to be blaming the Consortium for being unable to sign players - an incredible statement . Why weren’t players signed over the Summer then when they were desperately needed instead of kids on loan ?

If he wanted stability why did he spit his dummy out and publicly state he was pulling funding from February onwards ???

A club saddled with debt that has been appallingly mis managed by an owner that would rather watch the Boro than his own club.

The club will go precisely nowhere with this man at the helm , any time we do have success he will take the money rather than reinvest it.

A really sad day for the club. Then again if he wasn’t willing to sell the club to Reynolds and Mcelhenny you have to ask who he would sell it to.

The answer is clearly nobody.

He now needs to invest in the club or stop making pathetic threats to kill the club if the fans don’t back him.

Of course you are correct. Evil, no other word for it. Signing players like that, fookin audacity.

He has had a change of heart overnight though went to Grimsby and picked off their 2 best players. The club is back in really safe hands. We have just got to learn to beat some of the worst teams in the conference first then we will shoot up the leagues.

Careful

The happy clappers won't like this

Think that one might have been too subtle for you

Intersting but a lot of opinion presented as if they were facts
1. He said he would sell following the abuse he and his family suffered after the Crawley home loss not because "results were going against us"
2. The latest manager sacked (Askey) was widely supported by the fans as he came close to rescuing the club from relegation and made an excellent start to the season in the NL. Would any chairman have refused to give him a lenghty contract. Supposing Raj had refused and Askey had walked. I guess that would have been Raj's fault?
3. Is it being claimed that Challinor having signed a contract to stay at Pools then left because Raj didnt give him a decent budget? Was his departure nothing to do with the huge salary the millinaire Stockport owner was able to offer him?
4. "Burning through half a dozen managers". Debatable. Hignett sacked so Challinor could be appointed: Dont recall many fans objecting to that "burn". Lee appointed after Challinor left for Stockport and was initially successful particularly in the cup competitions but after the Rotheram defeat everuthing went stale and lethargy set in. Few poolies complained when Lee was sacked as we were treading water. Hartley was obviously an horrendous error both in the time it took to appoint him and the abysmal quality of the players he was allowed to sign. The Hartley debacle is to some extent, the reason we are where we are. Raj has freely admitted to this howling error, no excuse but he said he will try to put it right and I presume he thought Askey was the man to do it. Prior to Askey was Keith Curle, an experienced FL manager, but he was unable to repair the damage caused by Hartley. Once again he was hardly "burned through" with most of us calling for his sacking. Finally Askey turned out not to be the answer despite the positive impression he made when Pools were in the FL and the first few weeks of the NL season.
5. Raj has made serious errors but without him we may not have a club to support at all. He was the owner when we had that wonderful day at Bristol. Raj is wealthy but not a multi millionaire but under his stewardship, the bills are paid and the club appears to be in a stable situation financially. Clearly we need success on the field and the appointment of Kevin Phillips and the recent player acquistions suggest he is striving for this. Why the heck shouldnt he go and watch the Boro if he wants to? Why is this action singled out as some sort of crime? " he would rather watch the Boro than his own club" that is a particularly vindictive interpretation.

I realize this issue has now become tribal and nothing I write will make a jot of difference to the attitudes of those who have their knives out but having got it off my chest I feel a lot better.

No excuse for Hartley ?
He made a ton of excuses in terms of how he relied on other people etc,,

Everytime somethjng goes wrong it’s not his fault and more worryingly he doesn’t seem to learn

Also how are you defining ‘stable situation financially?’ Can’t be that stable if Raj thinks he is owed a lot of money he put in to sell, would seem we are saddled with debt to him ?

They well under 1% of our fan base.
But are adament the rest of us don't see the bigger picture.

We all see our own "bigger picture" and all based on the limited facts that we have.

Claims on here that they met the asking price, how do we know that? The Trust have never said that, they said they'd made an improved offer.

Wonder how far the consortium would have got on Dragons Den?
Dragon - where and what's the business plan look like? Eric, we haven't got one but we've got loads of cash.
Dragon - this football club you've offered to buy, what do their accounts look like? Er, we haven't seen them, but it's all OK cos we've got loads of money?
Dragon (×5) - I'm out!!!

This mob sound as credible as TMH or Coxhall / Goldberg /Duxbury to me.

Never mind how many managers Pools have ‘burned’ through how many players have come and gone since the start of the season, I have lost count ?

One thing I'd like to see or hear now that RS has turned down the consortium at least partly because they didn't present an acceptable business plan to take the club forward, is what does he see as the future for the club and cru rally does this mean he's here for the long run or his the threat of walking away still hanging over us?

I‘ve always had the feeling he likes a challenge and not the type to retreat under fire..plus there’s no better incentive/ wind up than being told how to spend your own money by terrace economists.
There’s a sub species on the terraces who’ll urge unrestrained spending till they go blue in the face at their voluminous advice being ignored, but when things go tits up, look the other way, claim nowt to do with me guv and carry on demanding.

Why? Read the first line and sailed on by……..

You mention a creditable business plan, yet fail to mention he didnt produce the full accounts? Surely cant have one without the other unless this consortium are mugs?

Well as I said they claim that they made an offer but didn't have a business plan or hadn't seen the full accounts. If that's true I'd say yes they must be mugs. Do you really believe a serious international investor would risk a punt on a business they don't know the full and complete financial state of and they'd proceed without a business plan. International investor or, mug punter more likely.