decent gates and a decent ground both to league standard. however as hogans said it means nothing if others are recieving more from the bankrollers.

You will get those lunatics yes. However I think most Pools fans would just be happy for the club to be progressive in a sustainable way and have a long term strategy and an overall culture. It is happening elsewhere without loads of bankrolling. I think you need to give Poolies a bit more credit. Its tricky sometimes, I appreciate that

That is an unfair accusation Mr Imp. There is no evidence that Mr P has any connections with the Chairman, nor does he defend him passionately and persistently. You are supposing and speculating and trying to dress it up as fact. He doesn't relentlessly attack the Chairman in the manner that you do but that doesn't automatically mean he agrees with his running of the club.

The players who sign for us always mention we a big club which we are in this tin pot division.
Is this now our accepted level were mid table in division 5 is not underachieving.
What next?

Will the non moaners moaning about the moaners slightly raise your expectations of what is acceptable at HUFC. Because we ain't moaning about nothing and we certainly ain't expecting us to do a Luton.
Cheers Lads

Some people defend a cause, some people attack a cause.
Neither has the right to defame the other as both think they are right.
By all means promote your view, but attacking other people’s views is self defeating.
If anyone had the true facts they would be the winner, but obviously no one really has, so the slogging goes on endlessly.

Yes its the new cop out before oh we cant cope with teams that get 5000 to 6000 now we get close to that all of a sudden the halifaxs Gatesheads, bromleys must all have rich chairman. God help us if we ever got to league 1 playing in our lifetimes be beat before we started. The excuses we come out with to justify being where we are never ends.

It depends what you mean by progression, and who is the judge of sustainability, you or the owner.
As for strategy and culture. I can only speak for what has happened since 1952. The main strategy since then has been survival and that strategy has seen us mainly in the lower regions of tier four, with the odd surge into tier three. We were a decent tier three side when I first started supporting the club and have never been higher than that. I have dreamt of getting higher and still do, as I still dream of watching my team walk out at Wembley.
Will that ever happen, I hope so but having waited and dreamt for 72 seasons I could be forgiven if I resigned myself to think the chances of those ambitions and dreams are waning somewhat but no I still have the faith. Maybe one day............
One thing that has become ingrained in me is that we, the fans, control very little. All the control is in the hands of others. We once had a true fan in charge of the club in HH but eventually he had to give up because of the relentless drain on himself and his finances.

No I wouldn't have used the word 'seems'. Passionate and persistent? I believe it is so, if you disagree then that of course is fine.

I don't attack the chairman his abilities as a chairman yes, the effect it has on HUFC yes, but not him. People can turn things around in that regard. So could he. We're all being told to wait and see if it happens.

Change what you can, accept what you can’t …. and be smart enough to know the difference.

Facts are we are a big club in this league, players dont mention your a big club if your not, they go by the crowds the amount of away support, stature of being a football league club for 100 years, it all adds to it that we are. We can all pretend we arent to justify being where we are getting hammered off the Gatesheads, but a massive chunk of players in the non league would jump at the chance to play for us.

the trouble is no matter where you are in the arguement and which side you fall into you have got to agree if we just muddle along all the fans will be like on here and we,ll have a split fanbase like the bunker is. everyone will always have their reasons for being a poolie and what they actually get out of a game or a season. must admit if we have to gain promotion by winning 1 nil every game and sideways passing most of the time you can count me out for sure. i can get bored without spending time and money on it.

Harold hornsey was here when pools werent pulling in 4500 to 5000 crowds regularly, no wonder it had a strain on his finanaces. If he was around nowadays im sure he would of been in charge a hell of a lot longer.

only if the money is better. saying or thinking something does not improve your lifestyle. forget pools, but if i lived between solihull and york i,d take the best offer i could get between both clubs and not go out on the pitch thinking i have made the big time playing for york or hit rock bottom by being in a solihull shirt.

True…BUT…. then some people would say we shouldn’t be signing players like that, we should be out there splashing the cash on good players.
There’s never a happy compromise.

Maybe and maybe not. As I have no idea what he would have done I'll refrain from speculating but my guess his health would have been in the forefront of his decision.

you know now if we signed a player from oxford city fans would look down on them but would get excited if we signed one from oxford united if they had never seen either actually play.

Mr Imp I can assure you I have never ever met or spoken to your nemesis Raj - the man in charge who saved us from going bust and oversaw the promotion back to the EFL you may remember but probably won't.
I do note that rather than answer my direct questions you chose not to (as usual) but just had a dig at me instead - now I am pretty thick skinned but your responses when challenged almost exclusively are a dig at the challenger to your posts, it does nothing to support your argument but in fact weakens it severely.

Why are we a big fish in this division - half the teams in it have recent efl history? Many have richer owners and a handful have bigger gates. In fact there are teams in NLN and NLS that have the similar profiles. So what is it that makes us a big fish?

I was a Raj defender for most of last season , I thought Hartley deserved the blame and Raj was guilty of making a bad decision in hiring him but had tried to turn it etc

3 main things have moved my opinion

1 the lack of responsibility for relegation, after the standard ‘it’s on me’ comment all there was was deflection and blame, it didn’t come across much of anything had been learned and the thin skinned nature of the response to understandable unrest (I don’t mean personal abuse here which is out of order) suggested not much would change or improve

2 the dismissive response to the consortium and take over, came across as the whole thing was just for show and his main concern was recouping his money (again there is nothing inherently wrong with that but just come out and say it and provide a real and transparent figure you want, yes this may not be ‘best business practice’ but isn’t that the haircut you take for having ‘the clubs best interests at heart’

3 less of a big one than the other 2 but this fans rep thing really smacks of circling the wagons, if you want a genuine fans rep have the fans input on it-not everyone will agree but just sticking someone in and saying he is your rep is not going to go down well.

Anyway that’s just my opinion, Raj isn’t some terrible figure imo, he’s a guy who’s done his best, made mistakes and is struggling to accept that hence things going south the way they are.

Because 3/4 of the division are minnows tiny little clubs with no support, very little football league history, poor grounds compared to ours, we have more away support at times than they get at home, have way more potential. How many clubs in this league would get 4500 being this consistently bad? I also thought we had a play off budget year on year or maybe we dont quite believe that afterall. Pay Hastie thousands a week according to people on here. Have an extremely ambitious Chairman wanting football league year on year will stop at nothing to get it and also have that barcelona esque midfielder that we have kept for 10 years? How many other non keague clubs could hold onto him for that long? No one just us daft buggers.

If you asked any supporter in England who is way bigger salford or Hartlepool everyone would say pools, despite salford being owned by a billionaire

Half the clubs in this league have recent EFL history in actual fact. Our attendances have averaged just over 4100 this season so not the 4500 you claim. We're in the most deprived area of the country and in our entire history we've spent around 100 years below halfway in tier 4 and we've won absolutely nothing at all ever. A true sleeping giant.

Oh right how bad hey 4100. So you see maidenhead, halifax, solihull, oxford city, kidderminster, Eastleigh, gateshead, aldershot, etc all on a similar footing to us same size? Same potential?

We actually won the national league play off final so not strictly true as you claim.

Just being a bit more accurate rather than chucking numbers off the top of my head that's all, the figure is actually 4146 for the season just finished.

11 other ex league clubs some with far better history does that make them bigger? Is bigger defined by years of EFL history, by average attendances over the years, average finishing positions, what?

I'm sure that the likes of Rochdale, Halifax, York, Southend, Chesterfield, Aldershot, and all the rest don't see us as being a big club. We're an ex EFL club, in the most deprived area of the country, struggling to find our feet and that's all.

Not really, do the maths.
We’re 88k….
Maidenhead….67k
Halifax…..88k
Solihull…..107k
Oxford City….170k
Kidderminster….57k
Eastleigh….48k
Gateshead….115k
Aldershot….40k.

Robbie Stelling doing his crystal ball act on the Retained List for the Fail today and there's some good news - contrary to rumour, time is up on the contracts for Lacey and Hastie!

In fact, the only fringe/injured players who have another year left are Dixon, Burton, Manny O and Wallace (I'm not counting Dan Dodds in this 'cause he's nailed on to be here ).

The biggest surprise is he seems very uncertain about whether or not Mancini will be back for next season...

Think we've got an option on Mancini. I'd expect us to exercise it.

Would not mind a Luton me self or a Burton,Cambridge,Exeter,Orient,Wycombe,Blackpool,Oxford,Lincoln.
Think THAT is achievable for us.
Correct guidance needed.

Think we had the ideal opportunity to progress last time we entered the efl, But Egos got in the way.
imo.

I'd like to think so too but I didn't say young Stelling cast doubt on whether there was an option - more on whether the club and the player will agree that's in everybody's best interests.

If Mancini is released while Cooke and Feather retained imagine the response !

Surely even Pools are not that stupid as to release the main man or am I wrong If Mancini is let go for any other reason than he is retiring due to injury, I am done with the club.

Oh no you aren’t… I said the same about Terry Bell going to Reading for £10k…I was sharp back for the start of the season because I’m an hypocrite.

Sensible thing to do is exercise the option and then at least we'd get a fee if he left anyway. Not sure anyone will be that interested in him until he's proven he can still get through a couple of dozen games at least.

We should be releasing way more than Robbie Sterling suggests, the idea that keeping Jameson, Feather, Crawford and Umerah is pretty nailed on is worrying !

He doesn't say anything of the sort - you can never resist a bit of drama queenery can you?

So very true Snowy Thank goodness I stood firm to get shot of the previous two wives, would never return any season.

So you now want rid of the tea lady Loyal What has she done to upset you

She hasn't got a winner's mentality. Asks the players how many sugars they want... Honestly, I fear for pre-season if this is allowed to carry on.

She wouldn’t tell me……
Who put sugar in my tea?!

Yep have thought many a time that's it I'm not going next season but there I am again. What would we moan about if we left pools behind, the wife and kids would certainly get a lot more stick.

would not surprise me with all the rehab he has done back in france he might want to continue playing football back in his homeland. what will we get for him. an onion seller on a bike.

Who’s Robbie Sterling

f Off

Who’s Robbie Sterling [/quoted

His older brother plays for Chelsea

The same person who put ya boots away.

Knocks about with Bobby Shaftoo

What do Biden n Stelling have in common!














Both not very good presidents

Doubt there's anywhere near the money in French football at his level compared to what he gets here. In the rest of Europe crowds at lower levels can't match here.