if you live in the town its going to hurt your pocket more than his. know why you might be doing it but it will serve no real purpose whatsoever.

and i was not a big KP fan either but as i have said before is the club any worse off than the day spike lee was sacked. no continuity and no real sodding plan either but hire and fire and waste good money on some sort of compo for those lot. wonder who else have had a phone call before sarll and who are on the list for the next ones. there cannot be many left now who haven,t tried to get the pools job or have done it.

I was waiting to see how his recruitment and squad building for next season panned out but now we'll never know. His contract was until the end of the season and that was tea time last Saturday. He didn't appear on the post match interview and hasn't featured since. The fact that a new appointment has been made with unusual speed (especially where Pools are concerned) it suggests that this new guy was recruited some time ago, which begs the question was KP actually in the running????
The rumour now is that Sweeney has gone as well, although that has not been announced. That wouldn't be such a surprise if the new guy wants his own backroom staff.
It's another case of wait and see.
No one seen this coming, not even our resident experts, although something Stelling said made me think that perhaps KP was in negotiation with other club(s). After all he is entitled to be until a new contract was settled. That wouldn't surprise me either. We'll see how that possibility develops or not. Would I have liked KP to stay...doesn't matter now he is history. Let's see how the new guy performs.
The whole scenario certainly got the natives going and now we have the speculation drums banging again.
There actually is a very strong rumour tha....................................I think I'll hold on to that one for a little bit longer.

December 12th 2024 Hartlepool United can today confirm that Head Coach Darren Sarll’s contract has come to an end.

Further, the Club Board has made a decision on the Manager appointment moving forward and will release more details in due course.

Darren was appointed as Head Coach in an initial deal that took him to the end of the 2024/25 season. Darren has done a good job this season since coming in as Head Coach and he’s been great to work with. His remit upon appointment was firstly to make sure that the club retained its current league status and then from there to start looking up towards play-off positions.

“We had a difficult backdrop and precarious league position when the previous manager departed. We believed that Darren was the right appointment to navigate through things and in the end he has helped comfortably ensure that the club stay away from any relegation concerns, which at one point were lingering.

“We put on record our thanks to Darren and we all wish him the very best for the next steps in his career. He will always be welcome at Pools

Is that you Raj?….again

One thing that is no longer subject to speculation is KP's record as HUFC manager. His win percentage over the 17 games was over 41% and points per game was 51%.

In the last 20 years only Challinor, Danny Wilson and Neale Cooper (in his first spell in charge) have done better.


17 games isn't long but Pools were going down under Askey and KP kept us out of the National League North (for how long?).

Thanks Kev.

Wow, wasn't expecting this.

Don’t know what all the fuss is about. Phillips the man who for the past months has gone on record praising the chairman for all his backing in bringing in numerous players he wanted and virtually all have been flops. The games at home have been mostly hard work to watch and some I have gone away thinking how did we get away with that. Whilst I wouldn’t have sacked him it doesn’t bother me he has gone. He said he had big plans for next season but they all say that and he hoped to use his contacts at Sunderland but we have been doing that for years. The thing that springs to mind is that this was no overnight thought the fact that Sarll was announced within hours of KP leaving. At least we now have a manager with good expierence of this league with plenty of time to bring players in but only time will tell. When can I get my ST.

270 mile round trip for me, to see pools. I managed the Maidenhead and Dorking away games.

Don’t think Raj will lose any sleep. He will go when he feels it. What happens if the new manager is a success and we are doing well? ( big if)

He sounds like a carbon copy of Askey.
Maybe the new players have better Ears.

Think he,s a polar opposite of Askey.

I'm surprised but not shocked- reckon a decision was probably made after the second half of the Gateshead debacle- No real excuses for shipping 6 after half time against local opposition -that average less than Pools away following that night - in a regular league home match.

Good look to KP- probably had other offers to consider and maybe pools offered him a take it or leave it deal.
Plus Sunlun are still Managerless.

Let's not forget it took DC a long time to agree a new contract and that was AFTER he'd had the success of getting us back in the Football League.

We move on- not much point dwelling on it.

Can't say I'm massively excited at the prospect of Sarrl - probably last until Christmas, knowing trigger happy Raj. But good look to him- he'll certainly need it

Raj changes managers more often than his underpants my concern is the message it sends out about the club, Does he really care little wonder he has such a poor reputation in the game.

I think so too. Was a decent record. Its obvious that he wanted mote than Raj was willing to give

To be honest I am disappointed. Phillips did his job in keeping us up. He had to work fast in bringing in loanees etc , some successful some not. I was looking forward to his new signings and approach to how he wanted us to play. The guy has been thrown under the bus. What are laughing stock this club is. Feel sorry for the fans who turn up in numbers and spend loads of money. It’s just a roller coaster club!

Do some background reading on the bloke. I did, a lot, ….and forget Raj, this blokes no dummy, he’ll sack Raj if he needs to.

Just read a statement from Andy Steel.
Shortened version is KP did his contractual job of keeping us up in division 5.
And now we have the manager for new season to take the club forward.
Hopefully.
UTP.

Where did you read that? Cheers.

a lot depends on what the majority of fans and especially quick draw mcgraw in the owners seat think taking the club forward is and the time frame for this to happen. its taken 3 managers already to rid us of hartleys hero,s and its not as if there still isn,t a lot of work to do to get rid of some other underperformers still on our books. recruitment might be better, but we cannot splash the cash like a wrexham club to change things overnight. going to be an interesting time till the first ball is sliced in august and how we,ll react next season with the new blokes plans which could be longer term than some want.

TBH Singh and co did the dirty on Phillips as they had no intention of extending his contract as Sarll was appointed on the day his contract expired. Negotiations must have been going on behind Phillips back for weeks with Sarll more so he comes from down south and would want a relocation package.
Interesting to know if Phillips had a non disclosure package ?

Imo Sarll has been waiting in the wings since January.
I,ve posted why i came to that conclusion in other threads.

Cheers Essex

The thought of Raj and his underpants is now stuck in me head.

should start up a crowd funding page on all managerial sackings who have signed them to find out the truth from them and pay it to raj. get sick of the silence and hearing just one side of all the story.

It would be nice to get all the info, or even just a bit of it. The problem is on the one side we have an employer and on the other an employee.
Can we expect either side to relate the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
I think most people get satisfaction and entertainment from reading the made up stories, rumours and the manipulation of the scraps they do get and then go to town on elaborating them.

I am happier we have this bloke than Phillips but agree he has been led down the garden path

Sacked not walked - statement from Phillips here:
https://x.com/skysportspaulg/status/178 ... OG_piqQObg

Laughable turn of events but entirey in keeping with the way Pools are run. When it all goes tits up next season Raj will do an interview saying he was badly advised (again).

Wonder what happened in those 2 weeks and why Phillips didn’t sign straight away

Maybe the contract had not been made up yet Or maybe it was never going to happen in the first place Only at Pools eh

Our fan rep said earlier today that nothing was decided before the Dorking match. Why was Philips given a contract then? Something doesn’t add up.
Smacks of stringing him along as a reserve incase it went wrong with Sarll.
Is this the way we want our club to run? Our reputation will be in tatters, who would want to come here?

Shit show!

Our reputation went when DC left under a dark cloud After that the ship sailed without a captain or crew, just like the Mary Celeste

He's not my fan rep, but where did he say that? TV, radio or online? It's not on the OS.

It’s made my mind up after 31 years a season ticket holder I’m now finished.Singh the Ding will not get another penny off me.

Just on a WhatsApp group. Screenshot is doing the rounds.
Not an easy position to be in at all (and I would run a mile from the role!) but I would have expected something public by now.

Reading this all over Twitter and facebook. Really poor and worrying for our future.

That’s a bit naive, there’s no honour in sport, it’s a business now …..and Sarll is a better option than Phillips….if you eventually get the right man the fans will fall into long like toy soldiers.

Maybe but Porter and Boyd is not a poolie. Much more likely a loid pretending.

I am not sure about this latest revelation and will keep my powder dry until I know more. I have been told that he was offered a contract but asked for time to consider the contents of it, which is quite normal. What happened after that made the club reconsider is what I am told.
Who knows what happened and my attempt at finding out drew a blank.
I don't question what has been said happened as described but it has been described as not the full story. So I'll wait and see if any more comes out before I jump one way or the other.

Was Rajs hand up his jacksy when he said that or did he just pull a string on his back ?

Has Phillips himself come out and stated he was given a contract ?

Who knows but if his representatives say he was then they must be believed. As a matter of interest I would like a butchers at that list.

He ain,t coming back, And going over and over it means nowt and proves nowt.

Remember when |KP left SShields, Now what was that all about.

twitter and facebook are a small minority in the grand scheme of the fan base - I'll still be going as it's my Saturday fix - twitter's always been full of Raj out brigade - there's a cult following on there.

I take the point it doesn't really matter now but Philip's has the right to respond. It's his reputation after all.

If I was gonna quit because of the likes of what’s going on now I’d have jumped ship in 1970…..nowt’s new under the sun.

You're right of course, that social media isn't the majority of fans and easy to make that mistake. I just think there's this feeling, talking to people in town, seeing attendance slowly drop, people commenting who don't normally get involved in arguing, that the malaise around the club is going to hold us back going forward.

As a side point, on attendances, just looking round the crowd its much more sparse than the official figures suggest. I think this is because season tickets are counted, whether people attend or not but something isn't quite right. The last home game, I've not seen the town end that empty for a long time.

Malaise? Win a couple of games and it disappears like a snowman on a radiator,
Football supporters are mercurial, either deep in depression or as excited as a dog with a lock back in a bone store.