https://www.hartlepoolunited.co.uk/an-u ... ufc-board/

And no, it's not confirming a takeover

Interesting....less than 2000 season tickets sold is the standout stat

Chairman 'ultimately funding' the club is also an interesting turn of phrase--assume that means increase to what is loaned to us but we wont know until we see this seasons accounts sometime in 2026

Good to hear we havent finished recruitment wise

Judging by the fact that there's been nobody else willing to buy the club it's good that he has agreed to keep funding us. Even more so that the funding is to the level it is. Hopefully we get what we all want this season a return to "proper" football.

Well, in the time since there was somebody who 100% was willing to buy.... there hasn't been anyone else who would bend over for a shafting.... errr I mean accept the price.

Yeah wonder what they spent their £14m on eh?
In the meantime we're not going to the wall anytime soon by the sound of things.

They didn't need 14m, just not being as cack handed as the current regime would have done me. Not a particularly high bar to leap either.

We're heading nowhere. An ever increasing debt generated by an owner who won't sell without it being cleared. This is bad. I don't think someone so wealthy and contrastingly stupid exists that could buy us.

Well the statement says they are trying to get us back to the efl so surely that's trying to go somewhere? I thought the debt had reduced?

So whoever bought the 1000th season ticket was robbed of a photo appearance.

The statement says!!!

Well all we can do is hope that we have a good season and they back up their words.

It’s a fine statement. It’s been released to distract from the accounts and talks about misinformation a lot. If the club communicated more and were actually transparent about most things this ‘misinformation’ wouldn’t exist. Quite frankly we should have one of the biggest budgets in this league. We have a top 5 attendance and still get parachute payments from the EFL.

But they say we have one of the biggest budgets in the league?
We may get the last parachute payment this year, but other clubs are bankrolled by sugar daddies so it's not simply attendances and parachute payments which determine success.
I for one am heartened by the fact they are talking about working hard towards a return to the efl.

other interesting statement is 'one of the larger budgets'...previously its been a 'playoff budget'
So somewhere above 13th biggest budget for club who were top 5 attendances last year + had parachute payments.....not that impressive

True true. I would much prefer to be coming on here and discussing with you and everyone else how great we were collecting our most recent three points.

Absolute hot air that one. Some will buy it though.

Which clubs are bankrolled? York and who else? I appreciate they’re not everything but we get a head start on other clubs by doubling the money they bring in from ticket sales.
I am confident for the season ahead as we seem to have a plan in place for recruitment and think the commercial side has made major improvements over the last 2 seasons so not everything is doom and gloom. But PTID you can’t believe just because it’s said we’re aiming for promotion that we are actually giving it a really really good go? Raj Singh says every year we’re aiming for promotion or the play offs etc. he said this when we had just sacked Paul Hartley, he said this when we had Richard Money as manager etc etc. Until we are shown otherwise you should be able to understand why people are extremely sceptical.

I could write a statement saying I’m opening a business and it will be turning over £3m a year by the end of the first year trading. Doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. We’ve seen this sort of nonsense before from Singh. What he will ultimately do is chuck somebody else under the bus (Sarll) when we don’t return to the EFL. The squad is paper thin and if we get a couple of injuries we will again be struggling to fill the bench with our own players.

I believe everything they say.

"Has engaged with other supporters groups"

Well the trust must be keeping that to themselves, Cause there is nothing on their site to indicate there has been any contact.

We are 14 days from the start of the season, And believe me the squad is NO where near strong enough in depth.

The problem is football is not science or maths where x equals y. Money doesn't guarantee points, great players at certain clubs turn out to be dudds at other clubs, managers the same.
I do believe that the owner wants us to be successful on the pitch otherwise what's the point? Unfortunately some hugely dodgy recruitment has set us back massively. Got to hope they've got the right people this time and they back their words with actions.

I knew it. Lord Billingham shows his true colours

I'm pretty convinced that the club regime reads this forum. So here is a message for those folks. Quit with the BS and lets just get on with it. You're insulting our intelligence and yours.

There was someone on here last week complaining about lack of communication from the board maybe this statement goes some way to appeasing them? Darmned if they say nowt, damned when they say something. Who'd own a football club eh?

Yet we will have one of the biggest budgets no i mean competitive budgets in the league.

The statement does acknowledge that. And technically, you dont actually need that strength in depth until the season has begun.

Previous managers have thought exactly like this, once we get a couple of weeks away, they’ve panicked and just brought in anyone available to make up the numbers. This is what has caused plenty of terrible, and expensive, recruitment decisions over the years, so it’s refreshing to see someone seemingly prioritising quality over quantity this time.

Time will tell if the patience pays off, but taking the same approach to that which has produced consistent failure in the past would pretty much guarantee more failure in the future. A different approach could bring different results.

Yes, but we havent spent all of that budget yet. Sarll said himself he wants at least 4 more. So there must be plenty space remaining.

To be fair John Askey said he wanted 3 more players at around this time last year and got none. Not saying this will happen again but there’s no guarantee

Askey also said that he wanted to play on the front foot and he wanted the players to be the fittest in the league.

We didn’t and they weren’t.

Fact

Also fact.

Must there be???

He hasn’t fed us any BS at all yet, so I think the guy deserves some trust.

We don't know that. Can't know.

He said we’d be much fitter this year, the whole team look fit.

He said he wanted to replace the midfield with players that were more athletic, he brought in Hunter, Sheron and Sloggett.

He said he wanted us to come out with more intensity and press higher up the pitch, we were 5-0 up within 31 mins against Shields with most goals coming from closing them down in their half.

He said that he wanted a more outfield players and a very good keeper, but they need to be of the right standard, he’s had plenty players on trial, some of which have looked pretty competent, most of which would be relatively cheap, but he hasn’t signed any.

I’ve not heard him say anything in an interview yet that has turned out to be BS, so as I say, he deserves a bit of trust and faith in what he’s trying to do.

Till IOR came along, that was tthe script for Pools every season on my life supporting Pools apart from the Gibson era…so much so I’m grateful for just having @ club still because that’s been our entire history.
That doesn’ t mean to say I don’t want better, dream of better or would love better, but my life experiences have conditioned me to have a more patient, wishful and optimistic outlook because there is no alternative.
So you either get releuctantly positive and hopeful and accept an approach to our present situation or you have a tantrum and do diddums demands and look for scapegoats out of habit….and become the sort of people who when the food runs out in the lifeboat are earmarked by the realists as the first to be eaten so the grown ups can get a bit of peace.

That's not evidence

I get it. But it doesn't mean you don't know how things are nor does it mean you have to go along with propagandists. It irks me as you know but I should take a leaf out of your book,

Imp, you’re a sensible lad and please understand that I’ve got to the stage where nothing ruffles me when I realise I haven’t got a dogs chance of changing it.
What I long for is a bit of success now and then, but I’m past expecting success or demanding it, just some form of normality because we’ve not really had any IOR cut us adrift……
I wish I had the snswer

might be but some were moaning about there being no communication between the board and the fans. we cannot have it all ways or hear what we actually want to hear that isn,t hot air.

Exactly my position Snowy. The bottom line is you either support the club or you don't. If you do support it then you take it as it is warts an all and hope that the people owning/running it do a good job but that's as far as it goes. I used to get all knickers twisted over the happenings at Hartlepool United until the day it dawned on me that there is absolutely nothing I can do to change the club's fortunes unless or until I am in a position to do so. I want to see us do well and be able to compete at a reasonable level, just the same as most fans but when that doesn't happen I refuse to beat myself up about it.
I have often said that if I had enough money I would buy the club and scatter the bloody lot of them but I've no doubt it wouldn't be as harsh as that.
Now I'm not sure that I would buy the club because I believe that no matter what I achieved it wouldn't be enough and the grief for me and my family that would occur is something I am not prepared to even contemplate.
I'll support the club, as I have done since I was a boy, and continue to have the same dreams and hopes as most other fans but as I can't do more than that, that will have to do.

never forget the damage hartley did to our club. he didn,t just stagnate in his short time with us he put the club back years and without a suger daddy we,ll be lucky to be close to where we were on the pitch back in challinors day. what really did the board expect from last season after our owner made the biggest mistake he might have made in his life.

problem now is that fans are never happy. if we got back into the efl some would be demanding play offs from the first season and not just being happy being back. those who moaned about finishing 17th in division 2 would now love that to happen after the following season. wonder how many of those living the dream at wrexham and stockport will still be around if the wheels at those clubs come loose never mind falling off. its all about following sucess now rather than following a club man and boy through all the good and bad times.

We cant keep blaming hartley when we keep getting told we have one of the biggest budgets etc. This is certainly still not all Hartleys fault. Infact how many Hartley signings are even at the club now. We had 43 players last season yet Hartley still gets the flak.

Its a one off statement that comes out once a season, raj has done this for the last couokenof seasons, some fall for it, some dont. But every year someone else takes the blame for the mess we have been in.

We are not talking about sarll filling us with bs we are talking about the board or raj whoever comes out with the same stuff every year. Sarll can only do so much.

Which bits of the statement are the bullshit? Youth and Academy? Community Sports Foundation? Commercial and Facilities? All of it?

And "lets just get on with it"? Let us just get on with it?

HUST is an 'us.' The Supporters Association is an 'us.' The Bunker is the individual views of a few score people who post regularly, who can't really agree on anything. My intelligence is insulted by your assumption that you can speak for me.

sorry but i,ll continue to blame him until the club gets close to being the club it was before his arrival. there is always a catalyst for good and bad in life as well as football and he was the one for the bad. i will never blame any of those who came after him as their task was near impossible and most actually improved things slightly and not took us further back.

Time will tell on this one. I hope your 100% correct.
Its a gamble lets see if it works out. Last season it did not!

No body has said they don,t trust him, I think.
But he may well end up with egg on his face, And an awful lot on here saying i told you so.