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.[/quote]

If i owned the club the statement would be simple.

We have x amount for a playing budget(No figures).
It may be better than some and definitely less than others.

We will under No circumstances put the future of the club jeopardy.
Our aim is to make the as viable as possible.
Without your support we cannot achieve this aim.

Obviously i,ve kept this simple, Like me

Sorry mate. I reject your narrow definition of 'support'. You can doff your cap and quietly hand over your money if you want (probably better for ones health) but outside the ground, in the pubs, on the forums, there's nowt wrong with discussing the shit show underpinning it all. We criticise poor team and individual performances on here. No different.

support of the players in a game does not mean you have to support the club off the pitch. know they are indirectly connected but not totally.

Read some of it and got bored… what a load of twaddle. Lot of words to say very little. Fundamentally the club is rotten with Raj and his mates in charge. A new ‘board’ shouldn’t con anyone… although it seems it has reading stuff online.

Not really correct that…We criticise managers and players, but…we also praise them.
The owner is constantly under siege……
In fact it’s apparent with some folk on here a poor performance sets some people ablaze with anger, yet a good performance gets a single one liner begrudging acknowledgement….if you’re lucky.
The tedious criticism of the club is in itself tedious, constructive criticism is thin on the ground, but that requires an open and receptive mind.

You tried to read it
Don’t waste your time, not because of what it says, because what it says will be more or less what every club’s fans get served up to them.

I'm lost now. So criticism of the club hierarchy is off limits or it means you are not a supporter.... or you just find it boring (but still read it all and comment any way)?

only one thing to keep fans off the back of the board and owners and never mention them is success on the pitch. the reason every single fan craves for and the reason they turn up. not to give em ammunition to have another pop at them the week after. younger fans i doubt will get the fact at their age 60 and 70 years ago we did not know a single persons name who was on the board unless you knew em as a person.

Perhaps except not all of them are rotten.

possibly means we should also praise and grumble in the same way we do about players and not just gripe. agree its boring but no more so than anything accounts related which although important just leaves me cold.

Don,t mention Twaddle, He,ll be back typing again.

As Roy Keane once said "People who are bored are boring"

If these budgets are as good as they are made out to be then we should still be holding our own in the Efl.
Not struggling to compete with tin pot clubs and had 2 disaster seasons in a row.
Oh I forgot the Hartley / Injurys BS will always cover failure.

Wonder how long into the season before the unlucky usual injury alibis kick in.
Just rememberd it's a no excuse season.
We Goin up then.
UTP.

Well I'm going to give my opinion and my opinion is that you do not support the club in any way shape or form. All fans whinge and criticise including me but not to the levels you have taken it to. I firmly believe you don't support the club on the gate or buy merchandise, I believe you don't attend attend matches to get behind the team and take every opportunity to put the club down, as demonstrated by the number of posts you've generated on this thread alone.
As for discussing things. You don't discuss anything. You have a biased, bigoted and one tracked line on everything thing to do with the club and by taking this heinous stance against the club you demonstrate beyond any shadow of a doubt that you are not a supporter of the club, never have been and never will be.
That's my opinion.
That opinion will not change until I can see evidence of the slightest hint that you have ANY love for Hartlepool United at all.
Am I angry....NO. Am I happy......No.
Am I disgusted with your non stop fervour in which you take every opportunity to denigrate the club I support.....Yes.
Call yourself a supporter........my arse.

Cool story bro

No we spent it on transfer fees all 10k of it and huge wages on Hastie, who is probobly on bout 200 quid a week in jock land now. Sold another player today and looks like another one is potentially out for a bit so having a small squad looks a great idea.

I doubt the player out will have any impact on the pitch, bigging up a bit player who hardly featured is drama Queen stuff.

Ya not looking at the big picture
Our top Academy players are Gunna tear this division a new one.
The class ov 25 will be the envy ov our rivals.
UTP.

Sarll says he still wants players in and at the end of the day it's his job that's on the line.
If the season starts and we're picking up lots of injuries we've got to hope he has a plan to bring in reinforcements.
Let's see where we are after half a dozen games or so.

No chance of getting twelve games….complaints have already started coming in for the start of next season before this season has even kicked off.
We now have a early bird season ticket offer and very early bird zero Gtumpy offer.

Yeah makes you wonder if some would be happier if their predictions come true or they were way out and we actually have a good season.

Well it hasn't worked for the last 2 seasons.
Probably used more players after the season started and it hasn't worked.
Must be a summer rule budget where minimum expenditure has to be adhered to.
Then the rest of the budget will follow from the pay on the day fans which to be fair has been exceptionally good.

Could be different this season with the cost of living certain to get more out of hand with this upcoming Autumn Budget.

Already a 1000 fans down on St sales.
We need a shit load of luck to hit the ground running n stay there. Which is a big ask given the paper thin squad.
The prayer mats out.
UTP.

Every club needs a slice of luck maybe we're due some.
Not sure about being 1000 st down, we've sold just under 2000 and we'd sold 2000 at the end of June last season so definitely down but let's face it the early bird offer was less generous this time around and cost of living has probably impacted too.

Sold something like 2800 last season, i cant see many purchasing now even if its just a slight increase. So whatever happens season tickets have taken a massive hit.

As for luck we all know pools luck ranges from very little to no luck at all, so its not taken a genius to work out that a squad that looks like its going to be buffed out with academy kids is already taken a hit on the injury front. .

Sarl said he wanted his squad done early, now he has miraculously soon changed that from early to take our time and get the right players in, which is great if you can, though its probobly more to do with waiting for a bit more season ticket money to cone in and more players released.

We have been playing a keeper he has told everyone he is not even interested in signing, whats all that about? I presume we have had very little intention in bringing our own keeper in but have a loan thats been in mind fkr a long time now.

after the last two seasons it would have been hard to imagine season ticket sales going anywhere but down. they are not at a give away price and fans know they can save their money and turn up on a match to match basis if the team is doing well as the vic isn,t going to sell out no matter how good a season we might have. its still non league football with mouthwatering clashes with braintree and tamworth.

Sarll said he wanted the business done early so what, we don't always get what we want do we? If he's now saying he's prepared to wait to get the right players then surely that's a good thing. There was plenty on here talking about panic signings but there's been no sign of that so far.
Don't know why he's playing the keeper if he's not interested, maybe doing him a favour by putting him in the shop window? Would prefer that he gave our younger keeper a bit of game time personally. Think your right about a loan keeper coming in though, reckon we'll get a season long loan from a Championship club in the next week or so

Strangely I'm with you here but no Grey, no Mancini and Slog going off yesterday is worrying. Could be nowt of course.

If Sarll has budget left over, then maybe playing hard ball with potential signings is the way forwards. Someone said we get a bit desperate so I'm all for trying something new just as they said.

Of course, there is the potential scenario (not far fetched when you look at our history) that Sarll has blown a big part of the budget and just won't tell us. Or he has gambled on more expensive players in lower numbers. Or the budget has been reduced. In any case I think we'll start the season well. I can't wait for Saturdays to mean Pools days again.

He knows Adam Smith very well and think hes just helping him out.
Or maybe hoping he decides to stay with us if no other club offers him terms
Or we can persuade him.

yes but we hear it year in and year out dont we?

We are a week or so away from the 'We wont be held to ransom' headlines---once again 2 weeks before the season starts and we are way way off it in terms of building a squad big enough to be anywhere near the playoffs---the fact the kids are playing so much tells us that.
Plus the fact players need several weeks to get fit enough to play Sarlls style according to him, all sounds like we are going into the start of the season under prepared again- suggesting we arent paying what is needed to get the players in .

Yes.
And as for the fitness levels.
After a long Summer to get fit. It's normal practice for all professionals to return in tip top condition. We not a part time pub team are we!?

Only 12 day's to a shock win at Yeovil.
UTP.

It's also normal practice to try fringe players in pre season friendlies, and rest players with minor knocks rather than risk them in meaningless games. I'm sure some of the minor knocks and strains would not be keeping players out of league games.
Hopefully we get some more players in this week but I'm sure Sarll will be thinking he has enough to get through at least a couple of games with what he's got at the moment if he needs to.
We all know Raj doesn't give serial losing managers long and it's his job on the line.

The longer we wait to strengthen the squad the cheaper the value of them comes down though.

Would any person doing the same job for lesser wages put the same effort in.

I think we all know the answer to that when ya bring rejects in after the season starts.
Mite get 1 or 2 if ya very lucky.

Anyhow looks like the fans are to blame for a rare case of loyalty fading.

Football n Life is a gamble.
Try to stay healthy.

Would not shock me.

Rejects is a bit strong, Mr Kevin.

The last 2 seasons is evidence unless you just blanked that.
Anyhow looks like we gunnar focus on our well nurtured Academy players finally coming into their prime.
If ya good enuf.
Ya Old Enuf.
UTP.

The last 2 seasons performances are evidence of the past not necessarily a foreseer of the future.

Sarll wanted to sign 9 players but he has 5 so far. He will have absolutely wanted them in by this point, so that is a concern.

He is clearly pleased with the 5 signings, with 4 of them proven at this level or higher plus Sloggett who Sarll had said he was doing cartwheels when he secured the midfielders signature. That's reassuring, that the 5 he has secured are players that he's pleased with.

We can start the campaign with this squad and win matches, but it's light by 4 proven NL standard players.

Fortunately, the place where we do have an abudence of options is the attacking 3rd. Granted we rely on Mani D as the number 9,but the other two slots will go to Campbell, Charman, Grey or Mancini. Now we haven't saw enough of Charman but the other 3 are all quality players - so we can cope with a injury or two there.

We aren't desperate at this stage, however the next signings are critical as to whether we will be challenging at the top of the table or not.

Sarll wants a team who can keep up a high press for 90 minutes. That sounds like a very tall order to me, unless super-fit players never tire or pick up knocks? I reckon he'll use the players on the bench to the maximum (5 out of 7 subs can come on) in most games.

Wouldn't be surprised to see the young lads Stephenson, Darcy, Storey and Aungiers regularly picked as subs and getting time on the pitch. Regardless of that, Pools will definitely need a bigger squad than they've got at the minute.

Whats the last 2 seasons got to do with now.

His figure of 9 probably will be about right by time 10th August comes about if we give Davies and this Henry kid a contract - hes already stated he wont do loan signings like we have seen from past management. It literally will come down to someone being out - we loan a lad to cover that position. Dreadful really for me as the lads knows hes just here to plug a gap for a few weeks (even as a young player or a player coming back to gather fitness, its nice to be thought of as an integral in the team and show off your skillset for either parent or future club to consider. Dont think DS will use loans like that though).

True enough, not seeing any significanct change in that pattern yet though.

If you had seen them play last Saturday you would have seen a significant change in the way they play. Obvious improvement on last season, especially in midfield.

I'm not sure the level of opponents give this result any real significance but I'm glad the signs are promising. However I tend to agree with the majority and to reserve judgement for when the real action starts. I accept that although it seems to be groundhog season, signings are not really a success ot failure until we are in the thick of it.

Analysis want went wrong drastically then rectify it.
Simples .
Everyone knows we going into a supposedly promotion challenge without enuf tools to complete the job.

Big difference between Scarborough n Yeovil than Sland infants.
Proper assessment about October.
Hopefully we not playing catch up with false hope and a load of Fondops.
UTP.

one thing about watching the highlights that has changed is the number of players we get in the box when attacking. once we were lucky to get two up there and a cross had to me a perfect one. now we have a bit more of a margin for error.

Sarly said we need to reduce the amount of goals this season.
Maybe non stop pressing is the best form ov Defence.
We Gunna find out.
Looks like all 5 subs Gunna have to be used.

Massive Megga Gamble Goin into the season with these very low numbers to keep pay roll to the bare minimum.
Never known Promotion achieved with this method before.
Hope
Hope
Hope
Hope so!

UTP.

I bumped into D.S. the other day and we had a chat. He is nobody's mug but infact a very good manager in my humble opinion. He talks a good game and only time will tell But he comes across as totally genuine and reminded me of N.C. from a night out many years ago. A proper nice down to earth bloke who is desperate to bring promotion this season. I believe in this bloke particularly after meeting him and he is definitely from the same mould as Sir Cyril / Super Cooper and Cloughie. Before any of you attack my opinion please feel free to at least chat to the man first He is incredibly approachable try it .

Trust went sharpish with any amounts of BS.

Never go back, the same gun can be turned around.