The Poolie Bunker

We can now concentrate on preparing for next season, Judging on todays scores.

Todays two scores that count, went against us….if anyone believes in miracles they better start praying because it’s gonna require a lot of luck to get into that seventh spot……time to start for next season, because we need to, simple as that….swanning down the river is over, time for the real work to start…not after the final whistle of the season.

Exactly!!!

It’s not the results today that have cost us it’s our own results. The home defeats against Aldershot and Yeovil, the hammering we took off the mighty Woking, not to mention the humiliating cup defeats.

I still think we are only two or three players short of a team capable of winning promotion BUT we need somebody who can pull the side together and nurture a winning mentality. I’m not convinced the current set up is capable of doing that no matter how many old boys we bring back. We need an experienced manager, one with a ruthless streak in him and capable of getting the best out of them…

All teams are responsible for their own incompetence or competence, but supporters do tend to cling to the wreckage of a season till it’s mathematically impossible to succeed and even then get absorbed into what ifs…but it all boils down to not being good enough.

Nobody is doubting our results have cost us, I was stating lets move on and concentrate on next season.
Only fools (club) would state otherwise, saying things like until it is mathematically impossible we carry on.

We are all after the same thing, Success!

NSD

Based on squad quality and depth, I think we are much further away from genuinely competing than some people realise. Carlisle looked good this evening and their squad is so strong. It’s claimed to be a poor division this season but I think the top 6 is good.

Scunthorpe hammered 3-6 at home by Boston. Genuinely no one saw that coming.

The proof of the pudding will be when the mist lifts and we see what happens on the managerial and player recruitment side…..also the actual running of the club off the pitch, everything needs tightening up all round ans a sense of purpose revealed instead of this bumbling along .

After the razzamataz of LSs arrival, introduction, and his spoken ambition to have a go at the play offs and have fun, the reality is that it's still the same shit show. He's either a bull-shitter or he surely must be as disappointed as us, I hope it's the latter and he moves fast rather than us playing catch up looking for a manager in May.

And that is so basic to rectify given we a Massive club under new Ownership.
It's a relatively quick fix in my book.
Bin the out of contract losers and replace with upgrades.

We are only wanting to challenge to get out of division 5.

Surely that's a small ambition.

UTP.

Smithy claims to have excellent commercial skills.
So the big drop off in the crowds for the rest of the season will tell him its time to be ruthless and savvy to start of next season with 4000+

We Gunna get a rough idea during the summer if we on the way back upwards for sure. No guarantee s in this game but enough is enough of this non league struggling to compete.

UTP.

I just can't see much changing on the field next season unless a new manager is involved in deciding who stays or who we sign from the end of this season.

I’d love to see the budget league table too. There’s no way there aren’t a lot of astronomical ones in the current top 6. We are going to need a period of unsustainable growth I would imagine to put a squad together capable to challenge. I don’t see us fishing in the same ponds for players as these now bigger boys in the division. Carlisle owner said it around accepting money will have to be spent to get out of this league then creating the commercial opportunities to be sustainable.

Genuinely interested to see how far LS can take us. He was very coy on big ambitious statements like many others but the level on the managerial and player recruitment side in the summer will be very telling.

You get out of this division with a good budget well spent.

same here. if you did not know there had been a change in ownership there is nothing on the the playing side to tell you. anyway id we did make that 7th spot its only an extra game to play which if the league stays as it is would see us travel to carlisle. would be a bigger shock winning that than boston winning yesterday and scoring 6. seasons over and quicker we concentrate on the next one the better.

He was trying to stay positive by saying making the play offs, we will see how the players react now there is little or no chance of making the play offs. LS will be playing his cards close to his chest weighing up hopefully the best way forward for next season. He is not going to come out about playing and managerial staff going or staying, I am sure he has been making plans already albeit no idea where Liddle fits in.

Don't forget he also said let's have fun trying to make the play offs - where exactly is the fun in our performances since Fev got the job?

seen about half a dozen non pools games live and they are certainly no more fun than pools games even when the result does not matter. is it just how football is going across the leagues.

Can't remember wether it was Tamworth or Brackley (they're all the same dour shite) when both teams were booked off at the end, but we're having fun right?

Jamie, I don’t know about them being ‘positive’ about the play offs, from what I’ve seen, their afterburner was on gentle simmer.

The season was never going to go far after those bad results. This season now is more or less a write off although some players will be trying to get new contracts.
Lets see what happens in the summer.

Our new owner will only get out of his investment what he puts in. I wouldn’t expect him to have much knowledge of the game or the business of running a football club but somehow he needs to create a culture change at the club. This is a common business principle and something he should know about being a successful businessman.

Some of the basic principles of this are having clear goals, getting everyone on board and making clear leadership actions. It will be interesting to see how this goes over the next few years…

Correct. Pools had a massive clearout of players at the end of last season. That said Parkes, Miley, Sheron,Charman and , er, Hunter and Campbell are still regularly getting their game, so not that much has changed!

Grayson's signings looked to be a bit of an upgrade, but at this point only the two centre-backs McNally and Kouogun have really proved themselves. The fans would like a lot more more from Reid, Daly and Benn. Walker, Johnson and Ferguson have been dire. Oliver wasn't fit when signed and has been a permanent sick note for the last 4 months.

Cam John is good when available but is York's player, not ours. Apart from the 2 goalies the other loan signings have been pretty nondescript.

Since Landon Smith came in Pools have signed a new keeper on a permanent deal and Gav Holohan till the end of the season. That and a few more loan players.

Pools still don't have cover in key positions like goalkeeper and full back (unless you want to count the 17-year-old from Hull) and are miles away from making a serious challenge for the play-offs

I think Landon Smith knows that and is keeping his powder dry and his money in the bank till the close season.

He shouldn't have mentioned chasing the play offs, having fun doing it, and NF shouldn't have been talking for the last several weeks about bringing better players in soon then. I'd appreciate honesty more than blatant bullshit.

Has it occurred to you that the new owner's intentions might be above Feathersone's pay grade?

Bet the Executive Director (Webster) and the Head of Football Operations (Joe Monks) know what the crack is. Isn't that how most football clubs are run these days?

Well someone's obviously given NF the impression that better players coming in was imminent. And it was LS himself who said let's go for the play offs and have fun doing so. That's why the excitement and hope that was raised after the take over is fizzling out like a damp squib.

Not seen that many high profile permanent moves in the division in the recent weeks either. So it’s been more about clubs topping up what they have ahead of the run-in. Unless I’m mistaken there.

Pools business doesn’t scream we’re going to go and challenge at all. Even the Sinclair one feels like a decent signing where Sinclair himself is likely playing for a deal with us at the end. In the summer just gone, I genuinely don’t think we were in the same player pools as the current top 6. That’s my opinion. I think Reid will have had options but be surprised if they were from the Yorks, FGR and Carlisles type.

In the close season would be good to go and make genuine marquee signings, unlike anything we’ve done in recent seasons in the National League. A Linney type for example.

And to the same point, I wouldn’t see much of a future for our current crop less Miley, Kougun, McNally, Benn, and at a push Reid. Which makes the retained list the first step for Landon and co to show their minerals and intention.

owners and managers need to be ultra careful what they say. being too positive gives the fans a stick to beat them with when it does not happen. i,ll bet over half the clubs promised this and said similar about better players improving the squad and having a go at the play odds from day 1. fans only believe this when it looks to have happened and then are wary in the future of anything that comes out of the club.

I have been saying as much. The euphoria of the takeover and the fans response to the request to "pack the park" showed the new owner what the fans are about and that should have been recognised and capitalized on. Instead all we are getting is Nicky's snippets. I recognise the fact that the owner lives thousands of miles away but the communication network is only a press of a button away. He said he believes in communicating with the fans, he said he believed we could have a genuine crack at the play offs and he said he wanted us to have fun along the way. All positive statements but communication has dried up, the play off prospect is receding rapidly and the fun at the Aldershot game, a game in which I completed a 200 mile round trip to join in the fun, was as much fun as watching paint dry. I have hope, of course I have, also patience but I am looking for re-assurance that the ticking along syndrome is receding behind us.
Also there are others in the hierarchy of the club who are still conspicuous by their lack of communication skills who are still under a veil of silence or is it the case that they are also sceptical or have been told to keep quiet. I am not asking for LS to show his hand, just don't keep us in the dark. We've had our fill of that treatment.

Well Smithy now knows what we all know.
The play off takeover dream is well n truly over.
He's now seen how shit the team n manager is.

Only he can rectify this problem.

It's a quick fix or a none fix from May.
No in between from me like.

UTP.

Looks like the fans who got a new year's half ST have been well n truly mugged.

I think the minute it becomes mathematically impossible for us to make the play-offs, hopefully a press release and further detail will surface so we can make a quicker start than normal for the following season.

For now, Vadaine Oliver has announced his return on socials, referencing a big push for a play off spot as well!

See Robbie Stelling is still reading The Bunker:

https://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/sport/ ... on-5599369

"While supporters are of course desperate to see Pools mount a late surge into the top seven this term, it's hard to avoid the sense that behind the scenes there is likely to be at least one eye on planning for the summer and the 2026/27 campaign."

Any more incomings are odds on to be loan signings. Pharrel Brown's loan deal was only extended till last Saturday. He's had 3 months with us and not shown all that much, so an opportunity for someone else?

"True, Pools have made a number of shrew signings..."

No wonder we have not been scoring many goals then!!!

Robbie 'Shrew" Stelling!!!

Apparently we’re using a new data led approach to recruitment.

Anyway Featherstone is quoted in the Mail as having never even seen our new young lad play from Hull. He’s just a recommendation from a couple of Feaths mates.

Apparently a coup. Based on the recommendations of the Hull staff. Hmmmmmmm

Hardly a coup if all he's going to do is warm the bench. I can't see Fev playing a 17 year old kid when he hasn't used any of our own younger players.

It's standard practice for ex-footballers who become lower league managers to use their contacts in the game to make loan signings. Hull are a Championship side in the play-offs, why wouldn't Feaths tap them up for players?
It was never an option for the likes of Limbrick and Sarll, who never played in the Football League, nor for Lennie Lawrence - all his contacts are dead or in care homes

PTID's point about Feaths never giving our own young pros like Foreman, Darcy, Aungiers, Stephenson and Donaldson a sniff of the first team is harder to answer.

It's all well and good wanting them to get 'experience of mens football' at the likes of Hebburn and Dunston. Six months in, are NONE of them worth a shot on the Pools bench instead of deadbeats like Johnson and Ferguson?

the hull lad despite his age could be a new rias cleary. more likely just another deadbeat kid who lik i have said numerous time will be no better than our kids who at least have there heart at the club. does make you wonder why pools and others bother with a youth system if none are coming through.

spot on. if raj had not been such a poor divisive owner i think more fans would be unhappy now. problem is words are cheap and its actions we need. what LS has said so far is bullshit if you can compare it to what we have seen on offer. even the signings who have only replaced the ones who have left are of a similar standard to the ones we have always signed. just waiting to start thinking how the gell have we signed him and will he be too good for pools. at the moment something says to me that aint going to happen.

Yes, nagging doubts are beginning to fester and I dearly hope that this new era is a happy and successful one and that LS turns out to be the owner we have all been praying for. It won't be long before season ticket sales are being touted by the club. Those who have recently returned have to be retained and positive vibes are needed to achieve that. I was tempted to get a half season ticket amidst the euphoria period but something made me hesitate and I think I made the right decision by not diving in. I'm now in wait and see mode.

always use the wait and see approach whether its new players or new owners. was just glad singh went and never went ott at the outset. the best question to ask ourselves is why anyone would want to buy us without making a real fist of the job. owning a football club thousands of miles away that very few if anybody has heard of there is hardly going to be a big talking point with his mates. thats the only real positive i can think about at the moment.