The Poolie Bunker

Despite rumours I believe Danny is still with the club and long may he last. He is one of the first physios to give accurate updates on injured players. He is popular with both our fans and supporters of other clubs and laps up the good natured banter. A true Poolie great.

Good.

I agree.

So do I.

He is still listed on the OS but so is Featherstone as Head Coach, they must have sacked the PR fella ?

As do I. Hope he’s being retained

I googled is Danny O'Connor still at Hartlepool United and answer came back as yes.

Hope he is staying- a top bloke and seemingly well liked by both players and fans alike.

I managed to have a decent chat with him in the bar after our embarrassing cup exit at Brackley- the night Uncle Darren was sacked, season before last. His candour and humility was the only highlight that evening!

Pools advertising on X for a Head of Media and Communications, we might get Mark Simpson back, same page advert for a Head of Performance and Sport Science, what do they actually bring to the game ?

less money to spend on players. the word head makes me wonder of there are not more of these characters taking a wage out of the club. surely if you are the only one you cannot be a head of anything.

Bromby will be advising LS what Pools need in running a modern day football club, jobs for the boys.

true along with fancy titles for jobs and fans blinded by business speak from the club. Does this remind you of something else that once happened. running a local council.

LS as he is based in The States has to take everyone on trust, Bromby are in the game to make money, I hope LS isn’t naive to be taken in by a organisation who call themselves consultants but are basically agents,

Running a professional football club with a turnover in the £ millions IS a business. Landon Smith is a businessman and he's entitled to structure the club as he sees fit.

You can be sure Tailwind in Minnesota have a Head of Marketing and Communications too; it's not rocket science it's standard business practice.

LS is experienced at running a commercial business, a football club is totally different ball game more so if you are 1000s of miles away relying on a company to do it for you. How many clubs in the NL have a Head of Marketing and Communications and what do they bring to a club apart from taking a salary.

At times the penny does not drop, But keep trying you will get through to them one day.

Bromby will be advising LS what Pools need in running a modern day football club, jobs for the boys.[/quote]
true along with fancy titles for jobs and fans blinded by business speak from the club. Does this remind you of something else that once happened. running a local council.[/quote]


Running a professional football club with a turnover in the £ millions IS a business. Landon Smith is a businessman and he's entitled to structure the club as he sees fit.

You can be sure Tailwind in Minnesota have a Head of Marketing and Communications too; it's not rocket science it's standard business practice.[/quote]


LS is experienced at running a commercial business, a football club is totally different ball game more so if you are 1000s of miles away relying on a company to do it for you. How many clubs in the NL have a Head of Marketing and Communications and what do they bring to a club apart from taking a salary.[/quote]



"a football club is totally different ball game”

Your right!

But he does not seem phazed does he.

NSD LS

Well we could have just left everything the way it was, that was working well wasn't it?

Bromby will be advising LS what Pools need in running a modern day football club, jobs for the boys.[/quote]
true along with fancy titles for jobs and fans blinded by business speak from the club. Does this remind you of something else that once happened. running a local council.[/quote]


Running a professional football club with a turnover in the £ millions IS a business. Landon Smith is a businessman and he's entitled to structure the club as he sees fit.

You can be sure Tailwind in Minnesota have a Head of Marketing and Communications too; it's not rocket science it's standard business practice.[/quote]


At times the penny does not drop, But keep trying you will get through to them one day.[/quote]


We are talking about a football club with a few 1000 supporters not a company, can you describe what the function of a full time Head of Marketing and Communications would do in a National League club and their expected salary ?

We were just going round in failure circles under Sing.
The Personnel changed but the results didn't apart from the minor miracle created by DC.
And that got undone superfast.

Just glad for the change in Ownership which has renewed optimism.

No guarantees but I reckon Smithy will be better than Sing/Coxhall.

Together we are One.

None of this division shit arselicking little clicks creating Superfan shit.

We all the same expecting the same thing.
EFL Return and stability.

UTP.
Lee Clarks blue n white Army.

What will the Head of Marketing and Communications do?
I'd imagine they'd be in charge of advertising the business and keeping everyone informed about events and opportunities. Clearly LS wants the business to be more than a football team, hence the Monkey Business strategy as an example. Marketing the Vic to bring in more sponsorship and other non-matchday revenues is clearly an important part of that. And surely we all agree that the Communications from the club over the last 4 or 5 years has been dire, the official website is never updated FFS!!! It's been an absolute embarrassment.
As for the salary for such a position, it's none of our business. It's up to LS and his designates to establish the club structure and if they're getting value for money from all of their employees and contractors.
Seems to me that we're setting up to be a far better community hub than we've ever been with the local business partnerships, and with the introduction of the U21 squad as a stepping stone from the academy, a far more professional and sustainable football club.
Just need to start signing some quality players and extend the Early Bird ST date.

you could not exactly lower the bar any further not to be an improvement on coxall and singh. same with clarke and his ideas of how the game should be played. just hope everyone new at the club does not throw away this chance they have by being obviously better than the ones they replaced. any goodwill still about will be gone in 12 months if we see no improvements.

Used to be called a Press Officer, add a fancy title and the salary increases like when Town Clerks were elevated to Chief Executives. What advertising, Pools will advertise themselves depending on the standard of football they are playing and their position in the league. Duties, 3/4 interviews a week more if Pools have a midweek game Pools and keeping the OS up to date.
It’s a non job being paid for by the fans hard earned cash and surely no requirement to be a full time position.

But it's clearly not just the football that needs to be advertised and marketed, as I mentioned Hartlepool United are a football club but there's lots of opportunities for raising non football related events. These won't advertise themselves will they?
I'd imagine LS and his advisors are better placed than any of us to assess wether it adds value to the business or is indeed a non job. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt in that they probably know better than us about what's needed behind the scenes.

Oh Dear

Non football events, are Pools going to have concerts at The Vic ?

Oh dear ??

Would not be the first time.

Just got to bow to Jamie's infinite knowledge on how to run a successful football club in 2026 eh?
Any club that tries to survive on the basis of revenue from 23 home matches a season is going to struggle. Bringing in as much extra revenue as possible by means of functions, match day experiences, conferences, and yes even concerts needs exploring. Doesn't just bring the revenue in but also builds better links between the club, business, and the community.
Communications have been dire with the official site not even having the current squad available, let alone team news on match days, etc so that needs to be better.
Promotions for match day tickets, lotteries, and merchandise all need to be better and current.
All of these need somebody's attention and competence doesn't come cheap.
People called Raj out for running the club on the cheap and amateurishly, now LS gets called out for trying to bring some professionalism to the club.

You sound like you would be the ideal candidate for the job PTID with your suggestions although I doubt any major corporation would be holding a conferences at Pools, to start with you need a conference hall. As far as match day experiences is concerned who is going to want to come from outside the town to watch a National League game and be impressed by the surroundings. I have had the match day experience a few times, the food was ok but basically sat in portakabins from the old ground of West.
Communications have been dire over the years, it’s been like the secret society, the OS has never been upto date, did Singh insist everything had to be run by him before being put up on the OS ?

It's called change Jamie and it's been a long time coming. Or should we just keep on with the mediocrity or worse?

I’ve wondered before if The Vic could be used as a wedding venue during the off season. I reckon they’d get a few people wanting to get married on the pitch and then meal and drinks in one of the bars/function rooms. My wife wouldn’t have agreed to it like but some would. Could bring a few grand in rather than being sat empty on a Saturday.

This Danny O’Connor thread has gone a bit off topic.

Very surprised Flying Hogan not mention that like he did on another topic ?

I am all for change but for Pools ground to incorporate what you mention means demolishing it and building a conference centre etc, Will LS invest money in a ground which is lease hold, the sale of Pools didn’t include the Vic did it ?

No it isn’t, because standard product marketing is a universal concept regardless of content or product.
You say it’s a drawback because he’s thousands of miles of miles away and can’t totally comprehend what’s going on, but you’re thousands of miles away and believe you can… doh.

You’ve just shot yourself in both feet.

Are you for real?
The bars could be used for non match day functions. I believe that some companies already use them for "away days" or training days already. So why would the whole place need to be demolished? It's all about about scale, so no we wouldn't cater for large businesses but we could easily manage many of the towns present small and medium businesses.
I'm sure there's loads and loads of non match day opportunities to raise revenue and improve the connections between the community, businesses, and the club so why not explore them?
You've said yourself that the official website and Comms are a joke, so who's going to sort it if nobody's employed to do it?
To me it seems as though off the pitch, LS has made huge strides with the Monkey Business initiative, and kicking off the Final Mile, and the fan survey, so instead of knocking his vision and recruitment policy why not just wait and see what the outcome is?

You ask how many NL clubs have these positions so out of interest I've just googled marketing and media positions at 3 random NL clubs (Boston, Carlisle,and Gateshead) and they've all got dedicated positions for marketing and media although with subtle title differences. So it seems that were actually lagging behind those clubs in this respect doesn't it?
Didn't Raj do away with the media position full time a few seasons back and try to get it covered by volunteers?

think thats a great idea and danny could do the job id we got a squad who were injury free. the marriage industry is very lucrative. anythuing is worth a go. some will work and some will not. business luncheons, a day for pensioners with bingo and quizzes and something for the kids after school. some might not bring in much money but can in the long run as its good publicity for the club and shows they are trying and not just talking.

A Porters Porter said this article about Danny O'Connor has gone a bit off subject, Yes it has and is happening a lot recently. So lets stick to the original topic as they say slowly slowiy catches the monkey.

Have we managed to establish whether or not Danny is still employed by Pools?

His Linkedin profile says he's still Head Physio at Pools.