The Poolie Bunker

Turning the most promising season in years in the wilderness into a farce in a matter of weeks, begs the question was Lee collateral damage too..?
I didn’t rate him, but that’s not my point, picking players by catalogue and getting it to work is how I see it and who picked them in the first place…?
I feel a manager should have the major say in who is signed, that doesn’t guarantee anything admittedly, but we can allocate responsibility for performances on the pitch…it seems we have no idea who’s responsible for anything.
Clarity is needed.

I agree, it seems that managers at Pools in recent years are scape-goated for the failings of those above them and the recruitment team. However, I'm sure we can all agree a decent manager would have gotten us into the play offs last season (we were failed by an absolute lack of adventure and focus on clean sheets - manager or club identity?), and a decent manager would be doing far better with this squad.
I just can't think that there'll be a long queue of managers, and especially good or experienced ones lining up to keep the seat warm for a bit and ruin their CVs.

good managers can come in and improve what they have been left with who have been recruited by the same team they will work with. its the inability to fo this for more than a few months which has been the problem. if the club advertises the post in the old way there would at a guess be about 40 serious names plus a few joke ones from fans. just wonder though where the club will be looking this time as the only thing they have not tried is someone from the north or south section of this league.

Lee Clark didn’t have the credentials to deserve to the job itself, or have carte Blanche over everything that went on at the club.

We saw his tactical acumen when every game he just decided to sub strikers like for like, or in yesterday’s case, sub 2 more on so we were playing with 4. He would do stupid stuff like this, then complain about the strikers not being clinical enough, or say how we’re trying to play attacking football because we have a load of strikers. It doesn’t work. He thinks: more strikers, more goals, ignoring the fact you have to have someone passing them the ball, creating chances. We’ve saw the last couple of games what Harris is about. When he has the ball at his feet he can create chances on his own, but he’d also do a lot better if someone was getting the ball to him in the box at his feet in good positions, instead of sailing over his head every time. Clark has been wasting him, it’s been sinful.

The model we have can work, if you actually hire a competent manager, Cattermole and Clark, our two key candidates, don’t have the resume to be considered as such.

I never really thought he wasthe right man either.
The model we have isn’t working….I want a manager to manage and choose who he signs, ans a Cheif Exec who runs the non football side……not some glorified committee.

Clark praised his working relationship with Chris Beech and Chris Maxwell from Bromby & Partners many times during pre-season. If he's nothing else he's a plain-speaking gadgie - if he'd felt that he had players that he didn't want foisted on him I think we'd have heard about it.

More to the point, Clark had been out of English football for years before his 6 week spell at Rotherham at the end of last season. He didn't have the basic knowledge to put a National League squad together on his own. The only 2 players he knew that Pools signed were Hugill (a waste of a big wage already) and Corey McKeown, who was with Blyth as a 17-year-old whe Clark was managing them in the NLN.

Directors of Football are a strange breed and fans don't like them because they're not part of the public face of the club - we never heard from the one Pools had in before Chris Beech! I doubt if anyone can remember his name! But they're a fact of life in modern football - successful teams have them as well as the ones who are failing like Pools.

We could let a manager have control over everything, choose who he signs, and then he gets sacked 3 months later, and then the next manager (or 5 after that) are stuck with them. The biggest example that immediately comes to mind is Hartley and his band of Scottish misfits. This has happened even at the top level. Man united are a perfect example. They’ve had no plan in place or philosophy, so they’ve just bounced from manager to manager, letting them sign players they want then a new one comes in and wants to play a different way and they’ve now got a load of players the manager doesn’t want on multi-year deals. The idea of having this kind of set in practice up is the club has its on philosophy of how they want to play, and sign players/a manager accordingly. Of course, it’s easier said than done.

The point is that both approaches can/can’t work. You can’t just say this model isn’t working when it’s been 3 months and we’ve had someone whose most recent managerial “success” included managing in Sudan. There’s a reason many clubs across the world have moved away from the traditional manager oversees everything model. To be successful though you have to A. Have the right guys in charge of recruitment, B. The right manager.

Bromby and partners have made a mess by not getting some quality midfielders in, but we’ve actually brought in some players who I could see being in a good team as well, such as Ilunga, Harris, McKeown, Merrick. This is in addition to a couple of solid players we already had, like McNally and Kougan. Maybe Bromby aren’t the right guys to oversee things overall, but it doesn’t mean that this model is destined to fail no matter what.

The problem is now the club has laid out its foundations of how the club will be run they either rip up the blue print and start all over again or we are just going to continue going around in circles.
I would never have brought Chris Beech back into the club after they way he treat Hartlepool when he refused to play

Er, no. that's a ridiculous statement. I think we'd mostly agree that - compared with Lee Clark - Featherstone made what he could of the players he inherited from Simon Grayson and played to their strengths - which were basically defensive.

Sure, it was a frustrating watch a lot of the time but he never had the players to change that style of play. The one time he went for all out attack we got beat 4-0 at home by Woking!

Of the squad Feaths had available last season, only Jamie Miley has managed to score a goal in the National League so far this season. Reid is doing so well at Barrow he was an unused sub again yesterday.

We still managed 9th place and 68 points last season - that's the minimum benchmark Pools have to cross this season to say that we're improving.

I'm not saying Fev didn't do OK but imo we should and could have done better, not so much with all our attack but with some attacking intent, we went a number of games with only 2 or 3 shots on target and at the end of the day relegation was never going to be an issue but wins would have made a massive difference.
My statement is hardly ridiculous when you consider the if only moments, was it ridiculous if LS to say were going for the play offs and we'll have fun doing it? Not at the time he said it imo, but certainly when you look at our tactics and style of play in hindsight.
Whatever players do or don't do after they leave Pools is irrelevant, we never played to Reids strengths just as now we're not playing to Harris's strengths, poor management and tactics imo.
I feel we're in a similar scenario now with a capable squad but we've had a less than capable manager.

The other forwards Feaths inherited are all in the league below now - or out of work. But you think we were capable of reaching the play-offs with them? Interesting.

Well LS and even Fev himself said the play offs were attainable - interesting too?
Never mind that's the past, I firmly believe we've got the players right now to make the play offs. Why has he kept Thornton and Penman hidden away whilst constantly picking Sheron who is an embarrassment as a pro footballer, and Gibson who is way past his best and has 2 years or 3 big mistakes in him every appearance?
Thornton looked to be exactly what we need in the middle of the park imo.
All about opinions and those are never wrong.

I would have thought a scaled back but efficient and accountable off the field operation could have freed up cash for the important stuff on the field too.

and thats why i thought just reaching 7th spot this season was some sort of under achievement where 2 places better is not great with the bigger budget. now i think anyone would take that even with so many games left to play.

we still show the weakness of being a recent football league club. we act off the field as if we are right down to overnight stays that many of our opponents do not do with no better record for doing it. many of these clubs who some feel they are beneath us but higher in the league make the best of volunteers from fans to help there budget stretch to where it really mstters.

but did they actually believe what they were saying about promotion as more than likely like all managers and owners they never will say that the seasons over until mathmatically it is. totally correct about the new lads, but we have seen it before where they start well but drop off to become like the rest in time. as long as hugill is not used as a role model in the way he plays now they could have a future.

I think this committee style we’ve got is an expensive way to change what…?
The money saved by reverting to traditional methods at this level could fund more/better players or even a proven manager.
Games are won on the pitch.

I think you have got to assume Bromby will have a contract, I doubt it will be easy to sack them off with out compo, unless they bring a rabbit out of the hat with their next managerial appointment.

It would be like the Geordies bringing back Isak as Director of Football in 15 years time. Even they aren't that thick

Time will indeed tell…but if not?
Contracts are only as good as the service they provide.

Apparently Daryl Clarke knocked the job back because someone in the committee click didn't want him to have Graeme Lee as his assistant.
Just passing the info on.

Smithy needs to learn fast and bin the click committee sharpish if he can afford to.

Otherwise we going nowhere fast..

Horrible thing to say but we have to show a bit more patience.
Maybe 2 to 3 seasons to get an up tick in form.

UTP.

Nah, get a decent manager in who can get a tune out of what is on paper a decent squad and all is not lost. Other fancied teams are not doing so well yet too, Carlisle, Scunny, Forest Green. Nobody should be writing the season off just yet.

I’d expect two seasons Kev…..one to get the team bedded in and then go for it…but it would be very satisfying to do it straight off the bat in the first season…but the way things are being run, the clubs like a supertanker turning, …….. slow to respond.