The Poolie Bunker

Budget Banter

Just read that Scunthorpe have been operating on a players pay cap for last season and this season.
The figures for 2025 which includes last seasons Promotion from tier 6 and part of this seasons comfortable qualification off the play offs is.

25 players
£928'700 a year
£17860 a. Week
Only 2 players above 1k a week including Cal Roberts on £1400 a week.

Thats seems like they got a decent Manager and an excellent team spirit.

I heard again yesterday that the new Pools Manager will have a budget of £2 Million.

If correct then we should have no problems should we eh!!!!

I don't think that we will ever be told what figure the owner will attach to any part of the club, so I take these insider rumours with a shrug and the thought maybe or maybe not. It will be very acceptable to have such budgets but even if the figure is spot on it has to be spent wisely and carefully.
The club have to convince the fans to go for ST purchase so all these "briefings" will be part of the effort to achieve that but the reality is, other than changing the manager, there is a long way to go and this coming close season period and the decisions made within it will be pivotal to the level of response from the fans.
Here's hoping.

New Ownership 1st pre season needs to be bang on.
No guarantees from Bromby.

Something special required to get the fanbase anywhere near 4000 then sustain that figure.

UTP.

In theory…no…..we shouldn’t….but it depends on how you spend it.

think some decent signings along with the best from this season could easily do that with a good home record on top. most only watch home games with the odd away fixture so having a good home record and an average to poor away one would not affect gates at the vic. if a change of ownership can put nearly 2,000 on the gate i,m sure a good pools side would.

Update.

Raj is slightly ahead. .

I bet he's laffing his bollocks off now.

Well pools have been parking the bus for the whole season . How about the caravan !!

Smithys latest Mail Interview.

Still saying its Our long term Aim to get back to the EFL.

My long term is 2 seasons maximus.
Hope his isent longer.

Go on we must have a Superfan be happy with 10 years.

if we are still at this level in 10 years time our next move will be downwards to become another nelson, workington or bradford park avenue on a piece of grass given to us by the council. the vic would be history by then.

We have made progress each season since relegation, albeit in baby steps. We could and should have finished in seventh place this season therefore to maintain the progress sequence we must by default at least qualify for the 2026/27 season playoffs. Anything less can and will be regarded as regression.

On the pitch and results more or less the same so far.

Off the pitch Smithys verbal is way ahead of Sing.

We coming towards a crossroads regarding the improved attendances.

A very important Autumn for sure.

UTP.

same number of points after 6 games but two extra defeats this season. same goals scored but more conceeded this season. know there was grumbles around last season but unlike this it was aimed mainly at our owner.

Difference is, most fans had had enough of the same old stuff.
Now we have the manager who so far has failed to impress.

unless the results and the games improve he will get a much harder ride than others got as raj got the stick before they did and he was to blame for a bad result because of the budget.

One thing that hasn't changed between Raj and Landon Smith is the unbelievable amount of blinking injuries we get at Pools. We've been missing several key players from the seasons start to the seasons finish for years. And it's always the solid defenders or the creative attacking players or the young but very good loanee goal keepers. Year after flipping year.

There will be a certain amount of leniency in these division 5 medicals.
Especially at Pools.


Mancini etc etc etc etc etc.

Landon is still in the learning curve.

Patience eh.
Maybe to early for a play off push.

Get a rough idea on Wednesday night at 10pm.

UTP.

there is a way to avoid getting injured playing for pools. just be absolute crap till nobody misses you and you,ll be fine.

[quote="fckpoolie"]One thing that hasn't changed between Raj and Landon Smith is the unbelievable amount of blinking injuries we get at Pools. We've been missing several key players from the seasons start to the seasons finish for years. And it's always the solid defenders or the creative attacking players or the young but very good loanee goal keepers. Year after flipping year.

???
It's f..f..frustrating year after year, certainly, but I can't see where it fits into "Raj versus Landon." Are we the only club that suffers frustrating injuries? Where do/did they come into this directly?

Expecting a Smithy statement later this month.

There's plenty of points to play for.
Back the new Manager by packing the park.
Great value at 28 dollars.

UTP

Don't rule out the 30th.

The timescale gages if he's Loseing interest or skint or both.

can easily see him losing interest even this early. plenty of fans who have been around much longer who have spent a bigger percentage of there money on pools are also losing interest at a fast speed.

If he don't make a statement this week then it's fair to say he's had enough.

A Pivitol week in our long term future.

What does yas reckon!

And there is a queue at the door waiting to buy Pools, how long did it take Singh to sell Pools ?
It appears he as an individual bought Pools with no one else involved, he put his trust in Bromby a company only formed in January to look after the affairs of Pools. TBH as he is based and still running a company in The States he couldn’t afford to run Pools on a full time basis so appointed Bromby. He required some one in a hurry to look after his interests at Pools, Bromby must have appeared to be a good fit for him, on paper a failure up until now and nothing coming from Smith as yet.
Compare IOR to Smith, Hodcroft was running a company in Aberdeen albeit a bit closer to Hartlepool, all he relied on was Russ Green, why did Pools require a consultancy company. Even in modern times mention the council is bringing in a consultancy company and you know nothing ever happens apart from taking money from the coffers.

He's doing pretty much what most of the foreign owners of football clubs are doing, taking a hands off approach, it doesn't mean he's lost interest or run out of money.
Unfortunately, to date, his advisors on footballing matters, like Rajs are letting him down.

It's almost 48hours since Clarkys Resignation.

Smithy needs to break this silence.
Sing wudent of lost his voice for sure.

And the players will need time to adapt to a new system on the pitch.
Saturday and next Tuesday will soon come around.

For me we don’t have time to give it time.

Caretaker gaffer needs sorting ASAP.

UTP.

He needs to get this side of the pond.
Sort this shit show out and let his USA business advisors look after his successful business in the U

SA.
Maybe get Stello to help him out.

Well let’s hope he gets the next one right then after saying this about Clarks appointment.
Jeff Stelling gave his full backing and "seal of approval" to Lee Clark’s appointment as the head coach of Hartlepool United.As Hartlepool's most famous supporter and former honorary president, Stelling publicly championed the decision when Clark was brought in to lead the National League side.

I’d also like Landon or even Bromby to make a statement or even have a fan event to address the concerns of many fans but saying he’s sick or going to sell because he hasn’t spoke in 2 months is laughable, he said it was a long term project. He’s gave no reason to think he’s gonna sack us off after a few months of bad results, Raj wouldn’t have sold to anyone, Landon clearly paid a fair chunk.

Finally
Adam Clayton

Liddle and Clayton to co-manage for now, just got to hope they can get a tune out of the players. The worry is do they have to follow Clark's blueprint and football identity?

Come on Jamie- Jeff was always going to publicly back whoever was appointed as Pools manager in the Summer. At NO point was Jeff ever going to come out and openly say that 'He wouldn't touch Clark with a fucking bargepole!' even if that was what he thought privately.
Clark wasn't on anybody's wishlist or radar for that matter- but once he'd been appointed, you have to get behind the decision and give the bloke the chance to fail. Granted he did so in spectacular fashion, but at least Clark had the stones to chuck his hand in, when he realised we were going nowhere fast under his leadership.

Trouble is LS arriving as a stranger and dependant on good advice of others and assuming they knew the business…….old heads were needed, but …….. he has to learn a lesson from this and act quickly and ruthlessly.

Exactly

It's the only way to improve us.

He's got to learn from his mistakes of listening to Bullshitters and that now makes it a long term job.
But I ain't got a clue which way this situation ends up.

Like I said last week patience is horrible but it won't be a quick fix but it shudent be a long one because it's a piss poor division.

If a Promotion challenge doesn't happen next season it probably never will.

UTP.

this is our 8th season at this level with only one realistic promotion push where we were succesful. even halifax have made the play offs more than that and if anybody had the time they could find others who have done it more than once. apart from a decent looking ground and a large fanbase what else has the club to offer the efl or a reason to be back playing in it. could quite easily see pools staying in this league the same length of time it took em to be promoted as a league club. 40 odd years.

https://www.footballsite.co.uk/Statisti ... lepool.htm

If we take a honest look, we must be mad supporting a team like Hartlepool.

14 times we had to apply for re-election!
We strive to be in the bottom places of the league most years, in fact we must be the best at doing that.
The standout period is clearly from 99/00 to 2006/07 even allowing for the relegation.

Since then the club has been in serious decline and you might even add we are were we deserve to be, a non league club!

We without doubt have placed too much hope in Landon taking over, he would need to be a miracle worker to turn this club around.
He may do so in the long term, but long term may be a long way ahead.
And he has not started very well at all!

Can things be improved upon, will they get worse?
Pools history says we have found our level!

Better a bit mad than a boring glory chaser, any weak willed fool can do that.
It takes a bit of character to shun the windbags and show loyalty to any lower league club.
I wouldn’t have it any other way..when the occasional ‘good times’ rarely visit us, it makes it all worth while.

ex league clubs at our level have had varied histories. carlisle and scunthorpe have played in the second tier but the rest can only claim a few seasons above the bottom level of the efl. have always wondered if the fans of these clubs are now more happy with there lot than we are an getting back into the efl is not life or death to them. give it another 5 years at this level there will be a good percentage of those who were not around at the time of our millenium stadium visit and a generation of youngsters who have never seen league football at the vic.

Carlisle have graced the first tier and actually have sat in top spot.

one thing about wearing a pools shirt on holiday or in my case around my town is people know you actually support pools and not wearing the most recent top premier league clubs fashion accessory. proper lower division fans will have a word with you and would not wish to talk about football played at international or premier level. have about the same interest in that as i have on an electric car.