The Poolie Bunker

So the first ten games for me are the bedding in period, so if we get some odd performances I bite my lip and wait to see if these players can gel and offer some hope.
We have no choice in the matter, but at the end of the day we’re in the entertainment business and if you aren’t a good performer you pay the price.
We live in interesting times, because surely we can’t afford once again to be the Champions of the middle of the table.

i,ll give it 6 games. the season is a quarter of the way over by the time we play 10.

Knowing our luck it’ll be over long before 10!

When you think about it one promotion spot is probably out of the question for 21 22 teams already, the class gap money. That's the problem with this league straight away everyone is just fighting for the play offs.

like fighting for the only winning lottery ticket. we got it a few seasons back but what about the teams who failed. probebly more dissapointing in the end than our mid table finishes have been.

I think the way non league footy is taking off its time to have 4 going up and 4 coming down. So many rich investors now its a mockery that only two are allowed up each year, its not giving clubs like us much of a chance now.

10 games in for the last 10 seasons:

2024/25 15th and 13 points
2023/24 7th and 16 points
2022/23 24th and 5 points
2021/22 13th and 14 points
2020/21 10th and 15 points
2019/20 9th and 15 points
2018/19 4th and 19 points
2017/18 17th and 12 points
2016/17 15th and 12 points
2015/16 17th and 13 points

Champagne expectations on Lemonade backing.

No chance of this happening but how about:

First Division
Second Division
Third Division
Fourth Division

Fifth Division North
Fifth Division South

Most season you know much earlier you just don’t want to admit it to yourself

Hartley …game one 4-0 to Walsall
Cooper (2nd time) …game one 5-0 to Crewe
Sarll …game 4 or so after the wealdstone draw we had our suspicions
Harrison …game 1 vs Dover

After the first 3 or 4 games this year…we won’t know if we at any good…but we likely will know if we’re shite

I agree - 10 games is the minimum.

The only recent exception is 2 seasons ago when Pools made such a good a good start that we were still 7th after 10 league games. What we didn't know then was that we weren't getting Mancini and Dodds back in anything remotely resembling their early season form.

The big exception that has always stuck in my mind was Fatty Turner's first full season in charge. Pools were 20th in the Fourth Division after 10 games but you could see the players were better than that. They came good eventually and finished 7th - and went up a year later.

All a bit irrelevant in this social media driven age as a lot of fans go from elation to despair and back again every other result. And not just at Pools

Agree it’s not so much the position as the performances … Danny Wilson we had a slow start but were clearly way better than our early positions etc

There are certain posters on here who know what they are talking about and can be relied on to know pretty early how it’s going to go…I won’t name names so as not to insult anyone…but I am one of the group that knows their stuff ….

What happens if things aren't going well? Sack another manager? Knowing Singh that’s what he’ll probably do but personally I think you need to give Grayson a full season no matter what happens. You have to get out of the hire and fire cycle you are stuck in.

The most likely scenario is Grayson gone by Xmas, but will see, agree chopping managers every 5 minutes isn’t the way to go but sometimes it’s obvious they are shite

It was premature and a mistake to sack Askey but also it was obvious Phillips and then Sarll were poor managers …the mistake was hiring them in the first place

Your modesty becomes you Sir.

My only fault is I’m too honest..

Agree - but the fact is that if Grayson has a poor run of results there won't be many Poolies on social media backing him to stay on. It's amazing how quickly games become 'must wins' these days...

I do think patience is as thin as it’s ever been…fixture wise we have an easy start again so if we don’t start well Grayson will be in trouble quick ish

He clearly isn’t an idiot like Sarll was so won’t be as polarizing but Pools absolutely should be in the playoffs in this league….no we don’t have a ‘right’ to be there but we should hold those in charge accountable if we aren’t given the size and history of the club…bobbling along in mid table is unacceptable

I agree that it's ridiculously early days and that Grayson needs to be given adequate time to prove himself here - however results will determine precisely how much time, that's football at any level rightly or wrongly.

It is more of a concern that Pools remain one of the worst clubs in L2, NL and NLN in terms of recruiting decent or even adequate players. Even when we do sign up half-decent players they are not retained by awarding adequate renewal terms or they are released, all too often to be replaced by duck eggs. As I said it's early days of course but indications are that we may have acquired a few who currently aren't up to NL standard, regardless of their previous.

The majority of fans would acknowledge that the dead hand of RSingh has been responsible for the above. However both Grayson and the 'Head of Football Operations' Joe Monks must surely also take least some responsibility, not only for the release of players such as Mancini, Dodds, Ferguson - each of whom would likely have remained at the club. I concede that fitness issues may have influenced the release of the former but is it not preferable to have adequate players missing a number of games as opposed to no-hopers sitting on the bench hardly ever making an appearance because they simply aren't good enough as a result of poor recruitment?

Philips may not have been the answer we'll never know, but his appointment was hardly a mistake when he kept us up with players who couldn't or wouldn't perform for the previous manager, and he's got one of the best points per game ratios of managers is years.
Hire and fire certainly isn't the answer, but nor is keeping managers who are likely to get us relegated. The answer is hiring, backing, and sticking with the right manager - something Raj hasn't been very good at.

Our issue is every season we seem to undergoing some
Offield drama and starting from scratch pretty much, even back when challinor was boss and we first went up there was arguing on contracts etc ..


Askey was the last one who ended and started a season…and he got fucked over with some appalling injury luck, inheriting shite from prior season and being sacked before we got some experienced defenders in, a textbook example of none joined up thinking

Sorry that’s an appalling take….it was obvious to anyone with eyes and ears Phillips was clueless…as was proven at Fylde

And he didn’t keep us up with the same players….we weren’t in the relegation zone when Askey left and Phillips was provided with 2 very experienced center halves which were game changers plus a bunch of loaners who were mainly shite.

The Gateshead debacle while ‘one game’ was proof he was out of his depth, just stood there watching as we were cut to ribbons

Results ratios will tell us that Philipsy was better than Askey.

Are ya going to Truro for his autograph

Every Pools manager gets a good dicing game.
DC 0 5 v Torquay.

Time to move on kid he ain't coming back.

We were in free-fall and more likely to go down than up when Philips came in and turned things around. He ended up with one of the best win ratios of any manager in the last 10 years, he only lost 4 of 17 games - obviously clueless?
As I said he may not have been the answer but his record should have earned him a chance to show what he could do longer term imo

Yes he is - on 29th November, assuming he's still in charge of Truro by then

Loyal had his fun mocking KP last season when he took over the second worst team in the NL (Fylde).

Most pundits think Truro are nailed on for relegation so it'll be an achievement if they have a decent season. Askey's time at Pools left me thinking he runs out of ideas pretty quickly when a side struggles.

If he keeps Truro up he deserves a medal, they are on a par with Oxford City a few years ago.

I was frustrated with him while he was here, but he really did have his hands tied with injuries/lack of experienced signings etc

He also unlike Phillips had some previous pedigree, I hope he does well at Truro though not against us

Turner, Cooper, Challinor hardly had great pedigrees either.

Yes but they achieved something Phillips has achieved fuck all at any decent level

You are correct yet again Loyal, patience is indeed at a premium - give yourself a pat on the back. Following months of frustration, annoyance, guesswork - maybe even a little bit of optimism - regarding the takeover of the club, fans hopes of ridding the club of RSingh were dashed yet again when he decided that he was going nowhere (again). At that point, as you know many fans (including myself) had already decided to boycott the club. Cue the appointment of Grayson, and despite the preventable exit of Grey, Mancini and Dieserservue, the recruitment of several promising signings, coupled with some positive pre-season results - albeit against lesser sides and primarily youth teams - served to raise hopes a little.

However, another final 'meaningless friendly game' - a home defeat - without Pools even managing to score, at the hands of a side from a lower league surely represented a wake up call for everyone. Another adverse performance /result when it does matter against unfancied Yeovil could stretch general fans patience - let alone us boycotters - to the limit and result in the opening game being played in front of one of the lowest opening home game attendances in many years.

No one can seriously expect Pools to magically soar to the top of the NL but fans will have every right to lose patience with anyone and everyone connected with the club should a disastrous six months extend into the all too familiar tale of failure over the opening quarter of the season.

Expectations are never very high for me, but hope is massive.

Most of my time at the Vic I expected nothing and was never disappointed because nothing is what I got.
But we travel in hope….or none of us would be on here.

Patience n hope could be shattered before games 3 to 10.
Just saying like.
It's not a guilatine statement.

he,d have certainly matched phillips record at least if he had been allowed to stay. new defenders in and injured plyers back. however the club put faith who certainly did a better job than sarll ever did so both should have been given longer in there role. its fine quickly sacking ones like sarll or hartley who gave mple poof of being clueles in ther job at pools.

I think it will not be good after 10 games due to the close season issues at Pools. After xmas we will rally but mid upper table is my best prediction.
The format of football at our level could do with pepping up with some pre and half time entertainment. This may help to give a better matchday experience along with the more adventurous types of foods being served.
Half time rippers anyone? I know a lass in Belk Street who is up for it.

surely you mean rappers or strippers or is a ripper a new combination of the two i do not know about. somehow i cannot see posh nosh taking off at the vic with the new poolie wine to wash it down. tastes sweet but leaves a nasty taste in your mouth you cannot get rid of.