The Poolie Bunker

Pools Finances


https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0nhgj2p

Could be a good idea to enter the FA Cup just for a change.

Pretty much dispels the myth that Raj was making money or that we were anywhere near the bottom of the pile for spending money. More the fact that we were spending wisely with piss poor manager and player recruitment.
So the questions now are will LS spend as much or more but more importantly can we get the recruitment right?

Will he add Nickys budget to this seasons budget.
No fan of Fevs but he got no help in an open transfer window.

It's all been talk n no action so far.

The feedback I'm getting off fellow Poolies is show us the Produce before committing to a ridiculous Early Bird Deadline.

Things need to speed up ASAP.
UTP.

My feelings exactly too.
Last season was the first in decades when I didn't have a ST, mainly because I had misgivings over wether Raj would even fund the club for the full season. I honestly thought he was ready to pull the plug and walk away.
Last season was also the first ever where I've declined to go to home games due to being bored rigid at the quality of football at the Vic, and believe me over the years I've turned out religiously to watch a side with far more limited skills, but imo no heart, passion, or ambition to win games.
I'm optimistic at the moment but won't be forking out on a ST until I see:
What the retained list looks like
Who the new manager is
Who we sign

LS seems a genuine guy who obviously wants us to do well, let's hope He and We get a team that can compete, fill the ground, and awaken the club that's been slumbering for too long. Hoping for a home game and a bumper crowd to kick off the new season already.

Part of the discussion with Maguire touched on transfer fees paid by NL clubs. The most recent figures available are from the season before last, 2024/25.

York, this season's champions, spent £415K on transfers back then - more than half the total for all 24 NL clubs. The rest of the top 4 were FGR, Rochdale and Southend - all play-off teams this season.
Pools spent £10k. You pay peanuts, you get monkeys...

Obviously it's not just about money - the quality of a club's manager and recruitment policy comes into it too.

That said, it's clear enough that club chairmen have to be ready to speculate to accumulate to get out of this division, and that building a promotion-winning team isn't a one season project.

He did say that only 10 clubs actually spent any money on player recruitment of which Pools were one of them.
Obviously Raj was either not prepared to pay as much as the Ugglas at York or couldn't afford to, nor Rochdale who's owner is one of the richest blokes in the UK, Southend have new owners who are speculating but get something like double our crowds.
If we're not among the biggest spenders with the biggest and best quality squads, we absolutely need to be astute in our managerial and player recruitment. That was apparent in our last promotion year.

A lot depends on what encouragement we get to dive in. I think the early bird discount should be extended so fans have a clear picture on what they are likely to get before they take the plunge.
This is crucial in my opinion and I really hope it has been explained clearly to LS, and he takes it into account. I'm beginning to think he either doesn't understand the wow factor or he chooses to ignore it, as he did when people dived in virtually days after he appeared.
Tickets were bought on impulse, trust, expectation and joy at seeing the back of the last regime. It is a bit different now as more and more are playing the wait and see game.
Surely Bromby are pointing this out??????

but do any of these people realise what the average poolie is thinking. seriously doubt they speak to any and it makes it even harder for them to understand something they have not suffered themselves. feel a bit sorry for LS as he has to prove himself more than any new owner at another club might have to.

"So the questions now are will LS spend as much or more”

Featherstone has already answered that ?

Our understanding is LS has been talking to supporters groups.
If he had not i,m pretty sure the Trust would have spoken out.

If you want to achieve anything it costs and it has to be spent wisely.
It’s as simple as that.

Alarm bells ringing for me now about this Takeover.

Been about 4 weeks notice now to bring a new Manager in.

And still no one.
ST Deadline unbelievably short.

Bring back Radgy

. Maybe next week eh then the week after.
UTP.

there can be a multitude of reasons for this happening. My big hope is that they have not offered there first choice the job and they have turned it down. usually in football firstchoices are the best and lower down the list you go the names get less appealing.

Maybe Kevin the next one in is still employed till 5.00pm tomorrow.
LS has spent a small fortune already and still the fans are still doubting.

Sorry but it's ludicrous to suggest that 'alarm bells' are ringing in respect of the takeover. I don't see what more LS could be doing in respect of demonstrating his commitment to the club, I've not heard such positivity from owners of HUFC since IOR took the helm and steered us to what became the best years of our lives supporting Pools.

Who can deny LS the opportunity to take his time in recruiting the best athletes in playing, coaching and backroom personnel within the budget that he will inevitably have set for 2026/27. OK, some clubs with existing owners, a settled setup and playing squad will be able to steal a march on their rivals. This is the norm every close season but FFS this close-season isn't even a week old as yet and already there seems to be panic in the ranks. How about cutting LS a bit of slack instead of pillioring the guy on a daily basis?

Spot on, not sure what some are expecting.

I'm expecting to see signs that we're a club moving forward before I'll commit to a ST. A promo video isn't enough on its own.

THIS ∆ - 100%

Some people seem to take a perverse pleasure in predicting the worst- in the event that if it does turn to shit, they can laud it over everyone by saying 'I told you so.'

No one is forcing them to buy a season ticket, or any ticket for that matter. If you'd rather wallow in self pity, maybe go and find another team in turmoil, to bitch about. How about Spurs/ Sheff Wed/ Barrow- they are currently all in the shite!

As SJ rightly says (and short of a miracle) what more could Landon have done, up until this point?

He rightly honoured the contracts of what he inherited, He's now making changes, having observed the situation and appointed the Bromby boys to help him out with the football side of things. He ain't going to be paying them peanuts and it's in their best interests to do a decent job- succeed with Pools and they will potentially make a fortune from other clubs in future.

The pitch has already been dug up and it's barely May.
Had we made the playoffs- which we clearly weren't good enough to do- we'd still be playing games for upto another 10 days.
All the teams that did make the playoffs- are going to have less time than us- to bin off and recruit. That said, they're not going to require quite as many new players as we are!

Landon wouldn't waste his time and money flying over every couple of weeks if he was half arsed about investing in Pools.

We've hit the bottom with Raj and are now building a steady foundation for future success. It's not going to be without bumps in the road, along the way, but this constant moaning by the few is becoming really quite tiresome already.

Landon hasn't come in and made big promises of instant success, gold taps and heskulators - he's taking a measured approach that will hopefully benefit us as a club and fanbase for years to come.

If I lived nearer, I'd buy a season ticket- even if you decided to do it for just one season. Let's give the bloke a chance and get behind him and what he wants to do- for OUR benefit.

I don't like to speak for others, BUT given the shitshow of Raj's ownership, post promotion playoff win- who actually wanted him to stay? We all wanted him gone and a fresh start with fresh investment. We now have that, and still people moan.

The alternative is we piss him off, and he ploughs his cash into a different club.

I've not had the pleasure of meeting Landon yet, but people that I've spoken to that have, to a man, have all been very impressed by him. From what I've seen so far we've got nothing to lose and everything to gain, Let's get behind him and start to enjoy ourselves again.

In Landon, I trust
NSD

Mr Kettering

Has hope been dumped for cynical scepticism…?
I hope not, don’t let the purgatory of the last few years drag you down to that pitiful level.
Hope….is the only thing any fan has to cling on to, because without it, there’s no point.
Anything has to be an improvement after the past few years in the wilderness.

at least waiting to see the retained list and how many out of contract players sign on for an extention. then there is the question of a new manager and the calibre of the new players coming in. surely thats common sense and not knocking our owner or the video. never had a season ticket and never will have one. makes no sense when i never go to mid week fixtures anymore.

Kettering, very well said. Most sensible post on here for a while.

As ever on here, we're all experts at spending somebody else's money !
Let's just see what the next couple of weeks brings. I doubt Mr Smith has invested good money just for the hell of it !
Got a suggestion for new "running out " theme.
Landon - Hope & Glory ?

better than what should have been used since relegation. manfred manns Ha Ha Said The Clown.

Ok as one who has spoken my mind out loud voicing my genuine concerns I will now shut up and wait for things to pan out. I certainly don't want t o say "I told you so" and I hope Landon is successful and takes us forward (as I have said before).
Having said that If I am to wait and see it will be as it says on the tin and will commit to nothing until "I've waited and seen"
Fair enough?????

After some of the dodgy characters we've seen at the club in recent times a bit of scepticism is expected - TMH were going to take us onward and upward, so were Coxhall and Duxbury.
LS has imo raised some doubts with his public intent of going for the play offs and having fun doing so. By the end of February we were doing neither to the point where for the 1st time in 60 years I declined to go to home games mainly due to the lack of fun!
I'm right behind his message and the man himself in principle, but my hard earned will be staying in my pocket until I can assess the potential value for next season. I suspect I'm not the only one. So come on Landon, Bromby and co, give me some encouragement please.

when he actually said that about the play offs they were a possibility. we would have enjoye it if we had got there but he did not know fun and NF did not go together. Possibly a couple of weeks or so after he that he might have regretted what he said. at least he did the right thing and not extended his contract any longer than he originally said. doubt many would have slated him if he had given him the order of the boot earlier.

It was a possibility when Smith said that because Featherstone's record of 7 wins and 4 draws in his first 14 league games got Pools up to 8th place by late January.

You can blame Feaths for not kicking on past there but we'd had 1 league win in 10 games before Grayson was sacked and were heading for the bottom half of the table.

The minimum target for next season is finishing above 9th place and with more than 68 points. Sounds easy - but LS is going to have to splash the cash to make it happen.

If fans can afford a season tck then buy one, And stop bitching.
LS so far has shown true commitment unless of course the previous owner gave him the club, I bet he passed on the debts.
The guy has already spent millions, And yet people want more without showing commitment themselves.

Grow up and stop whingeing, If you don,t you will grow a womens bits.

Well said Sir

Already got yours then? Season ticket not women's bits

Some Wierd responses to a bit of concern.
Looks like Promotion it is then.
No doubts applicable.
UTP.

I may have both, Or neither

You know you like doing it.

Doubt we would have a club now, If you know who and his merry men were still here.

The real concern would have been if the Boro fan was still owner.

The current concern is that LS reads the unjustified - albeit thankfully rare -negativity being posted here recently, takes it seriously and begins to have doubts that this is the club for him.

An exceptional post KP, I fully agree with every word.

I haven't seen anything on here likely to piss the bloke off to the point he'd walk away.
I personally haven't seen anything to compel me to buy a ST, there's 4 weeks left of the early bird window for the club to change my mind.
Yes Raj has gone, but apart from a blind sense of relief and optimism nothings changed yet.
So I'd suggest that the onus is on the club to attract sales in the first instance. The difficulties that I can see are that contracts generally run until June and many clubs haven't released their retained lists yet so imo it would be wise if the club extended the early bird window until the end of June at least.

Cautious Optimism.

It sometimes gets misinterpreted.
Only on SM not in the pub.

but does he need to splash the cash. we finished 9th with an injury hit team and a manager who was far too cautious. just getting rid of the deadwood and replacing them with decent national league players coul be enough. please no big fees for the marwuee type od signing to find out he feels too good for the team and pnly plays when he wants to.

The deadwood is three-quarters of the current squad - remember the loan players have all gone home at this point.

Depends what you mean by 'decent' NL players - anyone who is in demand will need a good contract offer and good wages to be persuaded to come to Pools.

well if we cannot fund a good contract and wages to players now will we ever be able to do. With some of the cheapest decent housing in the country available for them to re allocate and the cost of living lower than most places there pound at pools would go much further than it would in most parts of the country. we are not exactly asking players to live in some west yorkshire or east lancasjire shit hole.

New era innit.
Should be no worries on the better Recruitment Front.

Er
Manager n Players

Nothings changed, Doubt there would be a next season if LS had not turned up.
I bet his bank balence has changed, But yours has not. But still time!
He will have spent Millions already.

Or worse still Raj and his Bunch of no hopers would still be here.

PTID - you need to snap out of it- look at the bigger picture - Are we in a better or worse position as a club/ fanbase, than this time last year?

No manager, 3 contracted players - actually we're worse off aren't we?
I'm as optimistic as most but I'm optimistic at the start of every season and stirring words and videos won't win matches.
Hopefully we'll see positive moves soon.

i am never overoptimistic but neither will i throw my toys out of the pram if pools recruitment is a bit slower than some clubs. lets hope at the end of this season we have a manager in place to sort out his retained list and look for better players no matter which league we will be playing in. this lack of continuity from one season to the next is not helping us.

To be fair, I'm not overly concerned about recruiting the players as it's still early days and I'd be surprised if anyone's done much yet. And it's an extremely long close season this time.
I do think there's an urgency to get the manager in as surely he must be part of the player recruitment / retention team. We e known for some time it wasn't going to be NF so I'd expect targets to have been identified and approached by now. Hopefully an appointment is imminent.