What next for Hartlepool United?

By Albatross
May 31 2005

Now that we know our fate for next season, it's time for a few decisions to be made at Hartlepool United. Arrivals, Departures, others staying put - I'm sure there will be a few surprises along the way.

As the dust starts to settle a little, there are a few issues that need to be resolved both on and off the pitch. The first one of these is of course the matter of the Manager.

Neale Cooper may be gone, but he's far from forgotten - and subsequent events have raised more questions than they've answered. While I was quite prepared to believe his sudden departure was related to a move back to Scotland - whether to take another post or not - the fact that he's taken a job about as far away from his native land as he can get without leaving the UK blows that theory out of the water. Plenty of references from those at the club to having spoken to Neale in the last few weeks also seem to indicate that there's little animosity between them. Confidentiality clauses and the tendency of IOR not to comment on such matters mean that the whole issue may remain shrouded in mystery - and despite huge interest from fans (including me) that is unlikely to move Ken Hodcroft to further comment.

Regarding who is next in the hotseat, there can surely only be one serious candidate and that's Martin Scott. He wanted the job last time but possibly his lack of experience working with the first team counted against him; now he has two years as assistant behind him, and his spell as Caretaker has done nothing but good for his case to be given the job permanently. Hopefully the announcement that he's got the job will come sooner rather than later.

The Managerial situation needs to be clarified quickly so that Pools can get on with the business of sorting out who's staying, going and coming in on the playing side. A number of players are out of contract very shortly, and included amongst them are some key performers in the side. Chris Westwood is one of the big ones, with rumours circulating once more that Walsall are interested; he'd be a big loss to the side and hopefully Pools will be able to persuade him to stay at Victoria Park.

Westie isn't the only one either, and we need to get players such as Joel Porter tied down on new deals if at all possible. There are other issues to be sorted as well, with a whole cluster of players with either deals to be offered or bad news to be broken. And whoever is in charge then needs to start working out who to bring in to fill the problem spots in the side and strengthen our squad.

So what will the next few weeks bring? A few surprises no doubt; plenty of rumour and speculation as well. Part of the fun of this time of year is to see what the local and national media come up with in terms of possible signings; will we see anything to match last year's bumper crop that included the likes of Michael Mols and Eugene Dadi being linked with the club? We're set for another interesting summer in the world of Hartlepool United.