In Search Of The Truth At Victoria Park

Vital Hartlepool Exclusive

This summer is proving to be a rather eventful one at Victoria Park but I feel there’s still issues that need to be resolved quickly by the club.

I think the owners have realised that the club has become stale over the past couple of seasons and that’s why attendances have dropped off quite significantly. Now I realise that they are trying but there’s still many places they can improve. To start the club have offered reduced prices on season tickets for next season by reinstating the early bird discount scheme.

Now I’m fortunate to be able to capitalise on the discount but many fans can’t because of the short amount of time the club have given to buy tickets, the club have removed the option to spread the early bird payments over a number of months and I think fans are losing out because of that.

After consulting fans, HUFC are trying to be more open but it’ll take more than a couple of fans evenings to change my mind on how the club is being run, after being ran as a closed shop for so long.

The return of Chris Turner is another problem. I wasn’t bothered either way when Turner took over as caretaker initially, remember we were told it would be for a short time, but I became wary of the situation when he was given until the end of the season.

Now he’s got free reign to sign who he wants and that surely makes it impossible for a new manager to come into the club now. I just wish the club would officially announce that Turner is the manager, I feel that I’m being lied too. Turner said he would talk with Ken Hodcroft when the season was over so surely a decision has been made now?

The fans deserve to know who’s in charge next season and it appears that fans are being kept in the dark until the season tickets are sold before they reveal Turner or one of his mates as the boss.

I just think it undermines the whole ‘open with fans’ attitude they’re trying to promote when they’re keeping quiet about the managerial situation. I’m genuinely excited by some of our summer signings but this whole situation is hanging over the whole club and I just think it’s embarrassing that the club feel they can treat the fans in this way.

Peter Hartley is a young talent who knows the town and what the fans are like and we need more players like him who genuinely want to play for the club. McSweeney is a good League One player and rumoured targets also look promising.

However, while no official manager is place the whole situation just looks like a mess. The club need to make a decision and more importantly tell the fans.

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