Is Turner the right man for the Pools hotseat?

Like supporters up and down the country, Hartlepool United fans are spending much of their time during the close-season wondering whether the new players already signed and those they hope will be signed will be good enough to help provide a successful season in 2009-10.

But there’s an even bigger question to be answered at Victoria Park before a ball is kicked: Is Chris Turner the right man to guide the team in the new season?
He just managed to escape relegation at the end of last season with a team that under-performed for most of the time, and he has put smiles on many supporters’ faces with the news that Adam Boyd (right) is coming back to the club, Dimi Konstantopoulos might be following him, and Leon McSweeney has been signed on a free from Stockport.
But even if CT manages to get a new keeper, a couple of full-backs, a central defender and a holding midfield player – all players most fans say we need – will it be enough, and is he good enough to achieve something with the new team?
League One is going to be a difficult one next season – Leeds United will be trying for the third time to get out, and relegated Norwich, Southampton and Charlton will make sure that competition in the third tier of English football is possibly as strong as it has ever been.
Turner’s first spell as manager of the club saw the transformation of Pools from also-rans to contenders, and he has shown time after time that he understand the supporters and knows what the say and when to say it to keep the fans onside.
But can he hack it on the touchline, or would it be better if he had a director of football type job and handed the tracksuit over to a younger man?
He’s hardly pensionable age yet, but we have our reservations about his ability to take a team to its limit, and so have many of the fans.
The silence coming from Pools since the end of the season on whether Turner is staying on as manager has been as deafening as usual and fans are still trying to work out what the silence means – is he keeping the job, are they waiting for somebody else to be free to step in, have they lined somebody up, are they scouring the game looking for contenders?
All the signed are that Turner will get the job – it would save money, he’s popular with chairman Ken Hodcroft, he’s already started work on next season’s squad and it would be a safe(ish) appointment.
But would it be a good appointment?
Only time will tell.