Newsround - West to stay? Money, No Cup Commentary

By Albatross
November 13 2002

The Northern Echo reports Colin West is going to be Manager, ITN reports on Pools Finances, and there might not be any Pools World commentary on the Cup Game at Southend.

This morning's Northern Echo has reported that Colin West has been offered the post of Manager, and that he is set to accept the job with Pools. (Northern Echo website here).) Nick Laughlin is also claiming that recently sacked Exeter Boss John Cornforth - a good friend of West's - has been approached for the post of Assistant. There's no word from the club yet, but if it's confirmed then this has to be good news for Pools. West knows the squad very well, knows what makes them tick, and is unlikely to make wholesale changes.

Comments made on the official site's message board by Gordon Watson had made it pretty clear what the players wanted: Flash has made comments in recent days about "this bus drives itself", and indicated that the last thing the players want is for someone who will make radical changes to the setup. While West did make a couple of changes against Exeter, starting with Barron and Barry-Murphy as fullbacks, this was hardly a major upheaval. From some of Flash's comments, it seems that morale throughout the squad hasn't been dented much by the departure of CT, and the squad as a whole is in high spirits. When a local radio station spoke to them on the way to Exeter and asked if they had a message for Turner, the response was a chant of "We're going up, you're not!"

While some people may feel that this smacks too much of the players running the club rather than the Chairman or Manager, I think that it's a good sign. We have some talented individuals, but what we also have is a strong feeling throughout the squad, a team ethos that means the players will work hard for each other. "We have all as a family worked so hard to get here" said Flash, and it makes sense to try and keep that feeling by promoting from within if possible.

Gord also indicated that he's hoping to return to action by the end of the month, and has said he's hoping to be on the bench for the home game against Kiddiminster on the 30th. This is more good news, but even better is that our form without Watson has been good enough to mean there's no question of rushing him back. He may be the sort of player that could walk into virtually any side in the lower two divisions and a few first division clubs as well, but we are not under pressure to play him before he's ready as results have still gone our way. In some ways Flash being absent has allowed Pools fans to truly appreciate what a good player Eifion Williams is, as the Welshman has lead the line superbly over the last couple of months.

Elsewhere, In the Net has reported on the financial position at Pools following the announcement of the club's AGM and subsequent issuing of accounts. Pools lost about £100K last year, helped a lot by the sale of Tommy Miller; the club is now approx. £2.5million in debt. Of more concern is the loss of revenue due to the collapse of the ITV Digital deal, and the problems suffered by Website provider PTV, who have been unable to pay clubs what they were promised. There's unlikely to be much in the way of big money transfers from the club, as the only clubs with serious money at the moment are those in the Premiership - who are more ready to splash the cash on a foreign international than chance their arm on a player from the lower divisions.

What this means for Pools depends a lot on IOR. So far they seem to be happy to support the club; however with potentially a big loss over this season they may feel that a line has to be drawn somewhere. On the other hand, the situation at the Vic is known better to them than to us, and even after the collapse of ITV Digital and the court case against Carlton and Granada Turner was allowed to bring in Marcus Richardson and loanee Brian Barry-Murphy - not exactly a sign that they're looking for the club to economise! While IOR's reasons for owning Pools still remain a mystery, over the years they have been in charge there's no doubt that the club has made huge strides both on and off the pitch, and as a Private Limited Company - as opposed to a PLC - IOR don't have to satisfy city analysts and institutional investors about their reasons for owning Pools.

Finally, there is some doubt about whether Pools World subscribers will be able to listen to commentary on the FA Cup game at Southend this Saturday. PTV don't have the rights to broadcast FA Cup Ties, and although there are negotiations ongoing between PTV and the FA, we're now at Wednesday without anything definate. Hopefully it will all be resolved, but if not then there's a fair chance that anyone not at the game will have to put up with the Text Commentary feed!