Chairman’s Notes: Hartlepool United (H)

Well, it’s been another busy fortnight, during which we’ve beaten Woking 3-2 in the FA Cup to progress to the First Round Proper. As such, we now meet Wigan Athletic here on Saturday, November 7th.

We then beat a decent Middlesbrough Under-21 side 7-1 here to reach the quarter-finals of the National League Cup. We followed that result by beating a decent Fylde side 4-0, before beating Woking 2-1 away, both in the league.

So, after 15 league games, we remain unbeaten, have a goal difference of plus 26 and now sit ten points clear at the top of the table.

In truth, for a good year now, I’ve had so many people ask me, “What’s been our secret?” over the last two and a half years, a period that has included a Play-Off win, a National League Cup win, an FA Cup Third Round appearance, a trip to Wembley and Play-Off defeat, followed by what I’m told is a record-breaking start to this season’s National League campaign.

If you’re one of those who’s asked me “what the secret is” at our recent Over-60s Coffee Club, I possibly sound like a broken record, as I keep repeating that there is NO secret to what we are doing here, unless stability, hard work, future-proofing, planning, creating a competitive budget, cultivating partnerships, having great staff, mentoring a great manager, finding the resources to enable great recruitment and finding great players who represent value for money is somehow a secret…

Across the club, we are, like our town, very working-class, and we try to insist on ‘old-school’ values. It’s no secret that, after an admittedly shaky start to my tenure in 1999/2000, we’ve stuck to our principles for nearly three decades.

We’ve not spent what we didn’t have, we’ve communicated things to our supporters, partners and council in the correct manner, and we’ve quietly made steady headway. Trust me, it’s not a secret. It’s been a step-by-step process and, as an owner, I feel you must be in it for the long haul.

Anyone who knows us knows we are first and foremost a community football club. We are not woke or a social media-obsessed club. We do, though, internally use words like attitude, discipline and desire. We try to instil standards throughout our academy, first team and staff, and whether we win, lose or draw, we hope our club remains ambitious, gracious, polite, approachable and humble wherever possible.

That said, Luke Garrard is a driven manager who I respect for many reasons. Firstly, he has worked for me for over twenty years, and I think he’s developed quite beautifully from a very young coach into an academy director, then an assistant manager and now our manager. But he’s much more than that, as he’s also a good husband, father and friend.

I trust him on the football side to lead our club. I’m always here when he needs advice, wants to vent or simply needs to offload, but I’ve encouraged him over the years to trust his instincts, and I want him to be guided by his heart at times.

His belief system is a simple one. If you turn on him, us or the club, then we will turn on you, and when that happens, it’s perhaps the beginning of the end for certain individuals.

As an aside, did you read what I felt was a non-factual, slightly lazy and ill-informed article in the Non-League Paper about new foreign investment, owners and community buy-in?

Because of that article, I’ve looked at foreign investment more closely this week and feel that, because of overseas ownership, we might perhaps be slightly lucky this season. It’s clear some foreign-owned clubs are very much in a transitional phase, many are saddled with debt, while some newer foreign owners appear to be learning from abroad when it comes to running a football club.

Other clubs, including newly promoted sides like Fylde and Kidderminster, are finding their feet and quietly settling back into this division. As such, it feels to me that two of the more stable and experienced clubs, namely Harrogate and ourselves, might just be slightly ahead of others in terms of our development, planning and recruitment this season.

After reading the Non-League Paper, and some might not be brave enough to say it, as a local man who has owned his local football club since 1999, I’m honestly not sure whether foreign ownership and unsecured investment quite work at our level, especially if many of these foreign owners continue to live abroad.

For perspective, I know how hard I work for this club, the hours I need to put in and the time it takes to keep it moving forward and keep the workforce on its toes. I’m just not sure how I could achieve the relationships, planning applications, problem-solving, additional investment, sponsorship, long-term partnerships and everything else needed if I wasn’t in the country or available to meet my staff or people within my community.

At the moment, I am watching the foreign-owned club models more closely because, in some instances, we could be benefiting from their bespoke and untried business models. As an experienced football man who hugely respects every owner or investor who puts money into clubs, even if their fan bases call us ‘tinpot’, haha… I do feel a touch of concern on closer inspection when I see selective memory and promises made by owners from abroad that are not followed through.

I also see some of them now hiring companies and consultants who, in my opinion, inflate prices, take ridiculous fees and are unsuitable for the clubs’ business models, but these types certainly know how to talk a good game.

A few discreet searches and phone calls have told me there are chancers out there ready to spend your money, leave your club skint and, in truth, lack any real business savvy, yet somehow manage to get themselves installed in key positions.

Some, I feel, have conflicts of interest or are perhaps glorified agents being employed as consultants, and so you have to wonder what the hell is going on at our level. For me, I simply don’t understand why, if you don’t eat, sleep and breathe a football club at our level, you would want to buy one.

Why would you want to buy a business that might kill you in the pocket, might lose you huge amounts of money, but then leave it to others less skilled than you to run while you continue living abroad? For me, if you truly care about your adopted community, then eat, sleep and breathe your football club because, trust me, your supporters certainly will.

For me, you must be there to enjoy the games, you must be seen to be at games, as it’s you who must shape your club and lead your club. And please don’t think your supporters are stupid if you make sporadic visits to your club as if you’re the messiah.

A truly well-run community football club at our level takes investment, patience, care, attitude, discipline, desire, plus more money and time than you ever thought, and lots and lots of hard work. Trust me, the fans within your community are your lifeblood. They are watching, and they will either be your strength or your downfall. And if they turn on you, you’re toast.

Even if new owners don’t realise it at the start of their tenure, the supporters know from day one that the clock is ticking. This is not a game, this is not Russian roulette, our clubs are not toys, our football clubs are sacred, and most clubs at our level are the lifeblood of our towns and communities.

When I bought this football club back in 1999, I did it to save us from a possible buyer connected to another local club who allegedly intended to buy it, sell off our site for housing and use the proceeds to move our club elsewhere into a ground-share.

My father, who had managed here in the 60s and 70s, would have turned in his grave, and it’s because of his memory that I bought the club. Of course, I doubt many of these new foreign owners will understand that, nor will they still be around in twenty years, but I might be wrong.

So tell me, after our community clubs are purchased, after the proclamations of love for the newly acquired clubs are reported and their promises to the clubs’ loyal fans are documented, are they truly believable or genuine, and where are the protections?

Should we not be a tad concerned that some business entrepreneurs might be saying the right things by paying homage to the fans with the normal soundbites? So my question is, will they ever move here, will they ever make their clubs a true ‘labour of love’, and will they genuinely ever become part of their communities?

As you are aware, we now have an Independent Football Regulator, which, if used correctly, could perhaps be a good thing. That said, are they a decade too late? Worryingly, we now have around 40% of National League clubs owned by foreign backers or consortiums…

In my dealings to date with the IFR, if my experience is anything to go by, I’m simply not convinced they understand what the clubs at our level need. They certainly need to ensure that all foreign and domestic ownership is more heavily scrutinised, as they need to safeguard all clubs at our level.

In truth, I do not think some of our clubs are even viable businesses to invest in. So what will happen when foreign owners decide that their money is lost, or the criticism and abuse they will receive at some stage is simply too much to cope with, and decide to walk away?

My feeling is that any new owner or owners at our level should be made to put up a million-pound bond that is held on account as a safeguard, because if they cannot afford a million, then they cannot afford a football club at this level.

As a local man, I feel that after years and years of hard work, lots of setbacks, lots of investment and a lot of sleepless nights, I could have walked away a hundred times and left the club in a real mess. But because it’s my club, town and community, I stayed, worked harder, spent a little more and finally built something special.

In fact, we now have one of the best managers in the league, and he’s local. We now have some of the best players in the league, and they are either local or live locally, and believe me, that really helps.

Don’t misconstrue my comments as being anti-foreign investment, because ownership and investment are two very different things. I’m simply looking ahead, and I cannot see enough meaningful safeguards in place to protect our clubs.

In fact, I cannot see any safeguards in place, other than the usual ‘trust us’ promises, but will that stop clubs from getting badly hurt?

In truth, I can see some very unhappy endings to some of these rushed foreign-backed takeovers, which are often wrapped up and presented to supporters and communities as the arrival of club saviours.

After 28 seasons of going through every emotion, I’m still here, and after years of quiet improvement, we are now embarking on a £4 million-plus New South Stand project that I hope will reshape our club and town and be a force for good.

The project is fully funded, the build is now well underway and, with a fair wind, it will be ready for next season, no matter what league we end up in.

That’s taken relegations, promotions, many years of planning well, investing well, selling well, buying well and recruiting well. It’s a project that’s been put together step by step, without relying on huge crowds or any foreign investment.

It means we’ve had to be patient, but we are finally there, and yes, it’s been a slow process to get to this point, but importantly, we will arrive at the end of this season with no historic debt.

For me to have created a great community club, you must have great local staff who love their club. If you lose them or are silly enough to get rid of them, trust me, you will lose the heartbeat of your club. Trust me, it takes years to find the right local people, but in my case, I now trust them with my life, and I know one day they will take me, our club, our town and our community into the promised land of the EFL.

They have, in my time here, shared the pain of our setbacks, relegations and my failures, so collectively they understand, even after our great start, that nothing, absolutely nothing, is ever a given in football, but we all dream the same dream.

In 28 seasons here, I’ve never had a group of people across the dressing room and entire club whom I would trust more than this lot to create club history for what is a tiny community football club. But I can feel there is total belief in what we’ve built and in what we are building. Not just for this season, but for the years ahead and the next generation of Wood fans.

If our supporters, sponsors and partners are reading these notes, I’ll assume you are getting yourselves down to the games a tad more regularly and have seen the quality being produced by this young squad. You’ll already know this is the best team and squad that I’ve ever seen here, and it’s backed up by the best manager and associated staff that we’ve ever had at the club.

Anyway, that’s enough of me and my diatribe. Let’s get back to today, as Pete Wild’s Hartlepool United arrive at Meadow Park looking to put a huge dent in our promotion hopes. As we know, Hartlepool are one of the biggest clubs outside the EFL but have experienced difficult times in recent years.

After today, we wish them and their fantastic supporters a successful season and an upturn in fortune.

Finally, whoever you support, let’s hope for an open, attacking game, and may the best team win.

Take care,

Danny