Former Hartlepool United boss reflects on his relationship with owner Raj Singh
Former Hartlepool United manager Keith Curle has been reflecting on his time at Victoria Park on the Under The Cosh podcast.
The 61-year-old was appointed Pools boss in September 2022, initially on an interim basis, replacing Paul Hartley, who was sacked having won just one of his 11 matches at the helm. When Curle, a former Manchester City and Wolves defender who was capped three times by England, took over Pools were second from bottom in League Two and without a win in their opening nine games.
The vastly experienced Curle made a decent start to life in the Pools dugout, overseeing two draws and a win during his first three matches. However, things soon took a turn for the worse and Pools lost five successive games, including a humiliating 6-0 defeat to Everton under-21s in the Football League Trophy.
Pools rallied and picked up a handful of decent results, beating Grimsby, Harrogate, Crawley and Rochdale to keep themselves within touching distance of survival. There were also some low moments, not least a 5-0 home defeat to Stockport, the first time former boss Dave Challinor had returned to Victoria Park since his controversial departure; the humbling result was made even worse by owner Raj Singh's programme notes ahead of the game, in which he suggested Curle was the best manager he had ever worked with.
The mauling by Stockport led Curle to admit that "we need January" and Pools did indeed have a busy month in the transfer market, signing the likes of Dan Kemp, who proved to be an inspired bit of business, Matty Dolan, Peter Hartley, Edon Pruti, Taylor Foran, Dan Dodds, Connor Jennings, Tayt Trusty, Jakub Stolarczyk and Oli Finney.
Pools beat Doncaster in early February thanks to a spectacular effort from new man Dan Dodds but showed little sign of improvement after that, drawing two and losing two of their next four matches. A 1-0 defeat at home to Newport on February 21 proved the final straw for Curle, who was sacked the following day having won seven of his 29 games in charge. Although results improved somewhat under Curle's successor John Askey, Pools were relegated back to the National League at the end of the campaign.
Yet despite his underwhelming stint in charge of Pools, Curle told the Under The Cosh podcast, presented by former footballers Jon Parkin and Chris Brown as well as comedy writer Chris Brown, that Singh was wrong to sack him, suggesting the outgoing owner was influenced by opinions on social media.
"I got on alright with Raj," he said.
"I quite liked him as a bloke, I had a good relationship with him.
"We had a changing room that wasn't performing because the level of what had been brought in wasn't good enough. There were a lot of Scottish players that didn't understand the level and there were non-league players that weren't up to the level.
"In January, I said to him I needed to bring in 10 or 11 players to give us an opportunity to stay up and, fair play, he let me bring in 10 or 11 players. There were a couple that we missed out on as well, but he was prepared to pay the money - we're talking silly money for League Two - to bring them to the football club.
"It was going to take me three weeks to get them fit and up to the level because a lot of them had been squad players, bit part players, so they weren't up to speed. After three weeks, I got the sack. Why do it? Why didn't he sack me at the beginning of January and let somebody else come in and bring in their players. Personally, if I'd stayed then we would have stayed up.
"When I got the sack, it was the first time that the crowd had turned against me. The chairman went on social media; the worst thing you can do as a chairman is listen to people on social media.
"I had a phone call from the sporting director who said the chairman wanted to make a change. That's his prerogative, his deal. I've been sacked previously, I don't take it personally. Every time I've been sacked, I think the club should have kept me."