Hartlepool United head coach Anthony Limbrick discusses challenges of inheriting a squad assembled by string of previous managers

Given that Limbrick is the 16th permanent Pools appointment in the last decade, it's little surprise that a whole host of different players and personalities have plied their trade at the Prestige Group Stadium in recent years. Pools have chopped and changed between experienced managers like Dave Jones, Richard Money and Keith Curle to relative unknowns like Paul Hartley and Craig Harrison, to up-and-coming coaches like Limbrick, Graeme Lee, Dave Challinor and Kevin Phillips.

For Limbrick, the statistics make for foreboding reading. Of the last 16 permanent managers, just two have lasted longer than 12 months in the role, while only Challinor has left with his reputation genuinely enhanced. All of the last three bosses - Kevin Phillips, Darren Sarll and Lennie Lawrence - have departed after 16 league games or fewer, albeit Lawrence stepped down of his own accord. The charismatic, ambitious and energetic Limbrick, who has endured an indifferent start to life in the Pools hotseat, is hoping he can be the man to buck that depressing trend.

For now at least, the Australian will have to do so with a squad of players signed by a string of his predecessors. A manager inheriting a team signed by someone else has been a recurring problem at Pools. Paul Hartley lured the likes of Jake Hastie, Reghan Tumilty and Brody Paterson to the North East with two-year contracts but was sacked after just four months. Kieran Wallace, who has yet to make a senior appearance for Pools this term, and Manny Onariase, who managed just four substitute appearances before heading out on loan, have both made negligible contributions this season after being signed in the summer of 2023 by John Askey and Darren Kelly.

Now, Limbrick is faced with a similar dilemma. Darren Sarll, who replaced Kevin Phillips at the end of last season, made a host of summer signings as he looked to make Pools more robust, combative and difficult to beat. Whereas Phillips had been preparing to recruit for a more possession-based approach, Sarll focused on physicality, reliability and size. Limbrick, renowned for favouring a more fluid, free-flowing style, is very unlikely to have favoured Sarll's recruitment blueprint had he been in charge last summer. As a result, the Australian has been lumbered with a group of players who, despite their qualities, are not necessarily suited to his way of playing. While Limbrick has switched to a 3-5-2 formation and looked to be as attacking as possible with his team selections, the new head coach has deployed the likes of Jack Hunter, David Ferguson, Dan Dodds, Luke Charman, Reyes Cleary and Sam Folarin in unfamiliar positions and fans are concerned it could be a case of square pegs in round holes. Although the new head coach admits inheriting a squad of players signed by someone else has its challenges, Limbrick was full of praise for the current Pools side.

"I think it's a challenge for any manager when that happens," he said.

"You're always going to inherit players that you could say are not necessarily your own. However, I would say that there's a lot of good players here, there's a lot of talented players here. We've got to make sure we get the balance right, with age, technical ability and physicality. That's something that you're always looking at too.

"I must say, in terms of the character of the players that have been recruited, I'm very, very happy. It's given us a base, in my opinion, to do something with the squad that we've got."