Hartlepool United legend Micky Barron encourages Pools fans to 'get excited' following Landon Smith's takeover
Hartlepool United legend Micky Barron has encouraged Pools fans to "get excited" following American businessman and investor Landon Smith's takeover of the club.
While it's true that Pools fans would do well to keep their feet on the ground following the news, it's hard to avoid the sense that hope, positivity and optimism have returned to Victoria Park after Smith bought the club from controversial former owner Raj Singh on New Year's Eve.
Although Singh's legacy is complicated, there was a growing sense among Pools fans that the 61-year-old had taken the club as far as he could while many supporters had opted to stay away from Victoria Park in silent protest at his divisive leadership, leading to a sharp drop in home attendances this season.
On the one hand, Singh stepped in to, in effect, stave-off the looming threat of administration when he first took charge of the club in 2018, with his decisive intervention paving the way for the club's memorable promotion back to the Football League in 2021 via a heart-stopping National League play-off final as well as subsequent runs of the fourth round of the FA Cup, setting up a trip to Premier League Crystal Palace, and the semi-finals of the Football League Trophy.
Even so, a lot of the goodwill Singh had worked so hard to accrue evaporated in the wake of a series of disappointments and bad decisions - an apparent unwillingness to invest in the squad following promotion, the club's failure to keep hold of manager Dave Challinor, the premature sacking of Graeme Lee as well as the appointment of Paul Hartley in the summer of 2022 - that culminated in relegation back to the National League.
Since then, the final years of Singh's tenure have been overshadowed by division and discontent among an increasingly fractured fanbase, with Pools burning through managers and limping to successive mid-table finishes plus takeover sagas. Having thrown the club into disarray following his sudden and unexpected resignation from his role as chairman in March last year Singh returned to his former position following a hugely-contested vote among season ticket holders, one of the most controversial and downright bizarre episodes in the club's entire history.
Certainly, supporters will need to be patient and give Smith time to deliver change and progress, but Barron, who made 374 appearances for Pools and won two promotions at Victoria Park, has encouraged fans to embrace the change ahead of this weekend's visit of Altrincham, the first home game of the new era.
"I think a lot of people - the majority of people - have been wanting this to happen for so long," the former Pools captain told BBC Radio Tees Sport.
"Now it's finally happened, it's just the excitement of what might come next. I've seen one or two people saying not to get too carried away, which I understand, but this is what we've wanted - this is what, like I say, the majority of fans have wanted. Let's get excited about it, let's think that there's going to be a really positive future ahead."