New Hartlepool United boss Darren Sarll promises to be "very up front and honest" with his players

The 41-year-old, who was appointed on Saturday following the departure of Kevin Phillips, has almost 20 years of experience in a variety of coaching and management roles.

Renowned as somewhat no-nonsense, the former Stevenage, Yeovil and Woking boss admits he will be "drastically honest" as he looks to build a squad and create a culture capable of challenging for promotion next season.

"There's not many games that I will be playing mentally or emotionally with the players, I'm very up front and honest," he told the club website.

"We say what we see, we definitely do that.

"We don't hide, and start to go into our little groups in corners and start to justify things to ourselves.

"There's nothing like that. We need to make this a real open environment where we can criticise each other.

"Winning is the hardest thing in the world to do - there's one team in every league, every year, that gets to pick up that trophy. It's difficult, it's a very, very tough thing.

"Things like that, you do get a bit of dysfunctionality, a bit of confrontation. They are winning dressing rooms.

"What I've got to try and build is a winning dressing room, that's the be-all and end-all.

"And then you have to adapt as a manager because everyone's different - Luke Waterfall will be very different to Tom Parkes, and so on.

"The most important thing for me is that they know that I am telling them what I think, good and bad.”