New Hartlepool United owner determined to lead Pools back to the Football League - and help them stay there

Pools are welcoming in what many fans hope will be an exciting and successful new era after the American businessman and investor, who is the co-founder of real-estate company Tailwind Group, bought the club from controversial former owner Raj Singh.

The tumultuous final few years of Singh's time in charge means that, for many Pools fans, it feels like a lifetime ago that their side last won promotion back to the Football League via a heart-stopping National League play-off final in 2021.

At the time, Singh was hailed as a hero having stepped in to stave off the looming threat of administration in 2018 before appointing Dave Challinor, who would go on to lead Pools to promotion as is widely regarded as one of the club's greatest ever managers, the following year.

Yet a lot of the goodwill Singh worked so hard to accrue evaporated in the wake of an apparent lack of ambition that led to Challinor's eventual departure in November 2021, months after Pools had returned to League Two and mere weeks after the 50-year-old had signed a new contract at Victoria Park.

Without wishing to diminish the role of either Singh or the Pools squad in winning promotion - indeed, the 2020/21 Pools side must surely rank as one of the best in living memory - the slump and subsequent relegation that followed Challinor's departure, on reflection, is probably an indication that the club were too reliant on the talent and drive of one man and were lacking the means to achieve sustained success.

Ever since Challinor left to take charge of Stockport County, then of the National League and now competing towards the top end of League One, Pools have appeared to lack any sort of coherent strategy or clarity of vision, lurching between managers with altogether different approaches. Indeed, the decision to replace Sunderland legend and England international Kevin Phillips, who was determined to instill a more forward-thinking and possession-based style of play, with the straight-talking Darren Sarrl, renowned for his commitment to direct, route-one football, sums up the club's scattergun approach under Singh.

Having burned through four different managers last year alone, there was little sense that Pools were making much progress on or off the pitch under Singh when Smith completed his takeover of the club.

While even the most ardent critic of Singh would struggle to dispute that the 61-year-old leaves the club on a much firmer financial footing than he found it, in purely footballing terms Pools have made next to no progress and are at serious risk of getting stranded in non-league.

Now, though, hope appears to be steadily returning to Victoria Park as Pools gear up for this weekend's visit of Altrincham, the first home game since Smith bought the club.

Although a late surge into the National League play-off places this term looks unlikely - Pools are four points behind seventh-placed Southend, the only side they can realistically hope to reel in, having played three games more than the Shrimpers - it's apparent that the Football League is on the lips and in the minds of Hartlepool United fans once again.

While Pools fans should be encouraged to dare to dream, supporters would also do well to be patient as Smith looks to move past Singh's legacy, which still looms large over Victoria Park, while implementing his own plan, vision and instilling his own footballing philosophy.

Of course, all these things take time but there is a sense from Smith that it could well be worth the wait - if Pools can get things right off the pitch, the hope is it will translate into sustained success on it.

"Success and ambition would be reaching the EFL," Smith said.

"I'm not going to put any timelines on it. What I can say is that we're going to build it slowly, we're going to build it right and we're going to build it sustainably.

"We want to build a foundation for a club that can get to the Football League - and stay there.

"Right now I'm going to try and soak it all in and learn as much as I can. I think the biggest challenge for me is to experience the club culture, the club history, the club legacy so I can find the best way to move the club forward with a vision we can all get behind."

"It's wonderful, part of the reason I did this was the history and the culture; this just doesn't exist in the States. This is just different and football in England is just a different sporting structure, it's a different culture.

"I'm excited to be the custodian of that and protect it as best as I can; it's a responsibility I look forward to."

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