Quoting Archie Norman, the businessman and politician, and dipping back into his own career (which ended so long ago that Wayne Goldthorpe was still playing), John this week tries to look at the workings of our club from an alternative perspective – from that of someone such as our Chairman. As usual John struggles and eventually finds solace in a podcast from Sunderland AFC involving one of the founders of AFC Wimbledon.
This week John looks at communication, finding a great example of communication from the Oxford United Supporter’s Trust (whilst pointing out that their concerns look greater than our own), an example of good practice from our neighbours at Blackwell Meadows, and is so confused by the communications from our own club that he tries to avoid making comments on ‘reshufflegate’.
John this week manages to compare a Pools player to a Ladies Handkerchief (with perhaps a subtle dig at a recent team performance), looks on in envy at developments at Bury FC and Rochdale AFC and, again, without any particular justification, manages to mention his hero, Wayne Goldthorpe. John also asks ‘what happened to the Pools Fans Forum?’ Wouldn’t it be great if we saw an answer to this question on our Facebook page?
This week John manages to talk about the involvement of James Bond in Hartlepool United, he again returns to the subject of Bolton Wanderers, and (as instructed from within Fortress Vic) he adopts a positive approach to looking at the work of a number of other Trusts – including the ongoing impact of a trust on tomorrow’s visitors, AFC Telford.
John starts the New Year by going back to an article from 2013 by Stuart Fuller, Chairman of Lewes FC and writer of the award winning The Ball is Round blog – this thought provoking read gets John musing about Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain playing for Pools and wondering if the time is now right for the return of Steve Howard. Steve Howard who, like Simon Walton, finished his Pools career with a red card – which gets John around to welcoming ‘old fist-pump’ back to Fortress Vic!
Are all Gateshead fans bald? What did Mark Maguire ask Santa? Has the game gone mad? A definite case of Bah Humbug from John Ashton who ends the year with a few questions.
