By Albatross
May 31 2003

For whatever reason, Mike Newell and Hartlepool United have parted company. Not many people seem to be mourning his passing, but it does leave us without anyone in charge as we approach a period that could make or break next season. So the question is, who's next?

The name that seems to have most legs at the moment is, almost inevitably, Gordon Watson. When he left, Flash told the Hartlepool Mail that he'd love to return to the club as Manager someday, and also said "if things change then maybe I will come back." Things have definately changed at Pools since he made that statement.

However, one thing counting against Watson is his lack of experience as a coach. While he might be able to overcome this single-handed, it's a big risk for a side recently promoted to make; and our history of promoting players into Management is hardly a sequence of success. Dave McCreery, John MacPhail, Keith Houchen and Mick Tait presided over some of the least successful seasons in our long history.

One thing that's been mentioned in some quarters - including someone who seemed to know about the Newell announcement earlier in the week - is that we might have a situation where there are two people in charge; and if that is the case, then the chances of Watson making a dramatic return are greatly increased. Who would be his co-manager? No-one seems to be saying.

What are the other alternatives? Well, there's plenty of people out of work at the moment who might be interested. Joe Kinnear and Mick Harford have just left Luton, Gary Peters has left Exeter, Terry Dolan is likely to be leaving York, Steve Parkin is rumoured to be joining Notts County but may be interested, Steve Cotterill, Colin Todd, Brian Little, Nigel Clough, Jan Molby, Tommy Taylor... well, let's not go too far! Fortunately for Pools, "Tactics" Taylor is now at Farnborough.

Of course, there's nothing to say that Pools won't surprise us again. After all, no-one was expecting either Turner or Newell to be appointed, and it didn't stop the board giving either of them the job. Whether we'd be prepared to accept another inexperienced manager is debatable though, and personally I'd hope it's not a case of "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss" - someone who knows their way around division two would be most welcome.

Who would I like to see? I just don't know. I do know what I want to see though; I want to see the new management team in charge in a couple of weeks at the outside. With players looking for clubs, and Pools needing to strengthen, we simply can't afford to be without anyone in charge. A delay now could cost us very dear indeed next season.