For a while, Hartlepool United has had the feel of a soap opera.
This is a club with the unofficial motto “Never Say Die” but the mood around Victoria Park told a different story. Aspiration under owner Raj Singh, who had helped save the club from administration in 2018, had long since curdled into acrimony.
Singh had fallen out with the club’s most high-profile supporter Jeff Stelling and said he wanted out. Rumours swirled locally that former UFC champion Conor McGregor, who started following the club on his social media pages, was part of a takeover bid.
A buyout collapsed and then Singh asked season-ticket holders to vote on whether he should return. During this period of turbulence, the local media were banned from the ground and the club cycled through six permanent managers in two years.
Step forward Landon Smith, a mild-mannered, middle-aged American businessman who made his money in student accommodation back home in Minnesota.
His takeover was a bolt out of the blue, signed and sealed in six weeks with no prior publicity and announced just before Christmas to the surprise of even the club’s players and management. It all felt a bit, well… normal.
Smith, by his own admission, had only visited Hartlepool once before the deal was done, his lack of profile meaning he was able to stroll around the town with little fuss. “It was raining,” he recalls with a smile.
The stars and stripes flag at Hartlepool (Photo: Supplied)He’s a man of few words when The i Paper meets him in the boardroom at Victoria Park, probably a little bit fatigued at a transatlantic flight that saw him get three hours “intermittent” sleep the previous night. Media interest is new to him and he’s desperate not to overpromise and under-deliver.
“I’m a custodian,” he says more than once. McGregor he is most definitely not.
Someone has hoisted the stars and stripes up in the corner of the stadium next to a flag depicting the club’s distinctive stag crest to signify the new era. Smith appreciates the gesture but says it wasn’t his idea. “It’s great but it’s about Hartlepool first and foremost, not me,” he says.
And maybe that’s what they need. Stelling tells me he’s already spoken to the new guy and will be back in town for Tuesday’s North-east derby against Gateshead. Having stepped down from an official role with the club in May, they would be wise to re-engage such a popular and charismatic champion of the town.
Stelling is back
“We’re definitely going to get him involved,” Smith confirms.
“Our conversations so far have been fun, I’m looking forward to talking to him more on Tuesday. He seems like a great guy.”
Smith’s blueprint is for evolution rather than revolution. He wants to support the club’s academy and talks positively about the women’s team and growing the commercial operation. There will be “support” and funds available to back manager Nicky Featherstone in the January transfer window. No change in the dugout is planned and he will leave football decisions to football people.
“The one thing you’re not going to have to worry about is me talking about the football side of things. Maybe in a couple of decades but not now,” he laughs.
His love for football grew in college and he sees similarities between College American football and English football’s lower leagues.
“10 years ago, it was a bit of a joke that we had – I wanted to buy a football team,” he says. “I’ve been kicking tyres for a long time but when Hartlepool came up it just felt different.
“The size of it, the scope, the history of the club carried a lot more weight than the other things I was looking at.”
Pools are 10th and sit just outside the National League’s ultra-competitive play-off race. The big ambition is to be back in the EFL and Smith says “this season counts”.
Has he got deep pockets? “I’m not going to discuss the finances of it,” he says, although he says comparisons to Wrexham’s Hollywood takeover are inaccurate.
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“I bring to the table hard work, commitment, [being a] custodian.
“I really look forward to bringing my skillset to the table and finding places where I can add value while looking to the play-offs this season.”
After what has gone before, it all sounds eminently, gloriously sensible.
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