Announcement of another key Hartlepool United exit raises further questions over constant club turnover

Hobin was appointed as the club’s chief operating officer last summer and while his upcoming exit is not necessarily a surprise, given that these roles are somewhat cyclical and tend to have their average life expectancy, the timing of it, again, seems odd given the predicament the club remains in towards the bottom of the League Two table.

Hobin confirmed he will step down from his position in the New Year although he will remain at the club until March to oversee a new appointment into the role.

But while the initial question posed could be why now? Why not wait until the end of the season? The more alarming take would be to consider that this is yet another member of staff leaving.

Hobin is a senior figure at Hartlepool but will become the latest in a long line of staff members including players, coaches, managers, physios, senior members of staff, non-executive directors, secretaries and even kitmen to leave – for a variety of reasons – over the last 12 months or so since the club returned to the Football League.

But why?

On a playing front, for example, you could argue that finances play their part with the likes of Luke Molyneux and Timi Odusina, two of the standout names from the summer, who left at the end of their contracts.

Speaking at the club’s recent fan forum event in October, chairman Raj Singh addressed those particular exits as a case and point.

“I think it’s fair to say, without going into any figures, when a player is on x, y or z, the club wants to try and get the best deal that you can and the players agent is throwing their players name around everywhere and he’s trying to get him the best deal,” said Singh.

“Then you go to your ceiling and you leave it at that. Obviously that ceiling, in Luke’s case, wasn’t high enough.”

Okay, so what about the rest?

You can go as far back as Ian ‘Buster’ Gallagher’s exit as club physio over 12 months ago. In that time the club have had at least three physiotherapists with Stephen Hayward leaving at the end of last season before Michael Harding’s exit earlier this season. Long-time Newcastle United physio Derek Wright came into the role on a short-term basis but it remains a position the club needs to fill permanently.

Gallagher was part of Dave Challinor’s staff - Challinor a manager who decided to end his stay at the Suit Direct Stadium just weeks after agreeing a new deal with the club. Clint Hill joined him in leaving the club soon after for a move to Stockport County, such is the case when a manager leaves a club.

In that respect, you could add the likes of Michael Nelson and Dimi Konstantopoulos to the list who left following a managerial change after Graeme Lee’s dismissal, while there are several other players who could be named given that since the conclusion of the 2020-21 promotion winning campaign, Pools have seen over 40 players leave the Suit Direct Stadium, should you include those loan players returning to clubs, which is an exceptionally high turnover.

But it’s not just the on-field staff where there has been such a great turnover, as seen with the physios. There has also been several key backroom members to leave their positions over the year including in the scouting and recruitment department, with the likes of Lee Turnbull, who was replaced by head of recruitment Chris Trotter, club secretary Sarah Barnfather, who has since been replaced by former Sunderland man Ray Murphy, non-executive director Adrian Bevington, who has been replaced by ex-Middlesbrough manager Lennie Lawrence and even the kitman - which has seen other members of staff chipping in to compensate.

This turnover of staff, be it playing or backroom, is not conducive to success and is most certainly not sustainable. Hobin’s exit further compounds that, irrespective of how his tenure will be perceived.

Hobin had worked with the likes of Norwich City and Preston North End in similar capacities prior to his appointment at the Suit Direct Stadium and while there has been plenty of relative off-field success in his time, he will, ultimately, be attributed and, as such, share a portion of the blame as to what has happened this season.

Hobin’s initial impact was certainly felt in the fan engagement process as supporters began to feel part of their club again, but that is also something which has dwindled immensely since the summer with Hobin coming in for criticism from certain sections of the supporters online - something which led to him removing himself from social media platforms and thus removing one particular link with fans.

Hobin has been behind the drive in bringing on board significant sponsorship from Suit Direct, in particular, who see their name on Hartlepool’s home shirts and, more notably, the stadium which was re-branded as ‘The Suit Direct Stadium’ and for ground improvements including the installation of new seats and a pitch refurbishment, which were both needed.

But with the club struggling at the wrong end of the division, the balancing act between correcting off-field matters and whether they are a detriment to on-field matters is something fans will continue to question – likewise the decision to organise the club’s pre-season training camp in Portugal which, while on the surface, seemed impressive and a step in the right direction, in practice, it backfired owing to the club having just 14 senior players present.

One thing Hobin should certainly be praised for, however, is his influence in bringing back the club’s academy system. He has been out in the field, as such, endeavouring to create and promote links with the town’s youth football clubs to create a pathway into Hartlepool United, with promotion back to the EFL allowing the club to reintroduce itself as a Category 4 academy.

The importance of that academy should not be overlooked, even more so given how a number of its players have been required to fill out match day squads this season. It is something the first team may need to lean on further in the future given their current predicament.

But, again, this is not necessarily about the job Hobin has, or hasn’t, done in post with Hartlepool. This is about the impact and the continued uncertainty which comes with yet another key staff member leaving.

One way or another, this turnover at the football club needs to end. For all Hobin’s ambitions have been to see the club as a sustainable League One football team, there struggles to be any hope of that unless there can actually be some of that sustainability and cohesion in place within the structure of the football club.