By Albatross
February 20 2006

Chris Turner is back at Hartlepool United, after weeks of rumour. However, he's been handed the role of Director of Sport and apparently Paul Stephenson will remain in charge of the first team until the end of the season. While the arrival of Turner has been speculated for some time, his role of Director of Football (or Director of Sport as the club have put it) was not necessarily the expected one.

Turner did of course have a very successful spell with Pools, turning us from relegation candidates to first of all surprise playoff contenders and then eventually promotion favourites before leaving to take on the unenviable job of reviving Sheffield Wednesday's fortunes. It's possible to argue that had he stayed we would have won the title; but the chance of managing the team he supported was too tempting.

With the benefit of hindsight, he may wish he hadn't gone though. Crippling financial problems and a team in a tailspin had already frightened off higher-profile candidates such as Peter Reid; following relegation, the fans expected far better fare than was served up, with a poor home record meaning that they were closer to the bottom of the table than the top. With results again not meeting expectations he departed, leaving Paul Sturrock to motivate a squad that was largely assembled by Turner and eventually achieve promotion at our expense.

His spell at Stockport was another that failed to enhance a reputation already on the decline. More financial troubles saw the troubled Hatters nosediving; again, much better was expected this season but Turner failed to deliver and again left under a cloud with the side he'd assembled in danger of dropping out of the league completely.

His role at Pools though is, according to the official site, a more behind the scenes role. He's been employed directly by IOR rather than the club, and is apparently to be involved in overseeing things such as the Dallas Cup trip, pre-season arrangements and the like. Paul Stephenson will remain in charge of the first team until the end of the season, but presumably will be able to seek advice from Turner.

This set-up is one that rarely seems to have worked in English Football, but then again Pools had to do something and bringing back a former manager who still knows several of the players has a sort of logic. He knows Stephenson of course, having turned him from a peripheral figure into the heartbeat of the Pools midfield; Stepho has done well so far since stepping up and although he has stated he wants to be involved on the coaching side rather than the full-time manager for the moment he may yet change his mind.

Whether Pools can make this work will depend a lot on how Turner and Stephenson interact. Will Turner be offering advice only when asked? Will Stepho be allowed to do the job in front of him? How hands-on will Turner want to be? It looks set to be an interesting few weeks at Pools.