Graeme Lee opens up on Hartlepool United tenure, his surprise sacking and club frustrations

Lee spent just five months in charge of the club he made over 250 appearances for as a player after taking over in what was always likely to be a difficult transition for the club following the shock exit of promotion winning boss Dave Challinor.

Lee was making his first step into management having enjoyed a successful time with Middlesbrough’s academy and was able to achieve the objective of maintaining Hartlepool’s League Two status fairly comfortably, as well as taking Pools to the fourth round of the FA Cup and the semi-final of the EFL Trophy.

The end of the 2021-22 campaign did, however, fizzle out quite drastically in the final weeks with Hartlepool going nine without a win to close the season and finish 17th in the table.

Although Lee had some critics due to that drop off in form, his sacking, which came just days before the final game of the season against Colchester United, still came as a surprise – none more so than to the man himself, who opened up in a candid interview with the Switch of Play podcast recently.

“I wasn’t expecting it,” Lee said of his sacking.

"I went for a meeting, I thought it was a recruitment meeting and it wasn’t.

"He [chairman Raj Singh] said: ‘Right, it’s time for change.’ I was trying to justify why and he said something like ‘the players aren’t playing for you.’

"These players were strapping themselves up to get on the training field and then to get on the pitch so to say something like that I thought he must have someone lined up.

"In my head, we’d got ourselves in a great position. I was excited to get new players in and build on what we’d achieved, but it didn’t happen.

"I thought he must have someone ready and waiting to go in because why would you do it?

Lee added: “My objective was to stay in the league. That was the main aim.

"Part of my downfall was we probably got the points quicker than I thought we were going to get them.

"We went to Scunthorpe away [at the end of the season] and I had 2,500 Poolies singing my name after the game.

"To have that moment with the fans and then three days later get sacked, it just didn’t add up in my head.

"I knew I had a great relationship with the fans. I wasn’t going to please every fan, no-one ever will, but seeing what I had after that game, I was excited for next season.

"I looked at that league and thought we won’t be a million miles off where we wanted to be next season.”

Lee would also go into detail over a number of frustrations during his time with the club including being limited to training on 3G pitches at the club’s training base as well as a failure to tie down a number of key players to new contracts as the likes of Luke Molyneux and Timi Odusina would leave the club later that summer.

And Lee pointed the finger at senior advisor Lee Rust as to why some of those negotiations may have broken down.

“He should not be near a football club. That’s what my opinion is,” Lee said of Rust.