Hartlepool United’s fans will lap up such a no-nonsense approach from their new head coach.
Pete Wild takes Pools to managerless Forest Green Rovers this Saturday (kick-off 5.30pm) when he will be desperate to stop the rot of six defeats in a row and nine in the opening 12 matches of the season.
Pools find themselves in a proper mess after a distress start to the season, orchestrated by football consultants Bromby & Partners and their very left-field choice of head coach, Lee Clark.
The squad are in 22nd place with a quarter of the programme gone in the National League, a division in which they were second favourites to lift the title.
Wild is the 13th permanent head coach this decade and the third of chairman Landon’s Smith’s brief ownership of just over nine months.
He was straight and declared there will be no “magic wand” just a determination to bring success for Smith and, ultimately, for the people of Hartlepool.
“I spoke to court or five clubs across the summer and I just didn’t feel that connection or felt like what they were asking me to do was plausible,” he told Life.
“When I met Landon I was excited. He’s a fantastic lad who has obviously earned his money in an industrious way.
“He’s a working class fella.
“This is a working class town and I come from a working class town. How I see that panning out excites me and that’s the message I conveyed to him.
“I feel excited that I can do the job and move thew club in the right direction.
“Apparently, that was reciprocal when I spoke to him a couple of days later and I feel like we’ve established a good rapport and relationship. I don’t need pandering to, or my back patting.
“I just need to be able to get on with the job in hand and if we are doing well, hopefully he’ll be smiling and if we not, he won’t!”
The US businessman dreams of taking Pools back into the EFL.
And the recruitment done in the summer with the signing of two of the stars of last season’s National League, Will Harris and Jack Nolan, suggested the club were getting on with it.
But Wild said this task will be “a long-term thing” with the short-term demands of simply reviving a club loitering in the relegation zone after a quarter of the season.
Wild told Life that there is time to turn things around.
“There were a lot of bold statements and expectations from the club in the close season,” said the 42-year-old. “Landon wanted to come in and certainly make his mark on the club and the town.
“There has been a lot said about how they are going to do this, that and the other.
“Obviously, things started well with wins in the first couple of games and everyone gets that confidence and believes their own hype.
“The one [good] thing about football is that there are 46 league games in a season and we’ve only played 12 of them.
“Football goes up and down all the way through a season and there will be some rubbish patches and some good patches, hopefully more good than bad.
“It is what it is – this is football.
“The teams that do well are the ones that come out of the bumps quicker.”
There was anger at full-time after defeat number nine of the campaign and the third consecutive loss on the Vic, with only one home goal coming in those three matches.
Wild said he understands what the fans are going through but asked the faithful for time to put things right.
“I get the frustrations and I’ve said to the players that they have to take it on the chin,” he told BBC Tees Sport. “People have an opinion and they have to deal with that.
“Take the praise when you get the praise but you also have to take the punches when the punches come.
“I totally understand it, but you have to give me the time to get it right. I can’t wave a magic wand after this run of defeats but I will change it and get this club moving back in the right direction.
“That’s what I’ve done everywhere I’ve been.”
Author: Roy
Author of Sports Life and all sports articles.