FOR Hartlepool United, this season was always going to be about when and not if Chris Turner departed.

Just as good Third Division players get snapped up by a bigger club, so too do the best managers - and Turner certainly fits into that category.

In days of old, success at Victoria Park was measured in how many places Pool were off the bottom. Now, as Turner looks set for Sheffield Wednesday, it is based on how many points Pool are clear of the rest of the field.

As he managed Pool for what could be the final time last week, the Victoria Park faithful showed their manager where they believe his future lies, but no-one can seriously begrudge Turner the chance to manage a club of Premiership potential.

It's his hometown club, the one he supported as a boy, and the club he played for in two successful spells, providing powerful reasons why he was never going to come out this week and declare he was ready to stay at Pool.

Those words were the ones every Pool fan wanted to hear, but deep down they knew would never come.

His first game in charge was a 0-0 draw at home; what looks like his last game in charge was a 0-0 draw at home, but that's where the similarities end.

Turner departs with one regret - not achieving the success his brand of football deserved. Three play-off defeats in three years are currently in the process of being put to bed, but it's those failures which hurt.

First time around Pool's achievement was actually making the end-of-season shake-up; second time Pool would have been promoted if Chesterfield had received the punishment their crimes deserved; third time it couldn't have been closer - beaten in a sudden death penalty shoot-out.

The Chesterfield fiasco still rankles with Turner, but from the moment Pool hearts were broken at Cheltenham, he vowed success would come this time and as Pool set the pace in Division Three he has been proved right.

Pool couldn't be in better shape as they face up to the possibility of life without Turner.

Clear at the top, playing good football and with players far better than the dross so often seen at Victoria Park, whoever comes in will take on one of the best jobs in the lower divisions.

The cynics and outsiders can be heard scoffing right now. But at Hartlepool United there's no rush to sell players, no pressure or interference from the board or chairman. In fact Turner has had nothing but unequivocal backing from IOR and Ken Hodcroft.

And now it's down to the chairman.

He's appointed one manager since taking control in 1997; if he needs to make a second appointment can it be as good as the first?

Ken Hodcroft, it's over to you

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