RELEGATION can be devastating for any football club. Try telling someone “It's just a game.” when they are losing their job due to the necessary cuts being made to cut their cloth accordingly.
It might not be life or death, but when someone's livelihood is threatened, there's more than three points at stake come Saturday afternoon. Well-run clubs who have clear visions are the ones that manage damage-limitation the best, but relegation can have a snowball effect on a club and that is the biggest danger to a relegated side. And the longer it continues, the harder it is to pull the breaks on and reverse the momentum.
Look at Lincoln City. Last season's heroics were made all the sweeter by the five seasons of toil the fans had suffered. And realistically, they were four years in to Non-League life before any kind of stability was reached.
Success
Sometimes, clubs punching well above their weight who are relegated can still come out of a season with a lot of credit if they've given a good account of themselves and ended up as plucky losers. From those situations, there's a chance to regroup, strengthen and have a running jump at getting promoted back up again.
Sean Dyche and Burnley are perfect examples of that. Relegated in 2015, the club realised that stability had been achieved in adversity and trusted that with a tweak in quality, they could return to the Premier League and stay there. Which they duly did.
On the flip side of that, you have the clubs who appear in the division below out of turmoil and changes in management. Hartlepool United are one of those clubs.
Four managers in one season, including two caretakers, ended with Hartlepool losing their Football League status and they found themselves staring into the abyss. The gamble to give defender Matthew Bates the last two games of the season in an attempt to pull them back from the brink for the second time in three years didn't come off.
In firing Craig Hignett and Dave Jones, they'd tried shifting gears twice without success, but they also knew they couldn't afford to go into next season with a losing mentality that would hinder their attempt to bounce back at the first attempt.
They had to recognise that this coming season would prove to be both their best and most difficult chance of making their stay in the National League a brief one. What they needed was someone who had a winning mentality. Someone who knew both sides of the full-time and Non-League divide. Someone who had known adversity and battled back from personal setbacks. And in Craig Harrison, they have got exactly that.
Similarly to Danny and Nicky Cowley, Craig has been able to develop his style of coaching and management away from the pressures of League football with the spotlight only shining on him for the brilliant job he has done in the Welsh Premier League with The New Saints.
Perhaps it's his reluctance to stay in the game after retiring at 25 due to injury that has proved to be the catalyst for the success he has had.
After enduring tough times in coming to terms with the loss of a top-level playing career, the footballing fire has certainly been reignited inside him and what you see now is a very amiable, driven individual who once again has a purpose.
As with the Cowleys, more than anything it's his past successes in Wales that will be his greatest asset. Success breeds belief and conviction in everything you do and when you have that, it transmits to the players. As a coach, Craig knows nothing but success and no matter what level it comes at, it is all relative. It's like business. If you have the right template that works for you and you have the character and personality to carry it, you can move across different areas of the business world and make it work.
The one barrier that comes with dropping out of the league, as Tranmere Rovers can testify, is the change in mentality from being seen as a sitting duck by the teams above you the season before, to being the big shots everyone can't what to have a go at. Can the players who are still battered and bruised stand up to that assault? Can they regain their confidence to prove people wrong?
Loyalty
Two years ago, Bristol Rovers struggled initially to adapt to their new surroundings. There was a clear hangover being felt but they had appointed ex-Hartlepool United midfielder Darrell Clarke at the end of the previous season and he turned things around to win promotion via the play-offs. That's exactly what Hartlepool will be hoping Craig Harrison can do.
I do hope there is patience with Harrison, both from the supporters and the board, especially if it's a slow start to the season.
After their recent history, Pools need at least this season and the next, not just to get promoted back to the League, but also to build a solid foundation so that if it doesn't happen at the first attempt, they are in a strong position to do it the year after. Continuity is key and as long as they aren't flirting with another relegation, they should put their trust in a young manager who clearly knows how to create a winning culture at a football club.
North East football doesn't just need Sunderland, Newcastle United and Middlesbrough to be successful, it also needs Hartlepool United and Darlington to be back in the League too.
Good luck to Craig Harrison at Hartlepool United in what will be a tough year, but hopefully one in which we see the emergence of another young management prospect coming out of the North East.
