Ken Hodcroft: Hartlepool United ex-chairman would help any potential investors

Ex-chairman Ken Hodcroft has said he would be willing to offer advice to any potential Hartlepool United investors.

Pools are desperate for investment after being put up for sale by the current owners HUFC Holdings Limited.

Fans helped the club to meet January's financial commitments but lost out on genuine interest when businessman Chris Musgrave walked away from a deal.

"If someone can come along and perhaps look at how we did it, we'd be willing to show them," Hodcroft told the BBC.

"If they wanted us to, we'd be willing to help, these are our accounts, this is how we ran the club, this is what you can achieve.

"They hopefully could sort out the state of the club right now, put the two packages together and see if they'd like to take on the project."

Hodcroft was the football figurehead for the Increased Oil Recovery Limited group that owned Hartlepool for 18 years, before selling to former owners JPNG. in 2015.

He oversaw the most successful period in the history of Pools, including the League One play-off final in 2005 where Sheffield Wednesday needed extra-time to deny them a place in the second tier.

Hodcroft's final season in 2014-15 ended with Ronnie Moore leading the club to 'The Great Escape' as they closed a six-point gap to survive relegation from the Football League.

In an interview with Late Kick Off in 2012, Hodcroft described the owners' methods.

"We try to run this club like we run the oil companies," he said.

"In the oil business there is no sentiment, we have no budget, we do not run the football club like a football club.

"The manager is not told at the beginning of the season or at any day of the week that they have a budget to spend.

"If anybody here, a manager, is interested in a player they have to follow a procedure, which is the normal procedure in the oil business for buying a piece of equipment."

Pools, currently 17th in the National League, dropped out of the Football League for the first time in 96 years last season and are now in danger of administration or worse as their financial problems deepen.