And surprise surprise this is why we're near the bottom of the league with cack players. Why do we get so proud about this? Agents are necessary for players. If you didn't know what the going rate was for your services would you walk into employment without someone on your side? Especially when a club has the exec, manager and chairman sat round the table to get the best deal for them. Yes agents take a cut and engineer deals but that's how football works, we need to get with the times and play on the same field as everyone else to get players worth having.

From what I've read we do deal with agents but we won't pay their cut, that has to come from the player.

I fully agree with the principle of this, they're representing the player so the player should pay for his services. If I buy a house it's the vendor that pays the fees to the estate agent is it not?

However, at our level players aren't on a huge wage and would understandably be reluctant to do so.
Fact is, when everyone else is paying agent fees it puts us at a significant disadvantage when negotiating and we're already far from the higher salary payers around.

I'd like to believe this but the other two teams who didn't spend money on agents are 10th in League 1 and 4th in League 2.

Dont let facts get in the way of a good moan.

Mr Coxhall mentioned this last week at the HUST launch in response to someone putting it to him, I forget who. He said he had no aversion to talking with agents, and wouldn't be as adamantly opposed to them as his predecessor was. He did also say that a lot of agents won't get involved in the lower leagues anyway as there was nothing in it for them. But, he said he would involve them if it meant we were getting a decent player in.

This would of course mean actually buying a player in the first place though...

It was me who asked. I said that one of the things that were perceived to be good about Hodcroft was his attitude to agents. Coxall didn't see it in such black and white terms and viewed the lower league agents as a different animal to those operating in the Premier League.

Basically if it cost a few grand to get a player who improves the team then they might pay it if it improved the team to a degree that made the transaction worth it.

It was indeed Mr I, my apologies. Lets hope we see some activity next month eh?

We'll see this time next year if anything has been spent but I think it'll be obvious when we see the standard of player brought in in January whether they've gone a little bit further than IOR in their pursuit of improving the team.

and they didn't directly pay an agent when any of those players came in either as it covers up to 30th September 2015.

More is made of than needs to be every year.

What are you saying here chip, if they are if a reasonable standard why are we having such a poor season, is the problem with RM or are those players just not putting in the effort

I think the key word was some.

Magnay certainly improves the team and we've improved the goalkeeping department.

It would seem a bit hypocritical if JPNG (a recruitment consultancy) refused to recognise the merit in paying people a fee to recruit good staff.

As a 'supporter' do we really give a shit about 'not paying' agents fees, it's the LEAGUE TABLE that matters.... Thought this non payment to agents was just a HODCROFT thing, obviously not.

Agree 100% - I posted a while back that Pools were an under-performing side not rank bad like last season, and the 4 current loan signings have improved the quality available since.

The odd duffer aside, spotting and signing decent players isn't Ronnie Moore's problem, picking his strongest team and a formation that gets the best out of them is. Saturday looked like a step in the right direction.

This month is make or break. Beat Salford and pick up a few other results and there's something for Pools fans to look forward to into 2016. Otherwise Coxhall is going to have to start thinking about changes at the top.

Hopefully we've not seen anything like the best out of Worley - has the lad ever been properly fit since he joined Pools? I reckon Woods was overplayed at the start of the season coming back from a bad injury and his form and fitness soon dipped.

Pools are well capable of beating Salford first time of asking but the thought of Carroll marking their best player isn't a good one - the way James Poole skinned the left back for Salford's first goal against Notts County is the stuff of nightmares.

No Magnay = no bet for me.

I guess like most I was delighted we made so many signings in the summer and really thought we had a great opportunity to continue the momentum RM had started by keeping us up. I even had a flutter e/w on promotion......

The season so IMO has been a massive disappointment so far. I was 'fortunate' to see the wins at Yeovil and Dagenham but both were painful to watch.

It concerns me that if there is money available to spend in January, based on the majority of signings to date, I am not sure I want RM spending the money. The jury is definitely 'still 'out' for me.