Some may agree, some may not, put some of your suggestions on!

GK - Arran Lee-Barrett - Has looked pretty good since his return to 1st team - can only get better

RB - Jamie McCunnie - Our best option here, can also play in place of Liddle/Clark if needed
CB - Sam Collins - A class above
CB - Michael Nelson - Hopefully back to his very best next year
LB - Ritchie Humphreys - Links up well with Monkhouse, has performed better recently

RM - Antony Sweeney - I quite liked his performance there yesterday
CM - Gary Liddle - Playing in a more advance position
CM - Ben Clark - In Boland's holding role
LM - Andy Monkhouse - One of our best signings in recent times

CF - James Brown - His best position IMO
CF - Joel Porter - If he is still here, one of our best players

SUB - Jan Budtz - Still think he is good enough to be in the squad unless we get a better replacement
SUB - Richard Barker - Can still have an impact next year, but more from the bench in the last half hour of games
SUB - Michael Mackay - Give the lad a bit of time, when he is stronger we will see much more out of him
SUB - New Signing - A defender
SUB - New Signing - A defender or midfielder

Players Out:

David Foley - I personally don't rate him at this level - some may disagree
Matty Robson - Puts one good cross in in every 1000 - again, not good enough
Robbie Elliott - The most pointless signing ever
Willie Boland - I think he will be too old to have an impact

no argument from me...

GK - New Keeper - ALB is ok as backup but he's still very inconsisten for me..

RB - Jamie McCunnie - Ditto
CB - Sam Collins - Ditto.
CB - Michael Nelson - Ditto
LB - Ritchie Humphreys - Ditto

RM - Antony Sweeney - Possibly a new sign as a natural right winger but if we can't find one then Sweeney will do a good job. He
CM - Gary Liddle - Playing in a more advance position
CM - Ben Clark - He got Man of the Match against AZ Alkmaar in the holding role but was never played there again. Either way he defintley has a part to play for us.
LM - Andy Monkhouse - To quote someone "one of the most naturally talented" players to play for Pools.

CF - James Brown - Him and Porter would create something similar to the Boyd/Porter strike force.
CF - Joel Porter -To the best of my knowledge is leaving but I would love him to stay.#

New signing as a holding Central midfielder in case Ben Clark isn't quite up to it, he hasn't played there for a while.

A new right winger as we have zero natural right wingers (now that Gibb is going) at the club.

A new mobile striker in case Porter leaves.

Cover at right back and left back.

I'm not talking about cartwheel signings either. Our bench looks weak.

Agree that the bench on a whole looks weak, although with any luck we could promote one or two youth/reserve players through if they get a chance in the next few games or have a good pre-season.

No chance, if we go up through the playoffs we'll need to strengthen more than that

We have left it too late now to go up via play offs, but if we did then yes, we would need to strengthen

I would sooner see a new holding midfielder brought in and Clark/Collins play in the middle at the back.

I'd also like a new right winger and left back to give some competition.

We have a lot of quality in our current XI but we don't have much in reserve so if players like McCunnie or Humphreys get injured then their replacements are well below standard.

We definitely need replacement full backs, It doesn't fill me with confidence knowing that if they were both injured we would be having shit players taking their place.
I would still give the Nelson/Collins partnership a go with Clark holding - even if its just a few pre-season games then if it's not working then bring in a DM

Given how injury prone Collins seems to be, if we start with him and Nelse then he gets injured then we'd be stuck without a defensive midfielder. I also personally think Clarky is our best defender and has never really been tried in the middle and I worry he is a bit too similar to Liddle. Don't get me wrong, I can see the benefits of playing the lad there and can understand those who are advocating it but would sooner he was at the back as Pools always seem to look more stable when he was there.

If we can focus on getting things tight at the back next season then we have proved we have enough goals in us to cause teams trouble in the division.

That's a fair comment, we did look solid enough with Clark at the back, only thing that worries me about him is pace, he could be done by slightly quicker forwards. My main reason for playing him (Clark) in the DM position is so Liddle can get further forward, he can do it as he has shown before but I can see your point as most games this season he has been playing in a similar way to Boland

Ben Clark's record this season:

Record when started P11 W6 D2 L3 F21 A11
Record when didn't start P35 W13 D6 L16 F55 A52

So we concede 1 goal a game when he starts and 1.5 when he doesn't start and we win 54% of games when he starts and only 37% when he doesn't. You can prove anything with statistics!

One of the best players we've got IMO and my first choice defender. Did Danny Wilson really leave this player out for Godwin Antwi?!

You've missed the most important position - new manager required
the present one has had that team available to him most of this season.
On the odd occassion that he has fielded it, they have hardly played with
confidence or consistency.

On the playing front, I think we need a solid keeper, with ALB as backup,
a new left back, a new right sided midfielder, Humps could play the holding
role in midfield.

If we can hang on to Joel and Bob and keep them fit, then we could be a force,
however I think, those two staying (plus Sweeney), would depend on who was
in charge.

I think most people, myself included, got carried away when he played 3 or 4 decent games for us at the very beginning of his loan spell. I wouldn't put him back in the team now and I'm pretty sure when he goes back to Liverpool Mr Benitez is going to want to know what the f*ck has happened to him.

Nice bit of statistics work there - can't argue with that

All Mad John's work!

I also got carried away with Antwi and was quite content with him starting the season, it was the fact he continued with him for months when it was evident that he was crap that got on my wick.

I remember getting dog's abuse on here about September time last year when I politely pointed out that Antwi and Budtz were a liability that would cost us dearly this season.

What's your point?!

Stems back to mis-management again I think, makes you wonder what the likes of Monkhouse and Clark had to do to force their way into DW's thinking.

My point is that if it was that easy for us to see then a professional manager who has managed at a reasonable level should surely have been able to see it sooner than he did too.

I thought it was a "I told you so" post!

It has taken Wilson 7 months to consistently pick the best team that we have and I hope he has learnt from it. If he can carry this through to next season then we will have a good chance but if he manages like he has this season then I will definitely want him replacing. The most frustrating thing is that most of his mistakes are so fcking obvious.

I concur!

My point is that if it was that easy for us to see then a professional manager who has managed at a reasonable level should surely have been able to see it sooner than he did too.[/quote]

I thought it was a "I told you so" post!

[/quote]

It was. He just chickened out at the last minute

That's not like you to make a drama out of everything!

To be fair I think most of us had twigged by then.