Is his month contract up yet ?

His first game was against Fleetwood on 24th August, so it will be by Saturday, if we don't extend it.

Hopefully extend it by 2 years!

desperately need to get the lad signed up. If we lost him cos we had spuds like Howard still on the wage bill, then would it be wrong of me to wish ill on the people who signed him up for a 2 year deal?

You've done that already, remember.
But I'm all in favour for doing it again.

Happy month birthday duckworths contract

It would be frankly (not Jonathon) embarrassing if he was not on a longer contract by now.

Endof. FACT.

Doesnt say how long though;

http://www.hartlepoolunited.co.uk/news/ ... 74384.aspx

Hurrah

http://www.hartlepoolunited.co.uk/news/ ... 74384.aspx

Excellent news!

Well done pools!

So what's the new extended deal then? Six weeks?

at ;least it's extended for now... but we need to get him signed to end of the season

Club site says it's not just for another month etc

The club site gives bugger all away.
But Duckworth does call it a "proper professional contract" and the site talks about a "full professional contract" without actually saying it is one.

As cryptic as a ken hodcroft programme note

Surprised he has signed it if it isn't a proper contract. I reckon with a decent agent he could of got a top league 2 or average league 1 side to offer him something better; given his obvious potential and being available for nothing

We never release contract lengths do we? Quite obvious to me reading the site it's not just an extra month.

End of the season in my humble opinion.

really hope so. Well done Duckworth lad you have fully earned your chance

Second that ^ well done mate! well deserved, keep it up!

Good luck to the lad, it made sense to offer him a short term deal and clearly he's not as thick as some PL rejects as he's took the chance Cooper has gave him with both hands.

he has a good work ethic and plays the game the right way... he is the type of player we have been crying out for. I think people like Compton are the same... good footballers are exactly what we needed. Franks will also fulfill his potential under Cooper in my opinion... the fans should be fully behind what the new manager is trying to do here.

I can see it plain as day... sadly there still seems to be the odd few who don't (or won't)

By the end of this season, we'll be able to compare this team to the one playing with Humphreys, Murray and Sweeney in midfield and I'm sure we'll all see the difference. It's about time we evolved and we seem to be doing it at last

That's the thing with the new breed of thick footy fan, they expect change/success to be instant, they get impatient when their new manager doesn't win 5 consecutive games from the off.

If you look at the bigger picture, it's easy to see what cooper/hignett are trying to do, and, when they have got rid of the players they inherited that they don't want/need and have their own squad in place, we will start to reap the rewards of giving these two a chance.

In my opinion they need 2 years, this year should all about consolidation, get the team playing the style they want and try to finish as high as possible, next year should be all about adding another 3-4 players to replace Howard, Collins etc, then build on what we've made this season and push for playoffs/promotion.

Whether anyone agrees with this or not, it's imperative that the manager is given a chance to do his own thing and as fans we need to be positive and patient this season.

well said thornley, i think 99% of pools fans would agree with you, we are majorly in transition, obviously the transition would be a bit quicker if long contracts didnt get handed out to old men but cooper cant change that now.

im willing to give this manager and this team the time to get it right, n i think they will.

Transition can happen too quickly, because Cooper has had so little to work with he's not gone out and gone crazy, like Bury's 21 new signings or whatever.

Panic signings can be as bad as holding onto old timers in my opinion.

Congratulations to Michael, we at Avenue are already missing him but don't begrudge his move to the Vic.

You have a very promising player, look after him well please.

UTA

I like the way Cooper is approaching the job. He said 'small footsteps' and that's what is happening. There's no bullshit, there seems to be a plan, and the plan seems to be coming together. Every player I've seen interviewed has a lot of respect for him and at the end of every game, in the interviews, he's hoarse from shouting instructions. Bit by bit he's getting there.

But I don't go so cue a torrent of abuse.

Cooper has to survive one crucial season and come out of it with optimism.
Points wise, we are doing no better than last season at the moment. That's not an insurmountable problem after eight games, but I sincerely hope we better last season’s effort when we only got two points from the next eight, whether we look a better team or not.

I agree about Cooper and this being a season we and he just need to get through without any drama but ignoring the results (as much as you can) I'm encouraged by a lot of what I've seen and what he's trying to do.

Firstly with next to no budget he's signed some really promising players on a shoestring.