Signed from Mansfield.

From their site..

The 21-year-old handed in a transfer request to manager Adam Murray after expressing a desire to move closer to his native North-East.

Thomas linked up with the Stags in the summer of 2015 and has made 21 appearances for the club this season, 12 of which were as a substitute, scoring one goal in the 4-0 win over Crawley Town in September.

Manager Adam Murray said: “Nathan came to us last week with a transfer request.

“He’s only ‘a baby’ and has been around the country to try and settle and plant some roots for him and his family [during his early career].

“An opportunity presented itself for Nathan where he has more security - a move which takes him back home.

“I have let him go with a heavy heart. In spells, he has shown that he is a good player. The thing with Nathan was, we needed consistency from him on the football pitch. For 10-20 minutes here and there he was brilliant, but we needed to rely on him week-in-week-out, and in my eyes he wasn’t at that stage of his development.

“Nathan wants to play every week, which is understandable. Hartlepool came in for him and we’ve come to an arrangement which suits both parties.

"[This transfer] has been one of the toughest calls I’ve had to make as a manager because I was close to Nathan as a person." he added.

The club would like to place on record its thanks to Nathan for his efforts this season.

Never seen this one coming!

"Undisclosed fee." Spending money on a player - whatever next?

A striker who scores goals??

Sounds like a decent signing - apparently MoM when Mansfield beat us 3-1 earlier this season. Can anyone verify this who was at that game?

Yes he was he tortured Harrison that day. Lets hope he can do it against better right backs though.

Sounds a bit like Compton from his managers review, let's hope not!

Compton had a bad attitude, there's no mention of that at all towards Thomas

All the manager is basically saying is he isn't good enough week in week out.

Ex Darlo.

It wont of been much because in an interview given by their manager he basically said he hadn't done enough for a new contract and may of had to release him. So his agent asked if they would let him go to us.

Hope this signing isn't all based on his performance against us, he was playing against a centre half playing right back.

What he's saying about him as a player sounds fairly typical of a winger at this level. He's only young though so obviously he has the potential to get better and more consistent. Maybe him being settled and closer to home will help this.

I'm not sure why whenever we sign anyone or anything happens we have an element who think first 'what negatives can I focus on' The manager also says he makes the decision with a heavy heart and that its one of the hardest decisions he's had to make. Did you miss that bit?

Good luck Nathan and welcome to Pools.

Well said PJ. Mixed reactions, as you might expect, on the Mansfield fan site (www.stagsnet.net) but quite a few are sorry to see him go.

Pools have got themselves a young, local lad with bags of potential. Whatever happens, he won't be able to use homesickness as an excuse!

I've already decided if he doesn't score a hat-trick and provide at least 2 assists in his first game, he is shit.

I heard he has a 3rd nipple, the kunt.

Who the hell has a first name for a surname anyway, what a doyle.

That's him - Nathan Thomas Doyle. From a long line of Doyles.

No I read the bit about the heavy heart because the manager likes the lad. He also said I wanted to give him the opportunity at Hartlepool because he felt at this time he would be getting released in the summer. Aren't you slightly concerned where maybe signing a player on the fact we signed him possibly on a good performance against Harrison at right back or do you turn a blind eye and think everything we sign is great?

My thought was we've took a chance on a player who may have upped his game against his mate from his time at Sunderland who was also playing out of position.

But then I remembered this is Pools we're talking about and he'll obviously have been extensively scouted before any move was made for him. I like the look of his direct style of play from the clips I've seen but no one makes a youtube video showing the bad points from a player's game. Even before it was mentioned in this post, Compton came to my mind, but the lad is 21 and has almost his whole career ahead of him. Not an inspiring signing but a potentially good one as we have few players who look to run at the opposition, Woods did it against Derby for the goal but in his absence we lack that spark.

One for the future maybe? The lad was brilliant against us.

If there was no negatives to him he wouldn't be playing in League 2 like all of the players at this level. There is also plenty of there fans who say never mind letting him go, he should be in there team, notably a team who are much higher than we are in the league. We've signed him because Ronnie thinks he is better than what we've already got, presumably that's the point of signing players.

Ronnie says it'll be difficult to change the team from Saturday but that's another good option to have, I can't imagine it being too long before he finds himself in the starting 11. He has some job security now and is back at home, lets hope everything falls into place for him to build on his potential.

Well we need someone to put the ball in the box for paynter whenever he returns.

Just hope our coaching staff do not get their hands on him.But serious thou good luck to the lad

Terrific signing that and hope he does well for us. Will be nice to have an exciting winger again.

Assuming he plays Saturday who would you drop to fit him in and which formation?

Really big decision this for Moore to get right

If everybody is fit I wouldn't drop anybody after Saturday. Bring him on for the last half hour to make a debut against some tiring legs, ideal for a winger.

agreed, if i had played against derby and then dropped next game, i would be very disappointed. But I think having him on in last 30/35 mins (maybe for oates when he tires) would be good against a tiring defence

I wonder why Oates does tire so much, you think he has a night job at Asda in case the season goes tits up

They'll be chuffed to know that.

Darlo 1883 are ex Darlo.

More accurately Sussex I'll think you'll find that nobody gives a fuck as the usual suspects have already found angles for negativity. So I'd imagine this has tempered Roadkills excited trouser tent at having a rare legitimate reason to be post on here. Namely he only had a good game against Scott Harrison (ex Darlo) who I'm sure some think by playing full back that day stripped of being being a professional footballer and put him a on a similar level to someone on work experience or pulling somebody out of the away end 10 minutes before kick off, a custom I'm sure you're aware of a Darlington 1883's level.

'Ex Darlo'... good thing to put on a players CV... " .....well, er, yes I used to play for them, but thanfully I'm an ex darlo player now"