According to the Sunderland Echo. Ged McNamee has gone back to the Mackems as the head of recruitment. Glad Richardson has got himself fixed up. According to the Daily Mirror no less he was 'in demand' from a number of clubs. Where do they get this shit from?

Josh Hawkes won't be following Richardson to Sunderland because Pools are due a compensation fee from whoever signs him as he was offered an improved contract at the Vic. Must be getting towards squeaky bottom time for Josh and whoever 'advises' him.

So will we be building a team around a disinterested Josh Hawkes? A team which may need to include Tony Sweeney and Ian McGuckin - simply because we have few others to choose from?

Good luck to Richardson - the lad showed some promise - not a lot perhaps, but whose fault was that?

I'd be very surprised if Hawkes was given another chance at Pools because the one thing we do have is enough midfielders. Definitely need a few more defenders and someone who's proved he can score goals regularly at this level. Otherwise Holohan's a good bet to end up as leading scorer in another season where we struggle to score more than 1 or 2 a game.

if we managed more clean sheets then 1 or 2 goals a game would be ideal. would not mind a 1 nil win every single week.

Hawkes was in last chance saloon last season, he had to have a good season and he never really got a look in, a bit unlucky that the season never ran its full course, but everything suggested it wouldnt have made a difference for Josh. I used to rate him, a real shame he never realised his potential, can't fathom out what went wrong , but yet another one whose early potential just nosedived. Still a chance another club could pull him out, but his time here is over.