Everything seems to have gone quiet on the transfer front so i was wondering if everybody thinks we're ready for the new season or whether we need maybe 1 or 2 more new faces before the big KO??

It's hard to say. We haven't played many friendlies compared to some teams. There are still probably a lot of ????? on the team for the first match.

With regards to transfers we should have enough already to finish in mid table, however a striker who can score plenty would help drive us towards the play offs. I know its old hat now but Adam Boyd would of been the right sort of signing in my opinion.

Whether we have enough demands purely on where people expect/want Pools to finish.

The current squad will NOT get relegated.......

Dunno about where people expect us to finish but I would be disappointed with anyone who doesnt want us to finish top

What you want and what you get are often two very different things.
I don't think we have a squad capable of finishing top, but I would be very happy to be proved wrong

There is not a chance of us finishing 1st or 2nd unless some mega signings are made. No matter how much I hope we get another promotion on the bounce - it's just not gonna happen.

Oh f00k off.

Don't be nasty - you know that I'm right....

Jonny mate, we're Hartlepool, we get 5000 at home, we don't do mega-signings. If you want mega-signings you have to go elsewhere. Where's the mega-signings in this division?? Even in the one above, where's the big name signings?? They don't happen any more, the Prems got them all.

All I said was that with the current squad we will finish mid table, to finish in the top 2 we will need better players than what we have in my opinion.....

But on the other thread you were saying we finished sixth with a four man team, Dimi, Nelse, Porter and Boyd. You don't think this squad is better than the 2004/5 squad??

Aw go and squeeze an orange...

I agree with everything that Chip says.....

I'm with Jonny and mr. chip, on this one,
but would be happy to be proved wrong.

We've got unknown quality in goal,
I'm not sure we've solved the right back position.
Although we've strenghtened the rest of the defence.

Still have no true wingers (wide men) and
I can't see us scoring enough goals.

Top ten would be my best hope.

i concur lots with chip

Who though Mr Fireball?? Trundle's gone, Eastwood's gone. There's Hayter and Duffy granted, IF Duffy lives up to expectations, Hayter never excited me with Bournemouth I can't see why he would at Doncaster. Nathan Tyson?? One season wonder, Grant Holt the same. Kandol at Leeds?? Crap. Tore Andre Flo, yeah maybe. Darren Byfield?? Nope, not for my money. Luton sold Vine and Edwards. With one notable exception, I'm running out of options now. Constantine hasn't got a club, Heffernan maybe, Varneys gone, Porters gone, Maynard maybe.

So out of three players who topped 20 goals last season, two aren't there any more and one's 'between jobs.' No-one of note's come down, Flo excepted, no-one of note except Richie Barker, co-winner of the Golden Boot, came up.


I think we have much cause for optimism with Porter, Brown, Barker and Moore, and in a full season I'd expect double figures from Monkhouse. There's the contributions from Liddle and Humphreys too.

No need to get the razor blades out yet.

There are two kinds of people on this board. Those who enjoy dreams and those who don't.

wet dreams

I'd like to agree with Jonny, Chip, Leicester and Kev (even though he contradicts the former three) if I may please
Thank you

I would like to agree with everybody that has agreed. Errr what was the question

well said that man

Some of us are dreamers and some of us are realists, but we are all supporters

Excellent post chip.

Well with talking too Russ Green the club are hoping on a top ten finish.
The club is geared up for this season on and off the field.

i think we could finish in the play offs.

On the other end of the scale though chip, we beat Rotherham(comfortably) and played two championship sides, beating one and drawing with the other(over 90 mins)both away from home and both without conceding a goal.

We have competition for places in every single position on the park, unlike last season, in some positions we have 3 players vying for one place, so not one player will be able to rest on their laurels this season and be in the comfort zone.

Mid-table is the very least we should be hoping for.

With the quality of players we have available and the strength in depth we have, a top-six finish is more likely than unlikely.

Chip, you're getting a bit tedious with your "what the fook do you know you aren't here" comments. Sure I get my matchday fixes from Pools World but I do also listen to what *everyone* says about our performances, good comments and bad alike, so I'm not totally out of touch am I.

If we keep doing what we've been doing for the last eight years, bar the one season where we know what was the matter, we can afford to dream.

There are big spenders every season. So what. The big spenders last time we got promoted were Bristol City who turned out to be just a shade better than Pools.
At the other end of the buying scale, Neale Cooper's ad hoc team of tatty arses had our dreams coming true in no time.

Here's some food for thought:
At the start of that season we had two good goalscorers, Robinson and Gabbiadini. At the end of the season we had Boyd knocking them in. Between Robinson's last goal and Boyd's first, we played 21 games, i.e., nearly half a season. Our only seasoned striker during that time was Eifion Williams.
During that period we went from 7th to 8th, then it took just one match to get back up to sixth and that's where we finished.

No one has given me the slightest good reason why I should rule out a top six finish this time round.

I'm expecting a top 8 finish.

If we had a 20 goal a season striker then we could easily make the top 5 but I don't think we do.

I think we'll do similar to Carlisle last season, There or thereabouts just missing out on the Playoffs & I'll be happy with that

I'm glad we've strengthened the squad in Defence as when Nelson or Clark were out we did seem to struggle a little, With Antwi & Elliott to drop into the middle I think thats a good bit of business by Danny Wilson!

I think Barker will chip in with 12-15 goals next season, Even though people are mentioning 'No proven goalscorer' we did fairly well last season as most of the starting XI were chipping in with goals, Liddle, Monkhouse, Brown etc

I just hope the fans dont get on Wilsons back fairly quickly into the new season, If we have a poor start!

Looking forward to the big kick off now though!

I simply cannot believe that this is a description of a team that went 23 games unbeaten, or comes from a man who watched those games. Nor can I believe that this is a description of a team that didn't concede a goal for almost 500 minutes. Or a team that broke it's away performance record, I could go on. Now I may have got those facts from Poolsworld (in actual fact I didn't, I was there until mid December) but they are undisputable and I don't think ....'Yeah we were alright in patches...' does the team or the players in it justice. We were by far and away the best team in that league for half of the season.

Now I've asked who the big goalscorers that we must cower in fear from are and I've been told some clubs have spent half a million but no names. OK lets go on finance, we'll be playing one club who spent a fookin' sight more than half a million and look where it got them. Money does NOT equal quality in football as a dozen hapless African Premiership strikers have shown. I'll tell you the name of ONE superb striker we may face next season. The dynamic Guylain Ndumbu-Nsungu who set Darlington alight with his eight in a season. Fook me, give 'Chopper' Harris a ring. People really do have to stop talking bollocks about 'Oh we need a 20+ goalscorer,' Right then lets get down to the 20+ goalscorer tree and pluck the nearest one off eh??

However we have a proven goalscorer on the books, one who scored the sacred 20+ goals last season. What do we hear?? 'Oh he'll get found out at this level.' Right well, we've got a striker who scored 16 'at this level' first time of asking. We've got another striker who scored OVER 20 at a higher level even than this. We've got an up and coming striker who most people rate even higher than Boyd. We've got players who have commanded six and in one case seven figure transfer fees.

Still and all we get the same sage chin rubbing, lip pursing and head shaking before every season so it shouldn't really faze me one more time at this stage should it.

Well said Kev

Well it doesn't really matter whether we battered the other teams or not last season does it.

League1/Div3 Champions 2004: Plymouth, battered every fookah in sight, previous season with essentially the same team didn't batter fish.
League1/Div3 Champions 2005: Luton, battered every fookah in sight, previous season with essentially the same team didn't batter fish.
League1/Div3 Champions 2005: Southend, battered every fookah in sight, previous season with essentially the same team, scored a breathtaking 65 goals in a lower division (just like another team did last season).
League1/Div3 Champions 2006: Scunthorpe, battered every fookah in sight, previous season with quarter of a season to go were one of our most serious relegation rivals.

come on , be more specific

is 'well' , top 2 , top 10 or midtable

I think most people would say


Relegation - Nightmare
5th bottom to 7th bottom - Not too good.
Lower mid table - ok
Upper mid table - quite well
Top 6 - Exceptionally Well
Top 2 - Phuqing Outstanding.......

I'd have settled for lower mid table half way through the Scotty season.
Next time round I'd consider that disappointing, but that would depend to a large extent on how we finished the season.

I'm right in thinking we all hope it won't take too long to get into the Championship, am I not?

As for winning games, As Cloughie once said: 'I'm a great believer in that you have to score more goals than the opposition'. We have a defence that arguably has the best central defensive partnership in the division and for once a back up player that is just as good. We have also strengthened the full back positions. Now I don't see that defence being over run too often. In midfield we have an excess of riches and up front we have a very decent set of players.

The point being that if we don't let too many goals in then each of the forwards don't need to be a 30 goals a season machine.

according to russ green we are still trying to sign 2 more players

Do they have an S in their names