Just been talking to my cousin in Ireland and he is taking his young son to a trials weekend held by Celtic on Saturday and Sunday.
Celtic hold 2 trial weekends every year and pick up some good young players surely pools could do that.

Why don't you ask Chris?

I'm sure Mr Fireball would run it for them

We get could members of the TownEndElite to hurl abuse at them to see how they stand up to a good barracking..

Theres no piont in signing them if they don't react by starting to play like Ronaldo immediately after a stiff bollocking

Or clap like goons and gibbons after another half arsed home performance when a possible three points has been pissed against the wall once again

i agree talbot

It happens at football matches.. If you haven't already worked it out there are three outcomes. .

Win, Draw and Loss..


If you win Win more games you'll be at the top of table if you have of the other two you'll tend to be near the bottom...

By shouting at people and calling them fat nackers you won't make any player try harder or effect the game directly.

Booing doesn't encourage anyone and In my opinion doesn't inspire anyone to try harder in the future.

Does every thread have to end up with this argument?

yourright it gets a bit boring after a while.

Pools have released a young lad lately, who has been snapped up by another club and signed a three yar contract. the player pools released as no good has now signed for Rangers

Surely he had something about him for rangers to snap him up, or maybe he didnt fit into turners click

its clique not click. Pools let a lad go a few year ago who celtic picked up straight away. Never made it though. Pools obviously felt the lad wasnt good enough. Stop picking faults all the time.

I think Mouldy's original suggestion was a good one and Pools should look into it.

My son has been involved in the Teesside (TJFA) league for about seven years and we have heard lads having scout approaches from Boro, Sunderland, Newcastle, Aston Villa and Darlington in the past. Never heard anything from Pools though, which is strange as we are a Hartlepool side and compete in the highest league..

Pools have scouts at many of the kids matches these days.

Peter Todd is always prowling around.

The problem pools have at the moment is that they dont have a very good reputation for looking after the younguns.

My youngests team have had four of the team at pools at very points in time.

All four came back worse players than when they went.

All came back disappointed at how they were treat. These are 10 year olds.

They are taught at their local clubs to play for the team.....play to win.......but play fair.

Pools take them........and I know this is the case.............and tell them to always do a trick, and practice these tricks when they get back to their local clubs.

So good little players suddenly come back, start playing again, get the ball, and rather than doing the simple things, and playing for the team......suddenly do ridiculous stepovers, or try stupid skills and lose the ball.

And then the other lads get on their case, and they lose their confidence.

Pools have it all wrong, with these kids.

Other clubs though do it better. Especially Middlesbrough.

i heard pools released 3 one signed for rangers another for hearts and the other is on trial

if thats the case mr adg then its only a recent change in policy because they certainly never used to 5 year ago. And thats bad news if they are.

i couldnt possibly let the name out of the bag but it will become common knowledge soon enough.

the scouting system is shocking from Pools. I run an under 9's team and we compete in the TJFA. I regularly get phone calls from scouts of Boro and Newcastle but have never had one from Pools.

Like you say, there is plenty of young home gown talent at grass routes level, so maybe our scouts should be looking at this when the lads are at 14 and 15, and bleed them through the youth system. I'm sure there will be plenty of lads busting a gut to play for their home town

What will become common knowledge?

I agree entirely with the rest of your post by the way...

As much as I hate Borer, their youth team set up is fantastic. When I was there the coaching was brilliant for the most part, and the youth teams were known for playing excellent football. We were taught tricks and what not and encouraged to use them, but not to the detriment of the team. I was signed via a Den Brown football Academy in which the best players were put forward for Boro trials. I went along with another Hartlepool lad called Micky Markwell and a young Peterlee lad called Adam Johnson (the rest is history for him). Not once can I remember Pools sniffing about. The first time I remember them coming anywhere near was when I was 11 and playing for the town team under Tony Carter. By that time, the best 5 or 6 players in the team were on the books of Boro or Sunderland. However, I still think signing for a club at 9 or 10 is too young; by the time I was 13 or 14 I was utterly sick of the game because I played it that often. I'd advise any young lad to wait until around then before signing for a club; if you're good enough, you'll get picked up.

Just a thought: is it since Ian Kerr left that the youth set-up has gone tits up?

I was talking to Gerry Hogan on Sunday morning who is a scout for Birmingham City and he was saying that Aston Villa have the best scouting and youth policy in the counry.

I think the Villa scout round here is from Billingham, can't remember his name at the moment - he has been to quite a few of our games this season. In fact of all of the scouts Villas is the one that is most often present I think.

It's Keith Noble. He used to be a Boro scout.

My Cousins lad has been invited to Celtic for a ground visit and tour of the training centre they must see some thing in him at 12 years of age.