I can take this article with?;

https://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/sport/ ... -1-9133228

Not wanting to doubt Mr Kennedy or the Mail with it usually being spot on for breaking Pools news but the one that really makes me doubt this (apart from the part where it says 'Hartlepool Mail') is him saying Scott Harrison has another year, I find that very hard to comprehend. Think back to the circumstances he signed his last contract under. Two years ago coming up he was released at the end of the season, then effectively taken back on trial over the summer. Are we seriously meant to believe that we re-signed him on a three year deal? Hardly any player would be given that length of contract at this level, not even Pools are that bonkers surely? So with that in mind I'm not paying much attention to the rest of what he's written.

Off topic i guess but cant be arsed starting a new thread...

Just noticed only one club so far has had more than one manager of the month in our league and of course its us. Shows how inconsistent the league is I guess that we get 2 and finish 19th or whatever.

I reckon it's a good job we had two decent months!!

I clicked the link for some unknown reason and was presented with a survey that the website assured me could save journalism. I thought to myself that given the standard of the local media, this is something I absolutely must do. So I promptly set about reading the first question.

It asked "Do you wear sneakers or shoes?"

I then clicked skip.

It almost sounds like we're being prepared for the news that far from a mass clearout, quite a few of the current squad will be staying..... Donaldson (flagged as a high earner), Munns, Laing, Loach, Harrison etc., and that the ones likely to go are those where there's possible interest from above - Woods, Adams, Donnelly, Hawkes. It could be something of a plant, but it does seem to be saying that whoever the new manager is, they will not have a clean slate the way most would hope.

If that is the case, then it could be a season of consolidation at best - looking at it sensibly, Raj will be looking to trim the playing budget, and that means without shipping out the likes of Donaldson etc. there will still be a familiar look to the squad next season - we simply can't (shouldn't!) be carrying a bigger squad next season, so hopes of 10 new players might well be wide of the mark.....

http://inthemadcrowd.co.uk/UI/Players.aspx

Might this be a bit more accurate

We gave Harrison a new contract in March 2017!!?

Sweet Jesus.

Contract lengths and clauses are still largely guesswork though.

If there is no signs of good progress of putting together a creditable squad by end June i can see season ticket sales being well down.

I'm taking this as a direct response to my 'Contracted Players' thread from Monday. Good to know you're still reading the Bunker Liam!

Makes you wonder how Craig H thought he could ship out Scotty H around the end of last year if he still had 18 months on a contract? No-one was going to come in for him with a better offer and Pools surely weren't offering to make up his wages if he went to Northern League or summat! The message at the time was that he was kept on only because of the injury crisis.

As for Donnelly not wanting to sign another contract - I'll believe that! He clearly doesn't want to be here at all - is an ever-present for NI U-21s this season but has only managed half of Pools' fixture list. For the last few weeks the OS hasn't even bothered with an update on his latest niggle picked up on international duty. Chances of him turning out against Tranmere - zero?

Too busy forming your plans to take over the world? Evil bastad.

The length of contracts is still pure guesswork though they are never made common knowledge, I wouldn’t bet against Harrison’s contract he signed in March last year being to the end of this season with a further year option which we obviously wouldn’t take up unless he’s got some incriminating pictures of Hignett or something. Sometimes options are triggered by appearances made and the like so unless Kennedy has sat down with someone from the club and went through each player and asked when he’s out of contract I wouldn’t take this article as the definitive answer to your question. It’s more likely educated guesswork based on when they last signed a contract.

https://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/sport/ ... -1-8549338

Here is last years retained list.

We give new contracts to Magnay and Oates, you'd assume 2 years, or 1 year with the automatic option of the second, if the club still does that.

Rodney had his 1 year contract option extended last year.

It would be fair to assume if donaldson signed a 2 year deal then the majority of the other new signings did too, god i hope luke george didnt.

So assume all of last summers signings are here for another year, along with Magnay and Oates.

So out of contract that would leave...

Donnelly
Featherstone
Rodney
Woods
Hawkins

It's either gunna be the smallest retained list ever or we just hope to god some of those signed last summer was only on 1 year deals.

Is anyone hoping we can sell/give certain players on? There was rumoured interest in Featherstone but no one made a move when we were up shit creek and would have given him away to get him off the wage bill.

I don’t think we’d have given anyone away I think that’s why certain players stayed like Woods as no cash bid came in. I don’t think they were too bothered about trimming the wage bill as they weren’t going to pay the wages anymore it was all about clawing back money in transfer fees, any sort of fee for any player would have been accepted I reckon.

In the summer we maybe have the opportunity to move a few out on free transfers the problem is you need to find a club who will pay them at least as much as we are.

Well its high time you stopped strangling kittens, mugging old dears and trying to run joggers over then!

Here’s me thinking this thread would be about the interview Martin Gray had for the Pools managers job today....

I have it on very good authority that Mr Hignett has put the kibosh on that one

Alun Armstrong too.

It’s laughable trouble causing I though Loan Star was better than this.

For one he has a job so for him to be interviewed we would have to formally approach York who’d I’d imagine would then drive the boss eyed cock womble straight here.

You would be surprised PJ

I would be stunned if Hignett would even entertain the thought of going near someone who is out of his depth in the Conference North and that’s before you get to his basic view of the game, long ball tactics and how much of a cock he is.

2+2=78

Wishful thinking on your part tinged by your hatred of Singh and now Gray.

Whatever PJ
From what I hear Armstrong is Hignetts choice and Gray is Singhs choice.
Both have had interviews over the last day. You don’t have to believe me if you don’t want to but that is what I have been told by people who know far more than I do.

Did we formally approach York? oh and Blyth?

We have two candidates both from the area both from the Conference North. Nobody else is being considered. Oh and the only person to leak this across any Pools forum is you?

If Gray got the job I think we can safely say PJ will not be attending games next season.

loan-star in wind up shocker!

It’s an obvious wind up I know.

I properly dislike the fucker like, more than people who check into Hospitals on Facebook, it’s almost irrational and my dislike started watching him clog around a football pitch fouling people nothing to do with him managing Darlo.

Did York formally approach Darlo for Gray? No.
Did he meet York before he left Darlo? Yes.

As for me hating Gray, I’m actually on first name terms with him and have his number on my mobile. I can ring him and ask but he deny it, just like he said he had no contact from York before leaving us.

Text him and tell him I think he’s a rarf.

Oooh you namedropper.

Martin Gray's groupie

Love that Loanie's on first name terms with Gray, after calling him Gray in the very same post.

FIRST NAME: YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!!!

Prove it, what's his name? I actually know his first name so we'll see won't we.

This time it’s between two full time professional clubs though, or it would be if it was true.

You're nowhere near irritating enough to be Dibble. For a start, you never go on about how thick people are in Hartlepool.

There is truth on both accounts, my mole has confirmed that both have been interviewed.

Before you ask!

Cambridge.

Is claiming you have Martin Grays number in your phone literally the worst name dropping attempt ever?

I have Yubeps number in my phone, I can ring him and confirm it if needed.

Thats a big name drop that joe.

Phone him and get your season ticket for the back garden season 18/19

First friendly against accrington confirmed.

Dunno how you've managed to pull that friendly off, huge coup for you that.

The amount of data you have to hand over to get a Yubep's Back Garden season ticket, Yubep could ring anyone he wants from my phone.

He makes Mark Zuckerberg look out of the loop.

Not really. PJ reckons I have a hatred of him but I know him away from football too so although I thought his departure from Darlo was badly handled by Gray himself, I dont hate him for it.



Be careful Monkeybutt, PJ will accuse you of a hatred of Singh and Gray before long.

I don’t think you hate him but your opinion of his management skills seems to have changed somewhat since he jumped ship, at least my opinion of the bloke has been consistent.

Plus you do hate Singh and it’s clouding your posts on here, several people have pointed out to you how you’ve become like a cracked record. That is all I meant by that comment. Anyway have you text rat faced simpleton for me yet?

Just going to jumped in with the cracked/broken record thing. It's a scratched record you all mean, a cracked or broken one would jump allover the place, a scratched one would repeat the same thing over and over.

Stop getting records wrong!

I stacked 10 records on top of each other and got my son to count them from top to bottom, it was the vinyl countdown dernernerner der ner ner ner ner

https://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/sport/ ... ssion=true

This is an occasion where I completely believe in the Hartlepool Mail and Liam Kennedy’s journalistic prowess as it fits my irrational dislike of Gray agenda and makes Loan Star look a bit daft.

With having Higgy as Director of Football dont we just need a head coach not a manager?

Higgy signs the players and the coach is tasked with making a silk purse out of a sows ear!

How exactly? Both names I have mentioned are or were in the frame. Just because it didn't say in the article that Gary was interviewed doesnt mean it didn't happen.
If anything it makes you look daft for saying it was bollocks in the first place.

By the way, yes I do hate Singh. If he feels he's been so misunderstood then why hasn't the big nosed twat even had the bottle to apologise for what went on? But no, its always somebody else fault as you will no doubt find out.

Keith Curle?

Singh might have mentioned Gray but I said from the start that Hignett is our director of football so logically it was never going to happen however much you wanted it to.

Your views are tainted by now admitted hatred.