has signed for stockport

Another sign of how small our budget is. Teams like Stockport beating us to our No 1 target. That and our signings of Mcdonald, Ofiosu, Crawford and Ferguson all from non league clubs. We need a right back asap.

I worry about where our even small budget has come from. Couple of good signings amongst that lot, but a lot of could go either way signings for me, very like for like and similar to a lot of signings we have made over the last few seasons, Luke George , Raynes, Muir , McLaughlin, Kerr, Bale etc etc.

Stockport have signed both the full backs we finished last season with and a bunch of other good players like John Rooney. Their owner only took over the club at the beginning of the year and is obviously funding an attempt to win promotion in his first full season in charge.

Apart from the depth of his pockets (his group of companies employs 2,500 people) he bought a club that was already on the up and had no debt - not on the brink of folding like Pools were when Raj came in.

Pools can't compete with the likes of Stockport and Notts County when it comes to wages but Dave Challinor has done enough while he's been here to prove his ability to spot good prospects that Pools can afford. I'm sure he'll be aiming for a place in the play-offs with the squad he starts the season with.

I’ve always be of the opinion if you sign 5 or 6 free transfers you do well to get 2 or 3 successes.

Donaldson?
Its going to be a tough season me thinks.

If we have anutha disaster season ( hopefully not ).
Can we just put it down to us just been shit with bad recruitment n a lack of ambition.

The excuse of previous owners has run its course now.
Time to move on.
Surely the law of averages says we r due a decent season.
UTP.

dave challinor has proved at his previous 2 clubs, colwyn bay and fylde that he can build teams. fylde paid wages better than most of the others but they never paid massive transfer fees for players. a lot depends on who other teams have signed but somehow i think the play offs maybe just out of our reach. my big hope is that challinor is still at pools in 12 months time but i would not bet on it.

agree. however sometimes a club gets lucky and they all come of and gell. however its pools we are talking about. just wonder who will be the fans whipping boy next season.

Feel a bit for DC. He inherited a club that has been in freefall for 7 or 8 seasons, a freefall that has disillusioned a lot of fans. A lot of my anger towards the club is down to that not towards anything DC has or hasnt done. Then to add to that Covid 19 comes along , meaning that fans havent really had time to disect and analyse the good things already that DC has put in place. I'm aware of this and think DC already in a short space of time got things going in the right direction , this in spite of further problems off the field regarding finances, problems that were there before Covid and would in my view eventually surfaced even if Covid hadnt happened. I do think , like all the managers in the past he is trying to sow a silk purse with a cows ear, some of his signings will be players he truly believes in, others will be just to put bums on seats. The main thing is he has got rid of some of the deadwood he inherited , and kept the best of what was left in Featherstone, Donaldson, Molyneux, Holohan etc and added other good players to the mix in Shelton, Ferguson and Bloomfield. At this level that is the core of a decent team. There are others such as Odusina and Young that could come good. The team is young and therefore should be naturally fit and therefore able to at least compete this season. Ultimately though its about scoring one more goal than the opposition , and that could be the problem, that and the inexperience within the squad , when it comes to the crunch at the end of the season. This is now DC's team and he needs to take it on to the next level.

What you have to look at last season is the way he used the loan system very well and all the players brought in went straight into the team so he changed half the team as the season progressed getting us around the play offs.
I believe he doesnt mess about and if a player is not consistant he will be replaced with a loan signing, the disaster away to harrogate proved that some of the players from that game never really played again.

Surely with the covid effect.
These tinpot clubs that have shite support will struggle to compete with the so called big boys.
A good manager.
Plenty of fit young players.
Good support.

Surely there's 17 teams gunna finish below us this season.
Hopeing the pre season optimism doesn't die by the usual Oct/Nov time!

[quote="kevin pooles gloves"]Surely with the covid effect.
These tinpot clubs that have shite support will struggle to compete with the so called big boys.

the problem is they do compete and actually beat the big boys. the mighty promoted harrogate only got 30 more per game than relagated chorley. boreham wood are under 1,000. whatever we think of these tin pot clubs they do not seem to need a top 5 league attendances just to survive. is it having a sugar daddy or the ability to run on a shoestring that makes em competitive.

[quote="kevin pooles gloves"]Surely with the covid effect.
These tinpot clubs that have shite support will struggle to compete with the so called big boys.

the problem is they do compete and actually beat the big boys. the mighty promoted harrogate only got 30 more per game than relagated chorley. boreham wood are under 1,000. whatever we think of these tin pot clubs they do not seem to need a top 5 league attendances just to survive. is it having a sugar daddy or the ability to run on a shoestring that makes em competitive.

Or it could be they have first class manager,s as the two clubs you mentioned do.
And so do we.
Looks lik MSH, Won,t be first choice RB either, Barring injuries.

Could have first class managers true, but I bit of a coincident they have a sugar daddy backing the club.

Unless we get a real sugar daddy, like a true blue dyed in the wool Poolie, winning something like a substantial amount on the euromillions, we are always going to struggle. Even then some of our fans would set more and more ambitious sights and probably piss our benefactor off. Oh to have league one football again and another shot at the play offs, preferably against Sheff Wed.

I don't think the league one days will happen again.
All fans opinions are different but to not challenge for a play off place in a piss poor non League Division is totally unacceptable.
Owned by 2 millionaires aren't we with a very good fanbase.

Any fan happy with finishing between 8th n 20th needs to seriously raise there ambition.

There’s millionaires and millionaires. It’s obvious Raj does not have a bottomless pit he’ll probably keep putting a few grand in to keep us going until he sells up.

then that would actually make them more ambitious than the club is.

[quote="derwent"]Unless we get a real sugar daddy, like a true blue dyed in the wool Poolie, winning something like a substantial amount on the euromillions, we are always going to struggle. Even then some of our fans would set more and more ambitious sights and probably piss our benefactor off.
plus if a good sugar daddy came in, changed things for the better on the pitch and actually changed things behind the scenes there would be some saying that it does not feel like pools anymore and would love the bad old days to come back.

Don't think I've ever noticed Harrogate splashing the cash,maybe on Stead,that's all.
Apart from him,there was only Jack Muldoon i'd heard of & he's just a lower league journeyman.
Thier best two players were a Darlo reject & Sunderland lonee.

He wasn’t a Darlo reject he left to go full time at Harrogate. They may not pay big transfer fees but owin g to having a ‘sugar daddy’ pay bigger wages.

[quote="Johnjo1" They may not pay big transfer fees but owin g to having a ‘sugar daddy’ pay bigger wages.[/quote]
paying bigger wages is the main reason we left one job to go to another. football players are no different. they are not fans of us or any other team they go where the best money and contracts are available.