Reading the mail regarding players contracts its worrying that it would appear that all but Sylla of Hartleys signings are on two year contracts. There are rumours that a number are being offloaded but that’s going to be costly.

the old dilemma. Give em one season and they,ll be good and leave for nothing. give em longer and they,ll be crap and stuck with them which makes recruitment harder. Where are the unwanted hartley boys going to go to get the same money as even pools are paying them. however hard you try it does not mean you,ll be up to league 2 and they didn,t force hartley to sign em. i,m sure there will be some who refuse to leave unless its a good bribe that gives us less money to spend in january.

Feaths and Killip ? no doubt will be offered new terms and we get stuck with them.

time those 2 parted with Pools im afraid.

Sylla could end up being another that got away if we dont sign him on at least a 2 year - should we go down, he would be an asset to the team. Pools have unearthed some midfield gems over the years and the ones im thinking of either still play in the championship or did at some point in leaving Pools - its about time we kept onto these types of players and get some of their best years in the blue and white. KC am sure will be making this happen.

The only way i see us offloading the shite from the PH era is either telling the lads whom are surplus - that they wont be in the match day squad and their replacement is either through the door already or signing on the dotted line as we speak... or shipping them back to scotland on loan.. lets not forget there will be a host of Scottish L1 pish poor pub teams chomping at the bit to have the likes of Wastie and Murray in their team.. dare i say Paterson too !

Can we force players to go out on loan? Thinking out loud I can see a scenario where clubs will agree to take these players but we would still be paying a large chunk of their wages, if not all of it.
Free transfers with a bit of a golden handshake appears to be the best option.Isuppose it depends also on the intricacies of the ir contracts. Just being paid the basic wage, without add ons, bonuses etc for another 18 months with no game time might not appeal to them. I bloody hope so.

Agree completely…..If you put them on gardening leave, they’ll soon put things onto focus if they want to continue playing the game professionally, especially if training is reduced for them…. they’ll definitely get the message and be fighting to go out on loan..

if a player sticks to his part of the contract there is nothing a club can do about it. being crap at a job is not seen as a reason to chuck anyone out of work these days. the club actually is the one that could get into hot water and not the players themselves. things seem stacked in their favour.

We need Sylla to stay and Menyasee as well. Sorry Roly for spelling your name wrong but we need you. Its horrible in the Midlands. Come North East you are needed and loved. And come on Keith C we are going to lose Joe Grey if you don't play him.

Totally agree with everything you say although do you think Joe Grey is that special? I know he scored the winner against Blackpool last season but he hasn't done a great deal since. I have an open mind and happy to read reasons why we should hold on to him.

We stuck with a load of so called footballers.
Stand by what i said a while back. 3rd bottom for the next 2 seasons will be acceptable for me.
The dreams n hope of league one are just a distant memory.
Massive test of the fans loyalty next season even if we stay up.
Then theres the Cost of Living crisis going up big style from March to April. No more c tax gas leccy discounts etc paid for by our taxes by the way not freebies from the tory mob.
Its only a game.

think the relief of not going down will keep fans onboard for next season. doubt the cost of living will have that much affect on gates as with drink and drugs people always seem to find the money for these and in some way football is a drug itself.

Joe Grey is on a 3 year deal - when was the last time Pools showed that much commitment to a player?

He did well when he got on at Crawley and hopefully Curle will give him more opportunities to show what he can do this month. It's odds on that at least one new forward will be added to the books in January, so he could be even further down the pecking order then.

Challinor always spoke of Joe as 'one for the future.' He's still only 19 and not that much has changed. Some people talk about him as if he should be an automatic pick but to date he's got one League 2 goal. It's a chicken and egg situation till he gets a couple of starts to show what he can really do. Hope he's in the team for the Newport game.

he might not be the finished article or ever improve, but after that appearance at crawley and the non stop effort he put in he deserves a place in the starting 11. doubt anyone could have showed as much commitment as he did when he came on. some lads come off the bench to be totally invisable and did more running in the warm up.

Pools over the years have had a few promising youngsters but only Sweeney, Boyd and the other fella with dodgy knees, I can’t remember his name progressed to the first team, the others just disappeared.

same at every club in the league. back in the 90,s when i reffed these games i can only think of 3 apart from emile heskey who really made it as league players. got to know one manager who acyually said to me that non of his side would make it even if they are doing well in the league but keeps him in work for another couple of seasons. his lads apart from the keeper towered over my 6ft 1 inch.

I think it's James Brown you had in mind. What a sad loss for Pools

Who was the lad who was linked with Man City and Celtic (I think) and spent a month on loan at Darlo? Jack something or other??

Jack Blackford

Boydie could have gone the same way if not for Neale Cooper,.

See hes at the dizzy heights of Guisborough now. Another local talent that didnt make the grade.

That loan spell at Boston made him realise were his bread was buttered.

should we keep League status for the next few years then grey will undoubtably get alot better (albeit he gets the game time too). I said it before that he needs to go out on loan to the NL at the very least and play week in week out, his conditioning and the way he puts himself about will dramatically change - add that to the fact hes playing mens football he will come back after a season a different player, but to do that we need to make sure we have a replacement in the team. He may have a bright future in the game..he may be another that plods along in and out of the NL and we see him again as a journeyman in the latter side of his career

Only time will tell with Grey. I personally haven’t seen anything exceptional from him. He’s played under a number of managers who say he is promising but non of them seem to trust him at the present time mainly only bringing him on for the last 20 minutes or so. Maybe like someone has said, a loan move to a club where he could play regularly would assist his development instead of stagnating on the bench. Let’s be honest at the present time he can’t get into a very poor team.

Had a bad feeling some of the turds from Scotland were going to be double flushers !

What ever happened to Luca Murphy, info on the net says is he is with out a club ?

I’m assuming he played non league somewhere last season. Suspect that’s probably where he will stay.

Still only 21, but he's been without a club for nearly 18 months! There's no mention of a bad injury on the Fulham website, just that he failed to break into their first team and was released in the summer of 2021. If he's still playing football I doubt he's making any sort of living from it.

It's a cautionary tale for young lads - and greedy dads. The one bit of good news is that Pools had their complaint about Fulham's conduct upheld by the Professional Football Compensation Committee and were awarded a 6 figure sum earlier this year.

[quote="Flying Hogans"]

Still only 21, but he's been without a club for nearly 18 months! There's no mention of a bad injury on the Fulham website, just that he failed to break into their first team and was released in the summer of 2021. If he's still playing football I doubt he's making any sort of living from it.

It's a cautionary tale for young lads - and greedy dads.
and how many others are around who can tell similar stories. you,ll never get wise heads on young shoulders with so many lost to the game in future years even at the basic level of 5 and 6 a side on wednesday nights. my lad was a late developer so missed out on acadamies but still plays regularly at 35 where those from acadamys prop up the bar telling all and sundry the time they were at coventry or northampton but fail to tell em it was all under 16 stuff and have not kicked a ball in anger since they were released.

The thing is with young lads is that they are playing in their age group it’s not until they jump into mens football that you can sort out the wheat from the chaff.

exactly, so why do clubs sign up really young kids when they have not even started maturing. they,ll be putting a featus on a contract next.

Every now and then at half time Pools turn out a number of age groups doing keep ups etc and I look and feel sorry for them. They all think they are going to make it but sadly very few if any do. The thing at Pools the very best kids seem to get picked up by Sunderland and Middlesbrough at an early age and who can blame them at the thought of joining a big club. Sadly as at Pools very few make it.

I hope people don’t think I’m discouraging kids from playing football I’m only stating reality.

a reality those who started up the idea do not want to hear. the kids may eventually play in the northern league, well the lucky ones anyway, but their mates who may be better players will not get a look in if they had not previously been at clubs. they need the system to work and there is little time for late developers.

The British scouting system and the way the young lads of old where/still are treat all needs to change.

i remember my playing days at U16 level - we had just won a county cup and the scouts where ever present at those games - low and behold all the taller bigger built lads (some regardless of talent) where asked to come for trials at both Pools and Sunderland. The best players on the pitch 90% of the time are the smaller technically gifted ones - need i say anymore at a time when the best player to ever do it is 5ft nowt and has just won all there is to win in the game !

Cloughie didn’t approve of signing up kids……he said by the time they’re about to mature they’re pissed off with footie and discovered girls.

i think around 60% of the lads i know whom where on the academies or books at the time we reached say 18 had all discovered what that thing between their legs was for and sacked the footy off - so yeh ill agree with that one - also add drink to tha too !