Looking that way Billy!
The theory of replacing shit with shit n hopeing for the best looks set to continue.
FFS

Looking that way Billy!
The theory of replacing shit with shit n hopeing for the best looks set to continue.
FFS [/quote]
like at most clubs and pools throughout most of their existance. how many times do playes A B and C get released only to be replaced by 3 others no better but no worse. in some ways that can be a plus as at times they are replaced by worse ones. how many times do you see real improvements on the ones that leave even though they come as world beaters.

Sterry from South Shields, Dodds from Darlo and someone described as a kid from Scarborough. I hope the kid from Scarborough is as good as the other two have been.
Not bad business that, so far.

Sterry and doddswere part of a defence that got us relegated, as much as I like both players they still heavily featured in a team that was relegated from the football league.

Just because a team gets relegated doesn’t mean that they do not posses some good players. Top clubs are fighting over Southampton and Leicester players and they got relegated and I bet that goes to other teams.
As I have stated on a number of occasion if you sign 4 or 5 free transfers you’ll be lucky to get 2 or 3 successful ones.

like at most clubs and pools throughout most of their existance. how many times do playes A B and C get released only to be replaced by 3 others no better but no worse. in some ways that can be a plus as at times they are replaced by worse ones. how many times do you see real improvements on the ones that leave even though they come as world beaters.[/quote]

Clubs improve from one season to the next all the time. No reason why we can't be one of them. None at all.

Clubs improve from one season to the next all the time. No reason why we can't be one of them. None at all.[/quote]



True, but in reality you can’t keep improving continually, even the top clubs get it wrong occasionally, but sadly our long history is like the motorist who bought a Robin Reliant all his life and saw no reason to change as it did the job for him….it’s called ambition…or lack of it.
We ain’t after a Mercedes…but an hatchback would be a leap forward.

True, but in reality you can’t keep improving continually, even the top clubs get it wrong occasionally, but sadly our long history is like the motorist who bought a Robin Reliant all his life and saw no reason to change as it did the job for him….it’s called ambition…or lack of it.
We ain’t after a Mercedes…but an hatchback would be a leap forward.[/quote]

No but theres no reason why we can't talk about improving from one single season to the next which is the current context. Its very much do-able. We don't need a Rolls Royce to stand out in this car park and we are big enough earners to make the payments.

missed out on another target. we allowed the man.city captain to go on a free to barcelona. when is this going to end.

Well judging by twitter theclub is more interested in doing homes under the hammer videos. Another bizarre episode in the life of following Pools.

We still lose out of it was between us and Spennymoor let alone Barcelona.

What's bizarre about working with the club sponsors? They expect to get some advertising from their expenditure it actually happens in every sport, and It's the communications kid in the videos not the manager or recruitment guy so it's certainly not affecting recruitment.
Why does everything the club do have to be slated?

I don't have a problem with it, sponsors will want some exposure. Had we signed 4/5 players by now then nobody would complain about it. Yes I want to see more players coming in but not going to moan about things like that.

Sponsors are an integral part of sport these days and they make a vital contribution to it.
It can't be of any surprise to people if the sponsors require some sort of return for their support in a reciprocal sort of way.

I am starting to feel a bit nervous about the lack of signings.

I am concerned no one leaving either--cant stomach another year of Murray, Hastie, Lacey and Patterson...

Lets hope 30 June is the watershed day for people coming in and just as importantly fucking off

You not allowed to be concerned!
The Unambitious Sing lovers will say you are out of order because theres still a week left of Early Bird.

Everything pointing towards a relegation battle.
FFS.

Not a Singh lover, but there is plenty of time to move players out and bring some in.
Can you expand on the everything points to a relegation battle please?

Complaints because we can’t get rid of a number of players still on contract. Not long ago same people complained owing to players leaving after only been given one year contracts. At our level it’s always a gamble when dealing with free transfers. Hindsight again great thing.

Agreed but we are in a rough spot in terms of paying good money to shite---if we can't offload that it points to a challenging season....I am v worried about our physicality--we are way too weak for the division currently--the likes of Crawford and Grey anywhere near the first 11 points to a bottom half finish

You just need the right manager to find the right strategies to motivate the other 2 or 3

The idea was to tie decent players down to longer contracts, not shite.

We don’t tie them down because they know they can get more money elsewhere. They have most likely been tapped up eg Sterry this season. Another recent was Oates, who would have given him more than one year but he turned out a success and when we tried to extend his stay his agent had obviously turned his head.

This isn't rocket science. Clubs are managing to keep hold of their decent players or get fees for them up and down the country. Perhaps Pools leave it too late. Nah that can't be right, Pools don't leave things late. Surely not.....

Pools are not the only club who lose players who move on for more money it’s part of football.

We are holding onto Dodds, Sylla, Umerah, Cooke, at the moment and if they go well get fees. Sterry was never going to play NL again he made that statement ages ago. Oates was offered more money and guaranteed Div 2 football when he agreed to go to Mansfield, we didn't even know which division we'd be in so we'd never have matched their offer.
Players come, players go Man City couldn't hold onto their Captain who's going on a free to Barcelona so, Spurs will be losing Kane this summer, it happens at all clubs.

The state of the current squad.
Nothing up front.
Weak as piss midfield.
Defense is slightly better.
If ya think cos Wrexham n N County r gone its gunna be a breeze ya in for a shock.
As for recruitment to improve things. We will gzt the usual desperadoes who nobody else wants.
Like i said bfor take 5th bottom n go into 24/25 under new Ownership.
Patience required.
Its plain to see rhe Bookies aint done any due diligence.
Results will define our different opinions.
Simple as that.
UTP.

Yes there are indeed other clubs out there besides that suffer from poor decisions from those in charge. It is indeed part of football. Doesn't mean we should follow suit.

Ye
Then its normally 2 options.
Protest or Boycott.
These bent owners dont like to be hit in the pocket.
Then Administration.
Its a vicious cycle at times.
Dont see it changing.
Thats the football buisness.

KPG the Grim Reaper !

We've made 2 signings so far, one a keeper from Div 1 and the other a highly rated kid who a few clubs were interested in, hardly players that nobody else wants or desperate signings imo.
To be labelling new signings as such when we've never seen them play is a joke.

nobody knows when a player signs if they are going to be shite or not. giving out a year or more contracts is a big gamble even if the player wants them. fans would have gone mad at the outset if oates had been given more than one season and equally would have knocked the club for giving hastie and co only one if they had come off. its just pools seem to have a habit of gambling on the wrong ones.

Pools recruitment has been dreadful since the promotion season. Lose the best ones, sign shite, get relegated. Nobody can argue with that I’m afraid, it’s why we’re back in the conference.

The strength of league 2 this year… i’m almost glad we’re not in there. We’re not ready yet.

were we ever ready in the first place when paying off debts seemed the only reason where a lot of the money went. even if we had stayed up the best i could ever see with the club in its present state would have been a 17th in the league finish again. even with our fan numbers we are really a national league side until real investment comes in and battling next term with teams with more spare cash who,ll get excited about a gate in 4 figures.

I don't think anyone can argue with the 2 signings, the keeper has won this league before and a young lad, who we don't even know might not even get his game, might be more for the future. The problem we have is we have lost 10 players to get these 2 in, so we're way short of where we need to be and a hell of a lot of work to do yet, with more players expected to leave on top of the 10 already gone.

I notice we haven't a friendly until the 14th while virtually other club in the country play the week before its as if we knew once again we would be nowhere near ready.

well that could be the first improvement over last seasons complete pre season farce going abroad with hardly a team in place.

If some other club had jumped in to sign ‘the other kid’…. some would be howling at the moon because we have no ambition and missed yet another opportunity….

even man.city will miss out on their targets and not everyone will want a contract at f.c.hollywood either. suppose its only pools that always miss out though. next some will be fearful of askey because he was once at shrewsbury which was a little too near to wales for their comfort.

I think the two signings we made were a good start.

Do you not think though that people are justified in their fears after what happened last summer? Despite all the ways in which they were mocked and dismissed on here (which seems to be starting again) it was they who were bloody well right!!

its the way of life following a lower division football club. a few yearsof success followed by longer ones in the doldrums or dropping like a stone. those fans of stockport and wrexham are living the dream at the moment. they had better enjoy it like oldham fans did 30 years ago when they were watching top tier football. sooner or later their tide will come out and leave them stuck on the beach like we are now on. they expect to be a new bournemouth or a brentford but could quite easily be a new oldham or bradford city well before we see the end of petrol cars on the road.

I don't see any signs of mockery. We're all holding our breath - about the ownership issue and about where the squad will be when the dust has settled on players coming in and players leaving.

Isn't it about time we had a few decent years though? Why does Hartlepool our team have to struggle constantly? It's not like we didn't have a massive opportunity after the play off win. We just pissed it up the wall.

Seems like our older generation fans have inbred it into there minds that success is not allowed at Pools.
And the younger generation who have little bit of ambition for Pools are ridiculed as out of order tossers.

Well I'm one of the older generation for sure, been going for well over 50 years through thin and thinner. And I'm craving success as much as anyone and I'm optimistic that we'll have a good season.

I can't recall anyone ridiculing the younger generation as out of order tossers though?

Everyone's entitled to an opinion. There's those that think Raj has done little wrong, those that think everything the club do or say is wrong, and those inbetween.

Or maybe the wise oldies have spent their lives earning and spending their own money whereas the up and coming generations expect everything on a plate as long as somebody else pays for it.
I am as ambitious for a bit of success at Pools as you or anybody else but have learned over the years that I am totally reliant on somebody else to provide that and over the years I have watched people come and go without much changing. Apart from Harold and IOR, very few of them have made significant improvements. It would be very easy for me to join ranks with the doom mongers and slate everybody and everything and adopt the cynical whingeing stance that they favour. My stance is quite simple. I can't bankroll Pools and until somebody comes along that can and, more importantly, is willing to do so, then I have to be realistic with my ambitions. Beating myself up over owners has never done me or the club any good. You have to remember I went through the times when we were going cap in hand for re election. Some of the fans we have now would be suicidal if they had to put up with supporting Pools in those days. Spending most of the close season hoping and praying that we would be given another chance. When you look at what we have had to put up with over the past seventy years, it's a miracle that we still go anywhere near the place.

Its like they think that there's some kind of rule HUFC must be poorer and less successful than any other club. Weird.

There you go youngsters. Its your spoilt selfish ways that are the problem. Just meekly doff your cap and know your place.

Well said Mr Imp. That's told em. It's about time a bit of respect was called for.

You’re talking through your collective arses.
Seen it all before because we didn’t like the way the club was underachieving in the early 70’s and had chew with the Bobby’s for our bother.
I’ll take notice when you gather outside the club and put your demands to the chairman…I won’t hold my breath.