I am probably wrong and jumping the gun here but it seems to me its a real possibility something is seriously wrong behind the scenes this pre season. Please tell me I'm talking complete cr@p and everything is going according to plan.

There isn’t a plan, I don’t think anything is blowing up, we are just continuing our managed decline under Raj
I will probably get pissed off with Sarll soon if he starts spinning shite to disguise what we all know is going on.

Mani D will be the intersting one , lots of comments around if we can ‘hang on’ to him when he’s under contract, I expect him to be sold just before the league transfer deadline
And replaced with some unknown as that’s all we had time to do

Loyal that would be a total disaster and probably the one Raj could not come back from.

Just been told by a person I trust ( 100% ) that there doesn't appear to be any concerning problems behind the scenes and that's good enough for me. UTP

I think it's going to be business as usual. We'll sign 3 half decent players then get a couple in on loan. But Dodds and Mancini being available (or not) is what's going to matter.

Expecting Manny D to go 31st of August or before undisclosed about 100k and Mancini to see his contract out on sick pay.
Anutha shit keeper to come in.

Only joking

We Gunna sign loads of cream n win the league in March.
UTP

There's not been massive amounts of transfer activity around the country yet.
New board, new management team, new sponsors, etc sends out positive rather than negative message imo. Although given Raj has warned that the club is for sale, and there's a limit to his investment previously, an update on his intentions on owning the club going forward is long overdue in order to give fans some measure of confidence.

I dont think their is anything to be concerned about, its just status quo, the first team is just going to keep getting run down for as long as possible, while trying to keep in this league.

Raj will continue to take chunks of money back, until he thinks its time that he has exhausted it and then will go. Sarl has done very little to get fans onside so far, talk of briging the gap to play offs and bringing in north eastern lads ( in other words i cant bring many players in) is hardly inspiring stuff.

Four months time we will be bringing in another management team its like rinse and repeat.

Fevs the next caretaker manager or someone from HUSP voluntary of course.

John Walter Mitty Shithead caretaker charge until fevs passes his badges, now it makes sense.

But the easy and cheap option for Raj is not to keep changing managers, and I don't imagine all the managers that come here don't come simply for the wages (after all isn't Raj a cheapskate paying managers buttons).
If he's owed money he's entitled to take it back, there's nothing wrong with that he's a businessman not a charity. Slow decline is on his own worst interests.
Bridging the gap to the play offs surely can mean closing it so I don't see that as anything but positive, do you expect him to promise promotion? Maybe promise to try for promotion but only a fool would promise to deliver it.

agree as its only the 5th of june not the 5th of july where we should be getting concerned with the lack of any activity.

That depends on who you want to compare Pools with.

If you choose to bracket Pools with Boston, Braintree and the division's two basket cases, Gateshead and Southend, it's true- they haven't signed anybody yet either.

The there's Barnet, Woking, York, Dagenham & Redbridge and Forest Green Rovers, who've all got a sizeable chunk of their transfer business done early, as Sarll and KP before him both said they'd be trying to so. I wouldn't bet against any of them not being in the top half of the table next season.

I just read the breakdown in the mail, a couple of clubs have signed a handful but the majority haven't signed more than 1 or 2.
Not much activity in other Leagues yet either, possibly with contracts just running out.

I expect a football club thats been in the football league for 100 plus years to have the ambition to hopefully try and win the league below each year they are in it. If not say well a club this size should be in the play offs. I call that ambition. Not well we need to close the gap. Close the gap on bloody halifax and Gateshead wow what an achievement that would be.

Raj gave phillips until the end of the season who is to say Sarl is on a short contract too, wasnt graeme lee on a short contract, so for all we know it might not be costing much to change managers. Yes he has every right to take money back if he has put it in. Never seems to want to disclose too much in the accounts does raj though. Certainly hasnt put anything back into the team since the fa cup 4th round and semi final appearance thats for sure.

I think someone is looking at the books. There will be no activity till they have finished their review

I agree it feels strange.

How do you know how much he puts in, you say yourself he doesn't disclose much in the accounts. As an example, I don't imagine Mani D came to us for peanuts, and using the same example we outcompeted Halifax for his signature didn't we?
If we make the play offs isn't that closing the gap and isn't that what we all want?

Just for context, efl starts on the same day as NL. Sunderland haven't got a manager or signed any players yet? I don't think Boro have either, nor Newcastle who ko a week later.

Actually been loads of activity in the conference compared to normal, probobly because they have had 7 weeks to do it. Remember the fuss we made when we got into the football league oh we only have 5 or 6 weeks to prepare, even though a club with any sense would of had either or options at the time, well that play off game was the 20th june, its now the 5th and we still havent decided to get our act together yet.

They didnt finish their seasons nearly 2 month ago thats the thing. Im pretty sure Newcastle and boro will be well on the ball when it comes to signing players that improve them

Halifax were part time for years, not long since going full time so struggle to pay good wages, their is a reason we shop at the halifaxs of this world, they cant compete with many teams at all financially, they get terrible crowds and have little money going in. Im not sure outcompeted halifax is something to shout from the rooftops about. If we think raj gets bad press, should see the abuse their guy gets and they got to the play offs.

He doesnt mention making them he said closing the gap to them. Hardly inspiring stuff. Surely our aim should be to win this league should it not? Its not a great league? If stockport,chesterfield wrexham were still in it, yeah fair enough we cant compete but to start a new season and the ambition is to close the gap to 7th we really are on the slide if thats the limit to our ambition.

if things are so bad at halifax then why do they constantly get into play offs, keep managers for longer than a few weeks and actually get to a wembley final in a competition we take the piss out of. its a bad situation when we,d be happy to just do one league position better than them. two towns of very similar size with us having more potential for bigger gates as the residents there are more interested in their rugby league club getting out of the doldrums.

Strange i hear some on other forums, Say there are hearing whispers about investment/consortium.
Not heard a thing meself.

its the football silly season where if there is nothing else to talk about someone will make stuff up to eleviate the boredom.

More than 40 players signed for NL clubs which is an average of 2 per club.

Pools are one of 4 that haven't signed anyone, another of those is Southend under a transfer embargo.

This nonsense about signing players till later and not paying wages is exactly that - nonsense.

PFA ensures clubs are legally obligated to pay payers till 30th June even when released.

Who is paying Josh Umerahs wages until 30th June? Pools, yet he's signed for Dagenham.

If we signed a player 2 weeks ago who was recently released, we wouldn't pay a penny
in wages till July.

We are behind the curve by an average of 2 players, that's about as concrete a fact as they come.

Come Friday if we sign 3-4 we would have caught up or would be ahead of the game.

It is concerning but things can change quickly.

can see once we start signing players we,ll miss out on somebody if we leave it a day or so off the internet. once we sign the full squad what will we hear next. why didn,t we sign so and so when he was available and have had to sign someone else instead. then with luck once we see em play we might realise why we didn,t and waited a few more weeks. surely its about time for something to drop right again for pools as its about time it did after just one good season out of many recently.

They obviously either pick better manager have scouts or just have a wider range of players to choose from. They couldnt afford to go full time until theg last season or so.

Are you sure pools are paying josh umerahs wages? Dont the two clubs come to an agreement on that? A new contract is drawn up i highly doubt daggenham would get a player free for one month. Otherwise clubs would rarely let players leave.

In other words, there's no excuse for not getting some free transfer business done early - if you know who you want and are willing to go high on wages to get them.

Looks like Pools are happy to wait for the Dutch auction to start for players who are less in demand.

Ive never ever heard of players signing elsewhere on a contract but getting paid by their former clubs. That would be a pre contract agreement. If umerah got injured now then makes pools liable for him still.

His contract runs until June 30th so we are still paying him up until that date. He has agreed a contract with D+R which will come into effect from 1st of July. All 'free' signings happening currently are like this, they are contracts agreed to come into effect upon the expiry of their previous contract.

well i,m getting really worried. haven,t had a shit since tuesday.

Skinfull of beer n a curry should empty your intestines. or a plunger

You can hire a ‘Redland Pearl Sludge Gulper’ if can buy a suitable ‘attachment’.and afford the diesel for the four axle lorry and compressor…..makes your eyes water though.

Two signings puts us almost on track, one more tomorrow and my worries will ease.

Hopefully a decent Goal keeper

On paper things are starting to look a little better back 4 of Dodds Waterfall Parkes Fergy.
Defensive midfielder Hunter, attacking mid Mancini, strikers Grey Mani Charman. Basis of a decent team but we obviously need more quality and depth of squad before the season starts.
Both new arrivals were offered new deals by their clubs too so would appear that Raj isn't penny pinching so far or likely to walk away anytime soon.

Like I said earlier the better the team the better for Raj and everybody connected to Pools.
2/3 years ago was a mega opportunity to progress or gradually consolidate.

What happened shortly after was pure self destruction to HUFC.
Hopefully he's had a word with himself and realises Redemption is still on the menu.
UTP.

think getting one where pools are in the pecking order is harder than finding a 20 goal a season striker. there are so many bad ones in league 2 or irratic ones playing regularly that makes our chances harder. so much for all these goalkeeper coaches around.

That must be true - Barnsley have taken up their option of a second year with Ben Killip on their books!

On paper we do look stronger but as we know thats wherr the problem lies. We have got rid of a load of players so lets be honest we should be able to pick up one or two players from Halifax and fylde. Our major hope next season is the frobt two keep hitting it off. Think we are way short in midfield unless mancini comes back as the player he was.

Start made - we’ll have a better idea of where Pools stand in a month’s time. Can’t afford to sign no marks for the sake of filling out the squad.

Not sure that the same back four with the addition of a fit again Dodds inspires me greatly, Iacking pace in the middle, and unable to stop crosses coming in, I would want at least another 3 quality defenders, minimum as good as or preferably better than we have now. Although it does state that Hunter can also play central defence in his write up.

Yes for some strange reason pools fans think because these two lads came in at the back were almost sorted there. They were conceding 2 goals plus a game late on in the season. Not great signs. Maybe a better keeper and midfield would help but still we conceded way too many.

It's unfair to blame the defence entirely for allowing crosses into the box and the amount of goals conceded. Defending starts high up the pitch not with the back 4, our midfield offered very little help to the defence for most of the season. I'm sure Hunter will be more effective as a defensive midfielder than Fev for a start.

The defence was left majorly exposed by that immobile midfield

Our so called midfield was as mobile as a tank in a disco….no legs, little aggression, mismatched and no fire in their belly..
A parody of a midfield, whose best days were long gone, good on paper, shit on grass.

if the rest of the side were of the same quality as our midfield we,d have been relegated before any other one. no energy, no goal threats and the defensive capabilities of our border force. no wonder agymang looked an average player amongst that scrap.