The Poolie Bunker

Adam Boyd- left for Lootown for about half a million quid (circa 2006)
Tommy Miller left for Ipswich for about £700k (circa 2001)

Granted it's a while ago, but not quite as far back as Don (circa 1990) - though Don's move was mainly down to Garry (with 2 R's) Gibson - he had a video made of his best bits from about a dozen games including a league cup match against Spurs and then circulated it to all the clubs in what was then Division 1 (pre- Prem days). Liverpool took the bait!

Was it Cyril who fired him for missing the bus to a New Year's Day fixture ( Colchester ) ?
If I remember rightly, his dad went & begged Cyril to take him back on - luckily for us !

Luke James may have been the last one we had and there was that keeper who went to Leicester.

if those played for us now in non league football you can knock a few zero,s off the end of the fees we get. there is a ceiling in the value of a non league player and we,d only make big money if we get back into the league especially with another promotion on top.

The keeper was Brad Young and we also had Connor Simpson who left us to join Championship side Preston North End in January 2018 for a fee of £50,000.

Yes but these examples are all in the past by several years. Lets hope by upping the route to the first team for the youngsters it will be our players being blooded in the first team rather than loanees.

Was reading a rumour elsewhere that were trying to get Paul Blackett from south shields, and Blackett has spoken to Lee Clark.

Suppose any deal would depend on whether what Pools offer him exceeds what he currently gets at Shields combined with whatever job he does- and also whether or not he'd be willing to go full time? How old is he- no good if he's the wrong side of 30 and has he not previously played higher up the pyramid?

South Shields are full time as far as I'm aware, he's 28 so it might be his last chance for a decent contract. Added to that he's from Newcastle so Lee Clark might actually be a pull.

Got to be worth a try, if that's the case- it would appear he knows where the goal is, which is a bonus! And like you say LC might be able to get it over the line.

the question that always comes up in my mind is why is he still at shields with his goal record. he would not cost a great deal coming from the standard he is playing at so there must be a problem somewhere either on or off the pitch. could be just an upgrade on marcus carver.

To be Fair Accy- 'just an upgrade on Marcus Carver' is a pretty low bar- surely he can't be that bad. You could argue that Danny Johnson was an upgrade on Marcus Carver!

lets say our record of signing non striking strikers could give us a new nickname , the scabs especially the ones from a lower level. shows that trying to do the job on the cheap gives you a manny d and half a bus load of crap.

It's not just our signing of poor strikers though, even Mani D struggled at times with zero service (it's a good job really that he was a bit more suited to playing as a lone striker and was able to create his own chances) and don't forget he was actually dropped by the mad managers in his last season in favour of Maxine!!
Without creating chances even Haaland would struggle to reach double figures for us as our quest for clean sheets seemed to be the priority.

then that made you wonder what our priority was at wealdstone.

Pizza and lager on the bus down??

Anyone seeing a major uplift since Yankyboy released Radgy.!??

I must downgrade me expectation levels

I did and they reconfirmed it!

Cory McKeown rumoured to be in discussions to sign for us, Spennymoor Town left winger/midfielder.

Their Supporters' Player of the Season. Might turn out to be a shrewd move on Pools' part if true, but as a first signing of the Lee Clark era it's not going to set any pulses racing.

We can sign Les McKeown for all I care as long as he does the business. However, if true, this is nothing but a quiet start to the rebuild that must be followed by several proven signings at this and/or a higher level as regular first teamers who can be immediately relied upon to produce the goods - week in, week out.

For me, last seasons two best signings came from national league north. Mcnally and Kuoguon were great signings, getting the better players from the league below can work.

Should be looking at high scorers and the best players at that level Paul Blacket at S Shields has scored around 50 goals total in his last two seasons. I think if Mcnally and Keoghan had played together without injury we would have easily made the play offs.

and our worst came down from the efl. walker, johnson and hollohan.

Doncaster Rovers have signed a couple of our Academy prospects for nowt. NL Academies are not due any compensation when that happens. It's the price of failure

Quote from Rob Law on X

Understand Hartlepool will be very busy in the coming days / weeks.
Heard some fan frustration over a lack of incomings, but Clark, Beech & Maxwell working hard to secure multiple deals.

think pools run an underage group rather than it being an academy most people think of where 5 year old are signed right up to ones offered pro terms.

You reckon? Anybody who wants to know what's going on with Pools Academy and U-21 set up can have a listen to this https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002wt

Long interview with Adam Cross, Pools Academy Manager for the last 18 months. He's been a busy man!

Cory McKeown is very likely to be Pools next signing according to reports. Clark already knows him as he joined Blyth was LC was the manager there.

Oliver Bainbridge wing back just released by Sunderland . He done really well at South shields on loan last season and has played in the spl 6 times previously. Also Brooklyn Ilunga a wing back just released by league 2 champions Bromley has just started following us on twitter.