The Poolie Bunker

I wonder how he'd do in the National League?

we might see when he plays at the vic for somebody like carlisle or the vegans.

33 years old, we should looking for players a bit younger in years also reading his Wikipedia page he has suffered from a few injuries over the years, we don’t need any more crocks.

Looks like we're about to find out, according to reports. Hugill turned 34 yesterday.

He's only scored 13 goals in the last 4 seasons for Rotherham, but that was at Championship/League One level.

At NL level, who knows? He could be be really good - it all depends on whether his legs have gone.

other teams have players that age playing for them and in the efl as well. its just our recent not so golden oldies we have signed that puts you off.

The mistake we usually make is that we gamble half of our annual budget on that player, and hope that he can play the full 90 mins of all 46 games. Then when he reality sets in and he gets a knock, we can only afford to replace him with crappy cheap options that nobody else wants.

His age ain't a problem.
Look at Billy Sharp.
If its a 2 up front and 2 proper wingers then he should smash fuck out of this tinpot league.

I hope he signs

UTP.

I agree Kev- think he'd be a great addition.
Plus he understands the fanbase after his part in The Great Escape season under Ronnie Moore.
I think it would show ambition given the clubs he went onto play for after returning to Preston at the end of his loan- and hopefully be the catalyst in helping to attract other better quality players.

Really good signing imo.

Strong, good finisher and played at lot at much higher level.

Agree he ain’t no spring chicken, but definitely worth a gamble.

I expect a number of clubs would have been looking at him so well done the recruitment team.

Fully confirmed now!

Good to see people trotting out the usual crap about knowing the fanbase and someone referring to him as a good finisher. The bloke has scored less than 100 goals in his career, and in the last 2 seasons has scored 3 goals in 56 league games. Admittedly that was in league 1 but still. We love to bring people back after they’re past their sell by date and act as if it’s a coup. The guy probably towed up here because we offered him a good wage and no one else wanted him in the football league anymore because of the above.

It was all positive until he signed a contract and then he’s written off within 12 minutes.

He’s never been prolific, he scored 23 in 103 games for Preston, but West Ham thought he was good enough to pay them £10m for him.

IMO, he can definitely do a job, but don't expect him to play every minute of every game, and make sure he is used in the way he can play now, not expect him to do the job he did 11 years ago.

Loving your positivity Jez!
Yeah, you're right-- think he needs to go straight on the transfer list

I’ve seen that the West Ham deal was a dodgy agent thing, complete speculation, but would make sense given he played a total of I think 21 minutes for them across 3 games before they binned him off.

Listen, he’s been able to forge a good career for himself given he’s clearly not a prolific goal scorer. It just seems ex-players always seem to come back when they are absolutely finished, then talk about how great the club is, the fans etc, and then people lap it up. Rather than seeing it for what it usually is - one last pay day. If we’re being honest, how many players 30+ have we signed who’ve been an absolute waste.

Experience is good, and needed in a winning team, but I wish we’d try to sign more players on the upswing, or at the peak of their careers, then so obviously on the downswing.

As someone said above, maybe he can do a job in the right role. Just seems that people are buzzing because he had an admittedly good 8 game spell for us 10+ years ago, rather than recognising the player he is now.

We're in the 5th tier, we're not going to sign a League 1 player at the peak of his career. Imo he's still got something to give, he turned 34 yesterday, he's not exactly 40.

He's never played at a level below div 1 since he was last here, could be a brilliant signing for us if we can provide the ammunition. I'm sure NL central defenders won't be expecting a day off when they play us next season.
It's a start and a good one imo.
Time will tell.

Don’t have to be signing league one players at the peak of their careers, how about someone scoring goals at NL/NLN/NLS level. To me, spending money on someone who’s in form and prolific shows more ambition than signing someone who’s clearly at the end of their career for presumably higher wages.

Is a mix of older experienced players from higher up and younger players like that from lower down not the key? By all accounts were adding the young winger from Spenny

Glad that's sorted.
I'd say an upgrade from Campbell.
UTP.

Best judge him on performances rather than assumptions.
Didn't Ian Henderson play a role for Rochdale last season in his 40s?

Look at Jamie Vardy still scoring at Italy top division at 38.If he has a younger more mobile partner up front and plenty of ammunition supplied from the wing and mid field and off we go. I would like to see us go for Jack Nolan out of contract at Morecambe and South Shields Paul Blackett.

I'd be quite happy if we went to Boro and got Cruz Ibeh on loan to partner Hugill.

He’s had 9 years as a regular starting CF in the Championship, he was on £30k a week at West Ham, so over £1.5m per year, his signing fee will have been similar. The guy is a multimillionaire, he doesn’t need a “last pay day” at whatever Pools will be paying him, he’s already got enough money to not need to work again.

We have about 12-14 more signings to make to get a full squad, I think the profile of the rest of the signings will be very different. Maybe one or two more experienced leader types, but I expect the rest will be fast, fit and under 30.

Would have preferred someone younger and pace . Looks like we are going down the cheap route again !! However, good luck to the guy

That’s got to be a joke comment, right? He was one of the top earners at a league one side

I reckon he will be better than Marlon Harewood.

Nolan would Deffo be an upgrade.
He will be spoilt for choice though.
Nearly all division 5 signings are freebies so personal terms will determine what we get.

Our fans are playing their part. There will be 4000+ for the 1st home game.

And that figure can be sustained if Smithy wants it to.

Like I previously said an FA Cup run could further finance a top 7 finish.

A good guide to were we Gunna be is that 4th game after 3 wins.
Think we did it twice last season then hit bad spells.

Seriously….?

need to look at nolans record. two good seasons scoring. last year at morecambe and one of his seasons at accrington. two goals in 4 seasons at others. now thats what you call a gamble of a signing.

the only downside could be our NL standard mid fielders might not provide the ammunition he needs. thats the reason many ex league strikers do not do the job down in the 5th tier and not their attitude.

This highly rated kid should solve that problem from Spennymoor.

Then anutha opposite winger and forward of Hugills standard.

Then sort the rest of the squad out.

Next 2 signings will show if we investing in Promotion or just pretending about it.
UTP.

I love how the BBC take the time to do their research!!!

"He had earlier spent time on loan at then-League Two outfit Hartlepool in 2015, scoring four goals in eight appearances, including the winner against Exeter City which secured the club's place in the Football League on the final day of the season."

It was the 2nd last game of the season, our final home game before the 3-3 draw away to Carlisle.

I am so pleased I stopped funding the BBC!

Going back many years i am hoping Jordan Hugill will have a similar impact to Bobby Cummins an aging forward signed from Darlington who while not prolific in his own right was able to bring out the best in the younger forwards around him.

I hope he has a similar impact to Billy Paynter - the first season, when he scored 14 goals, not the second one, when he got crocked in January, was out for the rest of the season and we got relegated

Being a bit depressing aren’t we, let’s look on the positives and stop searching for the negatives.

It's a new era now under Smithys first full season.
Can only praise the job of getting these new employees in.

The most optimistic I've been in years.
UTP.

If some on here went to Heaven they’d have a snag list after a couple of days for God to sort out.

Searching for the negatives?

Pretending that signing a 34-year-old forward doesn't entail an element of risk is a bit silly. Hugill had a knee operation this January that effectively ended his season - kept him out of the Rotherham squad for three and a half months.

Lee Clark obviously thinks he's fully fit now or he wouldn't have signed him. He also expects Hugill to have a big influence of the rest of the group of players - same reason Jordan Henderson is in the England World Cup squad.

That's good enough for me. As said, I hope he has a blistering first season for Pools.

don,t players have medicals anymore when joining new clubs or is that regarded as old fashioned as well now. clark must know him quite well and at least he,s hope for th lad is based on experiance and not just a laptop.

Lee Clark said when we signed him he passed all the medical checks.