CT - under pressure

By Charlie Summerbell
August 6 2009

The build-up is almost over, the talking is about to stop and the real thing is on the verge of answering a string of questions on Hartlepool United. Questions like will they avoid the struggle that saw them escape relegation by the skin of their teeth last season and can Chris Turner blend the string of new players signed during the summer into a winning team?

Of course, we won’t get the answers to these and a host of other questions in Saturday’s opening game at MK Dons, but the Pools performance and the result will surely go some way towards indicating what sort of season we can expect.
Whatever happens, Turner is under pressure after being given a lot of transfer market scope during the summer.
Take a poll of most Pools fans right now and the general trend would be for them to be happy with mid-table consolidation this season, with a few optimistic supporters predicting a play-off challenge and a few others on the pessimistic side just as convinced their team will go down.
But League One is likely to provide tougher competition this season than it did last, with more so-called “big” clubs trying to prove to Leeds that getting back into the Championship is a one-season job.

The bookies reckon Leeds, Charlton and Norwich are the favourites to go up, Southampton struggling to compensate for their points deduction, while Pools are one of the favourites to struggle.
Only time will tell, but it’s a very important season for Pools and for owners IOR, who have responded to last year’s criticism when little or nothing was spent on new players during the summer.
Chairman Ken Hodcroft has given Turner his backing to sign a load of new lads – mind you, at present we are still waiting for a left-back – and if Pools don’t at least hold their own, serious questions will be asked behind the scenes.
But it’s an important season for many other clubs as well, and the one thing we can be sure of is that it will be a very competitive nine months between this weekend and the beginning of May.
A result at MK Dons, though, would be a tremendous start.