CT - surprise admission

By Charlie Summerbell
July 28 2010

With just over a week to go to the new season, boss Chris Turner has admitted that Hartlepool United need new players if they are to avoid another dogfight to stave off relegation from League One. In a frank admission after the embarrassing 2-1 friendly defeat at Garforth Town, Turner says his squad needs four new faces.

Anybody who has seen Pools in pre-season action will agree with Turner's surprise comments, many of them wondering why he has chosen now to admit that all is not rosy in the Pools garden.
With rumours of a takeover gathering pace both in the town and within football, Turner probably knows more than he is letting on.
But it is unusual for him to say anything which either directly or indirectly criticises owners IOR and chairman Ken Hodcroft.
On the club website, Turner is saying that the players need to stake their claim on a first team place when they play their next friendly at Whitley Bay, where he is expected to field a much stronger team than the one that played at Garforth.
But in the Hartlepool Mail, he claims new signings are needed quickly.
He said: "We need some players at this football club. We just managed to stay in League One last season with this squad of players minus seven players.
"That tells its own story. In my opinion, we need to bring in four players who are good quality players.
"We're in League One, we want to stay there and we want to move up. But the players who played last night (at Garforth), on that performance aren't good enough to sustain Hartlepool United in League One."
He could perhaps have said the same about the more senior players who lost 5-0 at home to Leeds last weekend.
Turner has signed a reserve goalkeeper and nobody else to add to a squad which struggled for much of last season, and with the season so close many fans fear the worst.
The manager's comment suggests he agrees with them.