By Albatross
January 31 2006

Hartlepool United haven't announced the departure of Martin Scott yet; and Luton Town are still interested in Adam Boyd. Meanwhile rumours, speculation and occasional grains of truth are criculating about events involving the club. The main news is probably that Scott, contrary to all the rumours and so on, has not officially left his post at the time of writing. He was in bullish mood when interviewed by Radio Cleveland yesterday, and it sounds like he has no intention of quitting; he may of course still be sacked, and with Pools usually having a board meeting on a Wednesday we may have to wait until later in the week to find ou Scott's fate. Even if he has survived, he faces another crucial game on Saturday at Rotherham without Mickey Barron although it seems that Michael Nelson - despite picking up his fifth yellow of the season on Saturday - is available as his name hasn't appeared on the FA's suspended list.

With the Transfer Window about to close, Pools have little time left to make any new signings and it looks like we're going to have to stick with what we've got on the playing side. There's no strong rumours of any players coming in, in fact there seems to be more activity the other way: James Walker has returned to Charlton after failing to score in his month with the club. There's also talk that Luton have come back with another bid for Adam Boyd, although neither side has officially confrimed the approach; according to some of the press the Hatters have offered £500K for Boyd. I don't think Pools can afford to sell him at this point though; having gone through most of the season with the club talking about the problems caused by the absence of last season's front two, allowing Boyd to leave now just as he's getting back to fitness without adequate time to bring in a quality replacement would be tantamount to admitting that we're going to be relegated - attendances would plummet even further than they already have. My guess is that Boyd won't be going anywhere just yet.

In terms of the shenanighans that were strongly rumoured to have taken place in the Dressing Room on Saturday, unsurprisingly it looks like we may never get any definate information. Scott has made a comment to the press about things in the dressing room staying there, no-one's seen anyone wandering around with a black eye, and so it remains speculation as to whether anything out of the ordinary happened at all....

Meanwhile the club is still talking about how unhappy they are with the Council decision not to sell Vic Park to them - and the Mayor has had to explain that he had to step back and take no part in the process. It has to be admitted that the Council has yet to provide compelling reasons for their wish to retain the Vic; nebulous talk about future development plans doesn't really cut the mustard and if anything probably reinforces IOR's view that upgrading the ground further isn't an option without the ownership of the land. After all, what happens if the Council decide their plan for the area involves moving the club to another ground? With grant aid limited for a club who leases their ground as well, the vague encouragement to IOR to improve the facilities in any case doesn't exactly provide the sort of support the club was hoping for.

Today's reserve team game sees some good news though; Boyd starts as he aims to build up his match fitness, and Matty Robson and Mark Tinkler are also due to be involved. There's no place for Joel Porter though, and that's worrying - last year's Player of the Season looks to be still some way from a first team return.