No News is Good News - so we're all happy then!

By Albatross
June 21 2004

"Everyone's gone to the moon" - or is it Portugal? Whichever, it's very quiet on the Pools News front at the moment, with idle speculation and season ticket sales the main items. Still, the fixtures are out this week - pity we're not allowed to display them....

With Euro 2004 dominating the headlines, there's very little news emerging on the domestic front - and very little to do with Pools. Those stories that are in circulation seem to be either highly speculative or say nothing of significance. Most of the main sources have reported the "news" that Cooper is tracking a number of players - but no-one seems to have information about who he may be talking to. About the only "name" mentioned was Dion Dublin - but only in the context of Coops saying there's nothing in it!

The chances are we won't hear anything remotely concrete for another two weeks. Players out of contract will officially become free agents on 1st July, and it's more likely to be after the Euro 2004 final that we start hearing of players on trial.

Meanwhile, one rumour that has appeared in the last couple of days is that Wolves may be about to bid 500K for Jim Provett. Some digging around on a couple of Wolves sites has revealed ne mention of Prov, and with Michael Oakes and Paul Jones at the club already there'd be stiff competition - and Michael Murray would no doubt be hoping to be challenging as well. Oakes may be out of favour, but the 37 year old Jones - who played seven times for Wales last season - only signed at the end of January. Would Wolves really pay out 500K for someone that would more than likely end up on the bench at best? Would Jim be happy to be second or third choice? Having made the breakthrough at Pools last year, I suspect that Jim would want to be first choice at any Div1 club that was interested. So I'd say it's not impossible, but is unlikely.

The good news that has come out of Pools today is that despite an increase in price, more season tickets have been sold during the discount period than ever before. Over 2000 is the current total - how much over we're not told - and that's without any big name signings, with apologies to Jack Ross!

The big news in the domestic leagues this week is that the Fixtures will be announced on Thursday. As with previous seasons, Pools Online is not in a position to pay for a license to display the fixtures in full - and cannot therefore do more than comment about them in a general way. If anyone is interested, a license from the Sports Data Co, who run this scheme on behalf of the Football League, would cost somewhere in the region of £300.... Unless someone out there is prepared to offer some form of sponsorship to cover this cost, you'll have to look elsewhere for the list in full I'm afraid! Anyone interested in paying for this can Email Albatross. Please can people refrain from posting a full list on the Messageboard as well - it will only be deleted, and can potentially get the site and Sportnetwork into some very hot water. To say I don't like it is an understatement - but I have to comply with it.