Michael Nelson signs new contract

By Albatross
July 8 2005

After trailing a big news item since Lunchtime, the news is official: Hartlepool United have agreed a new contract with defender Mickey Nelson. A three year deal is rumoured to have been signed to keep him at Pools for some time to come.

Nelson of course had a year left on his contract in any case, but the move from Pools to secure him to a longer deal means that another one of our important players looks set to stay for the forseeable future.

Since arriving from Bury for a fee reputed to be about £70K two years ago, Nelse has made himself a vital part of the Pools defence - though of course matters have not always been healthy between player and club. Signed on the day that Neale Cooper arrived, he was the natural replacement for Graeme Lee who was joining Sheffield Wednesday and soon showed himself to be at least equal to the former Poolie, if not better. His strength in the air and in the tackle meant that he quickly became a favourite with the fans, and his debut at Peterborough saw him score a wonder goal to win the match.

After an outstanding season, Nelse started 2004/5 in a much quieter way and looked at times distracted and out of sorts. Then came a bombshell: Nelson's agent handed in a transfer request, claiming that he'd been verbally promised an improved deal after 12 months if he performed well. All of a sudden Nelson went from hero to villain: and the arrival of Ben Clark, together with rumours that Hull had bid 100K for him, threatened his career at Victoria Park. The Pools board were far from happy, and effectively it looked like they'd told him to get on with it.

Now though it's a very different story. Whatever rifts there were between player and club seem to have been healed, and Nelson will not be leavign Pools for a while unless someone is prepared to cough up a healthy fee.

Good news? Nelson was under contract in any case, but tying him down for longer is no bad thing. He can get on with playing without the distractions of contract talks, and any speculation about him being on his way can now be well and truly scotched.

The big question now is who will be alongside him in the Pools defence next season? Hopefully we will find that out soon as well....