Hartlepool United Q&A: Retained list, transfer plans and Mohamad Sylla – Pools questions answered

Hartlepool will spend the summer dwelling over what went wrong as John Askey prepares for a promotion push and an immediate return to the Football League.

He now knows more about the players he will have available to him in order to do so after the club released its retained list recently.

And here, The Mail answers some of the key questions from the Suit Direct Stadium following the end of the season.

​What are your thoughts now the season has finished?

It’s been a challenging season across the board with this outcome looking a distinct possibility from an early stage in the campaign.

No matter who has been in the dugout, or what has changed behind the scenes, Hartlepool haven’t been good enough.

You feel for the supporters who thought the National League was behind them after promotion two years ago. They will be hurting and will feel that pain for some time.

Quite how uplifting things will be come August will depend on how things go over the summer with recruitment.

Askey has been thorough in his message as to how important the business done will be as to how successful a season they could have.

The one bit of hope everybody is clinging to is that Askey is sticking around and seems up for the challenge. He’s been there before so will know the type of players needed which was, perhaps, not the case last summer.

Where do you think it went wrong for Hartlepool this season?

You could easily say ‘everywhere’ but I guess you have to start at the beginning and that was last summer.

The club spent too long searching for Graeme Lee’s replacement in what seemed at the time, and has since been confirmed by chairman Raj Singh, something of a scattergun approach as the club worked its way through a number of candidates before, eventually, returning to Paul Hartley.

The recruitment, and the pre-season altogether, turned into a disaster and set the club back insurmountably.

Hartley would go two months into the season having lost the dressing room, his staff and supporters, but by that point Hartlepool were working well against the tide.

There have been mistakes beyond that, of course, but the crux of things began last summer.

How do you think John Askey handled the Mohamad Sylla situation?

It’s a difficult one. In terms of his outburst I’m not sure he could have handled it better but there are some things he might have done differently when it came to his team selections since then.

Askey’s comments following the club’s relegation have certainly been revealing and raised one or two eyebrows and you can sense the frustration from him even in the weeks since those comments.

I suspect Askey could have said what he said post-Barrow after the win over Grimsby Town when things flared up with Mohamad Sylla. But at that stage of the season, with everything still to play for, it might have worked against him.

From that point he was between the rock and hard place in terms of what to do with Sylla: Leave him out from that point on and leave supporters confused or bring him back into the squad on the bench.

He went for the latter but was forced into bringing him back into the picture sooner than he would have liked with Hartlepool struggling against Stevenage.

In fairness to Sylla, he performed well when coming on in that game. But it, again, left Askey with a tough decision heading to Newport as to how he approached the game.

In the end, it was, perhaps, the one thing Askey got wrong in his tenure in how he set up at Rodney Parade when changing the system and starting both Sylla and Nicky Featherstone.

Sylla was fairly anonymous, and missed one decent opportunity, before being subbed and that continued against Salford.

The dynamic just didn’t work in those two games and Askey then opted for Sylla over Featherstone in the crunch meeting with Crawley Town.

Sylla was, arguably, the pick of a bad bunch that day but you wonder how much it impacted the squad for Askey to select a player who had caused a disharmony in not wanting to be at the club over the captain?

But it was the timing of Sylla’s actions which was the most surprising thing.

The players who have been released were to be expected with Jamie Sterry and Ben Killip, it felt, always likely to pursue other options.

Sterry follows in the footsteps of Rhys Oates, Luke Molyneux, Timi Odusina and Gary Liddle in recent years in being a key player to leave at the end of his deal whereas with Killip it felt as though it was probably the right time given he had lost his place this season.

Connor Jennings, one of the other four players the club stated they were in negotiations with, appears to have made up his mind following a message to supporters online while there wouldn’t be too much surprise if Featherstone were also to end his nine-year stay with the club following relegation.

Askey opted against turning Jack Hamilton’s loan into a permanent deal which was probably the right decision.

It was a topic which had caused a little debate amongst supporters prior to the retained list being released but with Livingston commanding a fee, albeit likely a minimal one, you can understand Askey’s preference to move on from players involved this season.

Of the 15 who are contracted next season, you would suspect Askey to move one or two of those on where possible – Sylla unlikely to stay given what has happened with the club, more than likely, looking to ensure they will get some kind of fee for the midfielder by extending his deal.

It’s early but how busy do you expect Hartlepool to be this summer?

Askey has been a little reserved in suggesting a huge overhaul this summer but once he has moved one or two on it still looks as though there will need to be a decent number of players brought in.

Beyond that you’re hoping one or two who have failed this season are able to improve in the National League.

With Killip’s exit confirmed a goalkeeper will be high on the list for Askey with only Patrick Boyes, who remains in discussions, still at the club.

Askey highlighted pace and athleticism as key attributes he will be looking for, which is understandable given how passive Hartlepool have been this season.

It would be no surprise to see Hartlepool cash in on Josh Umerah this summer which will leave Askey in need of a frontman and with their defensive record this season a commanding centre-back will also likely be on the radar.

All in, there still needs to be some surgery to this squad, particularly through the spine and Askey is right to highlight how important these next few months will be for the club.