Robbie Stelling and Rich Mennear discuss all the latest contract news from Hartlepool United as the retained list deadline closes in.
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00:00It would be very difficult, as I say, to begrudge these players the chance to secure their livelihoods.
00:05I mean, you mentioned Nathan Sharon, you know, he and his wife welcomed their second child in March.
00:11And you certainly couldn't question his commitment.
00:13He played, I think, less than 72 hours after the birth of their son.
00:20These players are clearly committed to the club.
00:23But this is the National League. These guys are not multimillionaires.
00:26They need to be able to secure their futures, not just their own futures, not just their footballing futures.
00:33But I think crucially, the futures of their families as well.
00:38Look, I think Pools have the core of a very decent squad.
00:42I don't think it's necessarily cause for all out panic, yet certainly in terms of the publication of the retainer list.
00:48I think about a third of clubs in the National League have already published their retainer list.
00:53It took Pools, I think, two weeks from the end of last season before they published their retainer list,
00:57albeit that was probably because of the fact that they made the decision to replace Kevin Phillips with Darren Song.
01:02And at the time, that felt like a long time, really, to publish the retainer list, didn't it?
01:08I think fans were already growing concerned there.
01:11But you would like to think that, obviously, Anthony Limbrick and whoever else is making the decisions would have a pretty clear idea.
01:19I think the players did come in for meetings immediately after the Forest Green game, probably in the two or three days after that.
01:26So I think the club will have a clear idea of who they'd like to keep and who they are willing to let go.
01:31But it's just it's almost impossible to act upon that when you don't know what kind of budget you're going to be working with.
01:37You don't know who's going to be calling the shots.
01:39You don't know who is going to be in charge of the club.
01:42So obviously, if they can't get something sorted in the next couple of weeks, they are effectively powerless.
01:47They run the risk of losing pretty much all of the players who aren't under contract.
01:52And I mean, they've only got a handful of players currently tied down to deals.
01:56Sam Falarin and Jamie Minley, who obviously signed in January, they signed 18-month contracts.
02:02Tom Parks and Adam Smith, who both agreed new deals in January.
02:05Nikki Featherston, we believe, has signed as well.
02:08I understand that there might be a few others who have already committed their futures to the club.
02:14But obviously, you run the risk of losing the majority, if not all, of the rest of them.