What, if anything, about the current United situation reminds you of Carrick's Middlesbrough? And then conversely, what is fundamentally different if there, you know, were there issues around predictability, tactical flexibility and game management already visible during his time at Middlesbrough, in your opinion?

Yeah, it's a really good question.

And we have this conversation in our office all the time whenever Manchester United comes up.

I work on a team with me and two others on the sports desk who cover Middlesbrough and Hartlepool United, and we have done for a long time.

So whenever we get to talking about the Premier League or talking about Manchester United or Michael Carrick, this sort of comes up.

And I think...

The similarities lie in some of the conversations we're now seeing sort of play out nationally.

for me

The first one, I think there is

music administration and sort of distribution business is about picking up small amounts of money for music uses all over the world.

I think it's the ultimate sort of big data problem.

I think the ability to make sense of that data and figure out where money's not flowing the way that it should be is really going to increase the cash flow.

I think music's an area that we all know, any media, music in particular, I think has a history with piracy and that's sort of turned into what we call today streaming fraud and gets back to the good actor, bad actor.

And I think there's been some very highly publicized cases of people using AI to sort of extract money from the system.

And I think over time we'll see essentially the good guys increasingly using AI to make sure that behavior doesn't happen and make sure money's flowing to where it should be.

And if the A&Rs have more patterns and trends and that awareness, they should be more efficient in leading their artists to help grow their cashflow or point them in the right direction necessary to do so.

And do you think personally that we have a better chance now than looking back we did with Dave Challoner in that season when we went promoted? Does this feel better at this point than that did?

That's a really good question.

Obviously under Challoner, there's a lot that, There's a lot that sort of unfolded in that season and, you know, games played behind closed doors and everything as well, which will have had an effect one way or another.

I think at the time with Chaloner, there was always the hope that he would be the man to do it.

But there was also a real lot of glass half empty as well, I think, because he'd come off the back of Fylde and I know there was that sort of conversation of, well, we're picking up somebody from Fylde and what can he really do here? Is he going to be the man to take us forward? Obviously now, we all know, those conversations now look silly, don't they? Yeah.

So do they have a, is there maybe more optimism and more sort of positivity around it than being in the conversation for promotion? I'd probably say yes.

And I think some of that comes down to obviously the ownership as well, because there was always the caveat under the previous regime of, Things may go well on the pitch, but what about the off-the-field stuff? Now it feels they don't have that cloud lingering, if that makes sense.

And...

The Poolie fans are on the pitch, the flares are going off, and they're celebrating because their town, this town, little old town of Hartlepool is back in the Football League.

Right, here we go then.

The start of the new season is just a few days away now.

Thanks, uh, Jack and Adam for having me back on.

Appreciate it, as always.

Looking forward to listening to what the, uh, the podcast has to come this upcoming season.

And, uh, I'm sure you've got plenty of interesting stuff planned, uh, for us all to listen to on the long away journeys, uh, up and down the country following Hartlepool United.

And James has done it!

And he's just now going to give you his thoughts on what the business has been like so far.

How different does this Hartlepool United feel under this new ownership, this new dawn, if you like? I think initially there was a lot of question marks over just how different it would actually be.

And I think that difference is probably highlighted more so in the recruitment department than than anything else.

You look at the standard of signings that have come through the door this summer, and it really does add to that level of excitement and that level of optimism around the future of the football club and that it's moving in the right direction.

Some big statement signings.

Jack Nolan, obviously, was one of the early ones.

Will Harris is probably the latest one.

There's going to be moments where we're frustrated, where we

How important is it to bring that type of talent in and to not be afraid of bringing players up the pyramid? What do you think it will bring to the Pools squad and does it match the ambitions to return to the FL and how Clarke wants his side to play?

Yeah, it's a good question.

It's a good point.

But just on it, this is going to be great evidence.

We could all end up with egg on our face here, completely sat here discussing these in about six months' time.

Let's hope that's not the case.

But for McEwen and that type of signing, it worked really well for Poole's last season, didn't it, with the signing of Reece McNally and Max Corgan, And I think with that, you know, it is, again, absolutely an untapped market or a market that Pools could tap into even more.

some controversy around