Hartlepool United have officially announced that Chris Westwood will be leaving the club when his contract expires on the 30th June.

This means that the rumours about him wanting a move nearer to his roots in the West Midlands were, indeed, true. Walsall have been continually linked with the 28 year old centre back since those rumours started some time ago and the club’s interest was confirmed by Chairman Jeff Bonser last week, but Nottingham Forest, Stockport County, Rotherham United and Luton Town have also been reported as being interested. Any of those could be considered to be within commuting distance of Westwood’s home town, Dudley.

Developments can be expected quicky now Hartlepool have made the announcement, although it is difficult to see how Merson’s supposed interest in both Westwood and Staunton fits together.

There have been a few rumours around the message boards over the weekend, especially on the BBC 606 board, that Oldham Athletic have suddenly shown an interest in Merson’s number one target, Julian Joachim.

Oldham, with their new American backers, have made numerous signings for the up-coming season and seem to be linked with just about every striker going, including Luke Beckett, although they failed to reach an agreement on a fee for him.

The Joachim story, however, seems to have originated from their official site message board, where a poster said that their supposed interest in Scott Taylor was “just a smokescreen” for a bid for JJ. All of the rest of the talk appears to have originated from this.

At the moment, then, this just looks like message board talk, pure and simple, although Oldham certainly have the resources to make an offer for JJ, if they wanted to.