Armann Bjornsson

Six foot five Icelandic international Armann Bjornsson arrived at Pools in late summer 2009, the last of Chris Turner`s ten summer signings. Initially used as a substitute, he made his first league start at Carlisle in December 2009 and scored after just five minutes. Pools lost that game but Bjornsson kept his place and scored again in the next match, an impressive 3-0 win over Millwall in which the Icelandic forward was possibly the standout player. He scored again at Elland Road a few weeks later but lost his place when he was substituted before half-time in a wretched team performance against MK Dons at the Vic. He made a brief but effective return to the starting lineup a few months later when his aerial presence contributed to a fine 3-1 victory at Leyton Orient.

The 2010/11 season saw Bjornsson feature less regularly in the first team. A season`s best perfomance as a halftime substitute at Dagenham saw him earn a couple of starts in the cups but he never did enough to cement a place in the side. His low point came at Huddersfield on Boxing Day when he missed an open goal from two yards. Despite his towering physique, Bjornsson often got criticised for being a little too nice, lacking the necessary aggression to be a successful target man. His final appearance as a substitute at Swindon epitomised this flaw when he failed to make any sort of challenge when chasing down a throughball against a stranded keeper.

Bjornsson left the club in the summer of 2011 as part of a rebuilding process that saw the release of ten players.