Closed for business - Hartlepool United will not sign in January

The Mail has learned that budgets are so tight at Pools that no one will be signed this month, and potentially beyond - leaving Craig Harrison to play with the cards he has already been dealt.

Further to that, there could well be a number of high-profile departures from the club, pouring further misery on what has been a turbulent few months at Victoria Park.

Off-the-field issues have gone hand-in-hand with Pools’ difficulties on it of late.

No win in six has coincided with the club being put up for sale, having struggled to make ends meet behind the scenes.

Players, at points last month, were not sure if they would be getting paid.

As things stand, the same rumours are doing the rounds in the dressing room this month, fuelled by those in the squad who have experience of this kind of thing during their time at Pools.

It has worrying echoes of this time last year when now bankrupt Gary Coxall was presiding over a financial car crash at the Vic.

Skeletons continue to fall out of closets from that ill-fated regime. It is a situation that chief executive Pam Duxbury and the current incumbents at the club are having to get to grips with.

And as part of that rebuilding, reshaping process, the plan to add this month have been binned.

Manager Harrison had already lined up a number of players to come in, both on a permanent basis and on loan, but because of financial worries he will be unable to have them signed off.

Instead, hours and hours of background work, put in painstakingly by Harrison, as well as trusted lieutenants Matthew Bates and Paul Jenkins, is set to go to waste, unless something drastically changes in the not too distant future.

It is understood that Pools were set to sign a central defender as part of Harrison’s January rebuild as well as well known player from a League One club on loan.

Loans from both Sunderland and Middlesbrough, which would have required only minimal contribution from Pools in terms of wages, have also been vetoed by those with control of the purse strings.

It is a massive blow to the club’s hopes of muscling in on the National League play-offs.

Further evidence that Harrison’s squad is in need of beefing up came yesterday, as Pools played out an entertaining, but ultimately disappointing 2-2 home draw with Gateshead.

Injuries have bitten hard in recent weeks and without some kind of movement in, the situation could be about to get a whole lot worse.

As reported yesterday, Scott Harrison has been lined up to depart this month, but that is in doubt due to the fact Pools have so few fit bodies and will not reinvest that cash in fresh faces.

A number of others, whose deals run out this month, will also not be renewed.

James Thorne has already left the Vic, having failed to make any impact due to injury, and more will follow in order to balance the books.

The cash saved from those departures will be absorbed into the day-to-day running of the club.

At this stage it will not be thrown into Harrison’s now non-existent pot to reinforce and refresh in hope of getting Pools season back on track.