In truth, the picture is far more complicated.
While some teams, such as Barnet, York and Woking have, admittedly, got a lot of their business done early, there are a lot of sides in a similar position to Pools.
Take a look below.
1. AFC Fylde
In: Ethan Mitchell (Wigan, free), Bryce Hosannah (Wrexham, free). Out: Luke Conlan (Cliftonville, free), Pierce Bird (Eastbourne Borough, free), Sam Graham, Danny Whitehead (Macclesfield, free), Ashley Hunter, Joe Rowley, Tom Walker (Radcliffe, free), Chris Neal, Kieran Glynn (Scarborough, free). Photo: Steve McLellan
2. Altrincham
In: Lucas Weaver (Colne). Out: Mitch Hancox, Dior Angus, Tom Jones, George Burroughs, Dan Mooney, Liam Brockbank, Joey Jones. Photo: John Peters
3. Aldershot Town
In: Pat Nash (Farnham, free), Haydon Vaughan (Bracknell, free), Emmanuel Maja (Banbury, free). Out: Ethan Burnett, Stuart O'Keefe, Zain Walker (Welling, free), Tommy Willard, Alex MacAllister, Jasper Sheik, Finlay Westen, Cian Harries (Woking, free). Photo: Mark Fletcher
4. Barnet
In: Joe Grimwood (Braintree, free), Joe Rye (Worthing, free), Nik Tavares (Dagenham and Redbridge, free), Nick Hayes (Ipswich, free), Rhys Browne (Woking, free), Jermaine Francis (Chelmsford), Finley Wilkinson (Hitchin), Joe Kizzi (Sutton, undisclosed). Out: Connor Stevens (Chesham, free), Dale Gorman (Woking, free), Ben Wynter (Woking, free), Laurie Walker, Sam Granville, Moussa Diarra, Gary Hooper, Courtney Senior. Photo: Mark Fletcher