Acting executive director Martin Jesper discusses staff hiring and volunteers amid budget cuts at Hartlepool United

As a club, Pools has changed significantly since it played its most recent game of competitive football on March 14.

A total of 16 players have now left the club following Gus Mafuta’s departure for Boreham Wood earlier in the week.

There have also been several departures and redundancies made at the club in order to reduce costs and combat the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile, there has still been plenty of incomings with eight new signings made so far as well as a couple of additions behind the scenes.

Club legend Ian ‘Buster’ Gallagher has returned as Pools’ head physiotherapist while Jake Simpson has teamed up with manager Dave Challinor once again as the new head of sport science.

The club is also expecting to confirm roles in the media and commercial departments ahead of the 2020-21 campaign.

In addition, National League clubs have been advised to appoint a GMC registered ‘Covid medical officer’ ahead of the scheduled start of the competitive season on October 3.

And Jesper – who was appointed shortly after the departure of chief executive Mark Maguire in June – is looking to fill any remaining gaps behind the scenes.

“We're looking at our staff recruitment very closely, to be honest,” he told The Mail.

"Inevitably there has been significant cost reductions at the club put into place so we’ve got to understand any potential voids and make sure there are none and that the gaps are plugged.

"We’ve got some ideas of what we want to do but in some cases, it’s a little bit too early to bring people in, whether it be volunteers or paid staff, simply because of the situation and lack of incoming funds.”

The significant budget cuts at Pools could see the club turn to large numbers of volunteers to assist in certain areas of the club – although Jesper is wary of implementing such measures.

“There has to be a balance between volunteers and paid staff,” added the acting executive director.

“If we went down the route of relying on a lot of volunteers then I think there would be huge issues.

"My experience with volunteers is that their hearts are absolutely in the right place but what we need to do is make sure that the people coming into the club as volunteers have got the right credentials as well.

"Some of the challenges that arise through volunteers is largely around being able to hold people to account because if a volunteer is sick or have other commitments that prevent them from helping at short notice then that could make things very difficult in certain roles.

"We have to act diligently and be very careful with what the nature and scope of the roles we’re looking for are as well as the credibility of the individuals coming into the club.”

Further updates on any potential voluntary roles at Hartlepool will be made by the club closer to the start of the new season.

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