Dave Challinor discusses Hartlepool United's retained list and gives the latest on Gime Toure and Luke James

Dave Challinor is putting together Hartlepool United's retained list.

With most of Pools’ 2019-20 squad now out of contract, Challinor is discussing potential extensions with his players as he looks to put together a competitive National League side.

Eight players are currently tied down beyond the summer. Club captain Ryan Donaldson, Luke Molyneux, Gus Mafuta, Ben Killip, Aidan Keena and Brad Young agreed extended deals earlier in the season with Gavan Holohan and Nicky Featherstone signing extensions just before the campaign was shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The uncertainty surrounding the current situation means putting a concrete retained list together is proving more complicated than usual for Hartlepool.

“Regarding a retained list, usually we'd have one out by now,” Challinor admitted.

“But the uncertainty and not speaking to the players has delayed that. I’ve been speaking to the players and we’ll be making the retained list public as quickly as we can.”

Two key players out-of-contract at Pools include last season’s top scorer Gime Toure and fan-favourite Luke James.

Challinor provided an update as he stated: “I’ve been really straight with Luke and I want to keep him and the football club because I think I can get the best out of him and I love his desire to work.

“It was disappointing to lose Luke [to injury] when we did because he was in a patch where things were dropping for him and we thought he was going to be pivotal for us. I think he can become a real goalscorer for us.

“The current situation with Gime is similar to lots of footballers, his contract expired on May 2.

“For players, it’s a very uneasy time, especially the ones who are out of contract and they’ll have to make decisions but there will be dialogue.

“Football at the lower levels is going to change but how it’s going to change, I’m not sure.

“I wouldn’t want to be an out of contract player at this moment in time because there’s no certainty as to when we’ll start playing football again.”