Dave Challinor looking to bring four new signings for Hartlepool United before season start

Manager Dave Challinor has pointed to Gus Mafuta’s transfer to Boreham Wood last week as a move that should help him bring some fresh faces in at Victoria Park.

While there was no transfer fee tied to Maftua’s departure, it has created some much-needed space in the wage budget.

"I envisage Gus going out will allow me to bring two players in with the wages it has freed up in our budget,” Challinor told The Mail.

"I’d say we're looking at bringing in maybe four more players, they could be loan deals or permanent signings.

"The budget this year is significantly reduced on what it was last year and we have to manage that as best as we can so I wouldn’t rule anything out.

"The easiest thing for us to do would have been to keep hold of all of our players like Gus as valuable members of the squad and allowed ourselves to have a deep squad.

"We potentially would have done that had our budget been what it had been in previous seasons.”

With the start of the competitive season still six weeks away, Challinor is in no rush to get deals done after giving his players the past week off.

"There’s not a lot of progress at the moment in terms of transfers because I’m comfortable with where we’re at,” added the United manager.

“We’ve had a couple of young lads in with us training and we are looking at another forward player that could be a loan or a permanent signing but I’m not in a massive rush to do anything, to be honest.

"We’re in a good place and can be a little bit selective around where we need to fill positions, we know where those positions are. I’m not going to go public and say where they are but we know where we need to be.

"As many of those positions that we can fill with players who are maybe a little bit utility-type players is obviously going to help us.”.

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