Five things for Hartlepool United manager Paul Hartley to address after being appointed as Graeme Lee's successor

Hartley will take charge of his role at the Suit Direct Stadium upon his return from holiday and will immediately be thrust into the thick of things with several issues to sort out ahead of the start of the new campaign.

Pools return to pre-season duty in little over a fortnight where they will carry out fitness testing ahead of their warm weather training camp in Portugal.

The club will play a total of six friendlies ahead of the new season including a fixture with Scottish Premiership side, and Hartley’s former club where he spent two years as a player, Hibernian in the Algarve as part of that warm weather camp.

Hartley won’t have long to wait until finding out who Pools will start the 2022/23 season against with fixtures set to be released on June 23.

And with that in mind, here at The Mail, we take at the top five priorities for Hartley as Pools’ new boss.

Contracts

It’s fair to say Hartley has a lot of work to do on the Pools squad in order for it to be ready for the July 30 kick-off in eight weeks time.

Although there remains plenty of time until the season begins, Hartley will need to work fast if he is to gather the nucleus of his squad for the majority of pre-season.

New head of recruitment Chris Trotter will certainly have been working behind the scenes since his arrival and will undoubtedly have drafted up a list of potential new signings for Hartley to assess but the club continues to be at a standoff with one or two players who have yet to sign new contracts with the club.

Luke Molyneux, Timi Odusina, Mark Shelton and Gary Liddle are all yet to put pen to paper on a new deal which will only weaken the squad should they decide not to return to the Suit Direct Stadium.

And with their deals expiring at the end of the month, Hartley may only get one shot to try and convince those players that their future remains in the North East with Pools.

The sooner Hartley can sit down with some of these key players, the sooner he can get to work on life with or without them for next season.

What next for current staff

While Hartley’s appointment brings a welcome end to Pools’ managerial search, focus will now turn to some of the remaining staff members at the Suit Direct Stadium.

Hartley, it was announced, will be flanked by his coach Gordon Young which places an uncertainty over the future of current caretaker manager Michael Nelson.

Nelson was brought in as Lee’s assistant back in December but remained with the club following Lee’s sacking.

Nelson and Antony Sweeney were handed the role of caretaker manager to take care of first team duties in Lee’s absence for the final game of the season against Colchester United.

Nelson suggested after the defeat to Colchester he was unsure what his future looked like but that he would continue to give his utmost for the club until told otherwise.

The future of Sweeney, who took interim charge of the first team in November while the club carried out its search for Dave Challinor’s replacement, should be more clear having recently signed a new two-year deal with the club to remain a key figure within the new academy which is set to launch.

Sweeney is expected to balance his duties between the academy set-up and the first team and that is likely to continue despite Hartley’s appointment.

Recruitment

A month-long search has eaten into any potential early acquisitions for Pools while, as already mentioned, the contract situation of some key players remain unresolved.

But even if Hartley is able to tie down those players yet to agree new deals, Pools will still need to be active in the summer transfer market.

At the time of writing Pools have around 11 players contracted for the 2022/23 season.

Pools failed to fill their bench for the final five games of the season, naming just four substitutes for the last game of the season against Colchester which has led to some concern about the depth of the squad.

You would suspect, in that case, Hartley will need to bring in more than a handful of players to bring that total number up while he may be able to rely on a number of academy players to fill out the squad if necessary once the academy launches.

Playing philosophy

Every manager and every football fan desires to see their team playing a positive brand of football but Hartley will need to quickly establish what he has within his his squad to work with and what system is best.

Under Challinor, Pools were synonymous with a back five and the use of wing-backs Jamie Sterry and David Ferguson. Under Lee, that changed slightly as he favoured more of a 4-3-3.

A brief scan of Hartley’s Cove Rangers side this season suggests that he is flexible in his approach which can only be a positive.

Form

The beauty of being a newly appointed manager is you are given a clean slate to work with but for Hartley that slate may not remain clean for too long given the run of form Pools will be heading into the new season in.

Despite securing their League Two status under Lee, Pools went on a nine game winless run to end the season, winning just one of their final 12 league games.

On top of that, Pools have not won at the Suit Direct Stadium since the narrow victory over Tranmere Rovers in mid-February having gone eight without a win since.

It will be imperative for Hartley to attempt to arrest that slump in form, both in general and at home.