Hartlepool United manager Dave Challinor assesses the likelihood of permanent deals for loan stars Timi Odusina, Macauley Southam-Hales, Gary Liddle and Mark Shelton from Norwich City, Fleetwood Town, Walsall and Salford City

Challinor was not shy to shake things up at Pools in terms of personnel as he brought in a total of 10 players between December 2019 and March 2020 before the National League season was cut short.

Some standout players included the loan arrivals of Gary Liddle and Mark Shelton while Timi Odusina and Macauley Southam-Hales also played a big part in the side’s upturn in form during the latter months of the 2019-20 campaign.

Challinor previously spoke of his desire to tie down Shelton and Liddle to permanent deals. A verbal agreement to sign Shelton this summer is believed to have been in place since February.

But the ongoing situation with the coronavirus pandemic and resultant cancellation of the season leaves things more up in the air than anticipated.

“The lads who came in were fantastic, I can’t speak highly enough of them,” the Pools boss commented.

“If I could get all of them back I would but there are obviously different situations with the players regarding their contracts.

“I want to keep the core of the squad together as much as possible because we had progressed well and they were instrumental in us doing that.”

Hartlepool so far have eight players contracted past the summer with most player’s contracts expiring on May 2.

While talks are progressing to retain players such as Mark Kitching, Luke James and Josh Hawkes – Challinor has also been in discussions with the loan players’ parent clubs to see what their respective situations are.

Liddle, Odusina, Southam-Hales and Shelton are all out of contract at end of June, though the latter two have extension options.

“I’ve spoken to Macca and Fleetwood and they have an option on his contract but I’d love to have him back at the football club,” Challinor added.

“Timi is out of contract [at Norwich City] and we’ve got an agreement and understanding in place with Shelts and we’re hoping he’ll be back with us permanently when his deal expires at Salford.

The loan return of 33-year-old Liddle to Victoria Park for the second half of the season proved to be another smart piece of business as he slotted seamlessly into the centre-back position.

And Challinor has made his intentions clear to the Pools favourite as he continued: “Coming back here ticks an awful lot of boxes for Lidds.

“There was a bit of uncertainty with him coming back as an ex-player. He’s local and was commuting to Walsall but Darrell Clarke was brilliant and explained that he wouldn’t be playing an awful lot of football. Darrell was instrumental in allowing us to bring Lidds in for the first part of the season which was extended.

“In uncertain times, Lidds is one who knows we want to keep him and have him be as instrumental next season as he was in the second half of the season just gone.”