Hartlepool United manager Dave Challinor assesses the possibility of making loan signings permanent with Salford City, Stockport County and Newcastle United loanees impressing

Top scorer Luke Armstrong is on loan from Salford City while Richie Bennett and Lewis Cass have also made a big impact while on loan.

In total, Pools have six loan players at the club at the moment with Tom White, Henrich Ravas and Jake Cooper providing strong options for manager Dave Challinor

The Hartlepool boss has had a lot of success in the loan market since arriving at the club and made several of his loan signings last season permanent including, Gary Liddle, Timi Odusina and Mark Shelton.

White and Bennett are the only two loan players whose deals at the club will expire before the end of the 2020-21 campaign.

The only way to keep the pair would be to sign them permanently before the National League player registration deadline tonight (Thursday, April 22).

But that’s something Challinor has ruled out as he looks to strengthen elsewhere.

"It’s not something we could do at the moment,” he told The Mail. “There’s always potential but you’re reliant on the parent clubs of players we’ve got not wanting them.

"That brings lots of negotiation and decisions and that’s not something that could happen. Without speaking to clubs, even deadline wise, we haven’t got much time to get things tied up and see where we’re at.”

"With our budget, loan signings were always going to be important to use in order to manage the budget and bring in players to improve the squad.

"We’ve been able to be successful with that but now at the back end of the season, we experience the consequences of that in terms of only being able to play five and players potentially going back but it’s one that we’re willing to accept because we’re in a good position as a result.”

Five of Pools’ six loan players are contracted at their parent clubs until next season, meaning agreeing a permanent deal could prove difficult even after the 2020-21 campaign has concluded.

But midfielder White is out of contract at Blackburn Rovers with Challinor previously hinting that the Pools could look to do something ‘long term’ with the player.

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