Hartlepool United working ‘as quickly as we can’ in transfer market ahead of League Two season

It’s just over a month until Pools kick-off their competitive campaign against Crawley Town at Victoria Park on August 7.

As it stands, Dave Challinor has just four key first team players tied down with new deals offered but not yet confirmed by a further six players who played an important role in the National League promotion campaign.

There have also been no new faces through the door as of yet, but that is all set to change in the coming weeks.

While promotion now restricts Pools to a transfer window, it also opens the door to a whole new pool of players.

“We have players and targets that are only viable for us now we’re a Football League side,” Challinor admitted.

“The only difference is, the majority of the Football League teams we’re coming up against finished seven, eight weeks ago so they’re well ahead and some players we may have been interested in are already snapped up which is understandable.

"The reality is most teams are back for pre-season whereas we’ve only recently finished. We have targets and areas where we think we can improve and it’s our task to try and get that together as best we can and as quickly as we can.”

Pools have already been dealt a couple of transfer blows since confirming promotion. Defender Ryan Johnson has joined Port Vale and 15 goal striker Luke Armstrong signed a deal with League Two rivals Harrogate Town.

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