Hartlepool United's ex-Motherwell boss details his relationship with former Hearts and Celtic midfielder

Hartley was confirmed as Pools’ new boss last month, with the appointment of Young essential to the 45-year-old agreeing to become Graeme Lee’s replacement after the pair enjoyed much success in Scotland.

Hartley and Young have been in tandem with one another for four years since Hartley’s time at Falkirk before linking back up together at Cove Rangers a year later.

The pair enjoyed two promotions together at the Balmoral Stadium with the hope being they can translate some of that success to English football with this Harltey’s first role in the EFL.

Young is no stranger to the Football League however, having spent time with Sheffield United as part of the youth set up at Bramall Lane nine years ago.

And Young has echoed Pools boss Harltey’s thoughts on work ethic being the foundation of their success in management.

“I think the reason our relationship has probably been cemented, and I'm not embarrassed to say successful, is because of the work ethic we have,” said Young.

“And one thing the players can look forward to, and hopefully the fans can see, is the amount of work that will go on behind the scenes.

“We won’t have a team that’s unorganised. We won’t have a team that’s undisciplined and we won’t have a team that don’t know what their roles and responsibilities are.

“I think my job is to make sure that the players get total clarity. We’re quite simple people in terms of how we want to play and with our collective objectives and that's why we probably hit it off together.”

But what are Hartley and Young like on the training ground? Does one take over duties rather than the other, or are they in conjunction with one another?

“It’s probably not consistent because the one thing Paul Hartley has proven over the years is that he’s a winner. He’s been a winner as a player and he’s been a winner as a manager and sounding off each other seems to work pretty well,” said Young.

“But there are days when I’ve got the head on and there are days when he’s got the head on so that’s probably where we dovetail.

“I’ve worked with other people where it’s been a totally different relationship,” Young added.

“But the way Paul and I tend to work is we are quite organised - probably to OCD level where when the players come in they’ll know aesthetically there’s a clear set up.

“Our communication channels are pretty good in terms of the players will know what they need to do on a day-to-day basis. How we function is geared towards the game.

“The first four or five weeks will all be very much to get the fitness in the players and the organisation into the players, but once we get to the week-to-week, and the Saturday-Tuesday, then we’ll start to see some kind of flow as to how we operate.

“Sometimes in life if you’re in a relationship with somebody, if you work well together, it makes life so much more fun and that’s a key thing.”