Paul Hartley reveals Hartlepool United transfer latest following arrival of ex-Birmingham City and Walsall winger

Pools have had a challenging start to the new season as Hartley continues his rebuild of the club at the Suit Direct Stadium having already completed 15 signings this summer following the arrival of winger Wes McDonald.

McDonald bolsters Hartley’s attacking ranks, an area he has been keen to develop in recent weeks given Pools’ lack of goals in the early part of the season, with the 25-year-old enjoying plenty of league experience in recent seasons.

Hartley revealed after the 2-1 defeat to Northampton Town at the weekend that a creative midfielder, somebody to fill the No.10 role, remains high on the list of priorities, but how soon it will be before there is a breakthrough in that regard remains unclear.

“I don’t know. I would like to get my squad together. I would have liked to have got my squad together six weeks ago but it was impossible,” Hartley told The Mail.

“We’ve had to wait, and we’ve had to try and get players in who we thought we had and then we couldn’t get them.

“But you know what the window is like, you never say never. You think you’ve done your business then something comes out of the blue either coming in or going out.”

Pools had been linked with a move for Crystal Palace's highly-rated midfielder Scott Banks over the summer before the 20-year-old joined Bradford City on a season-long loan instead.

And Hartley admits he is open to either permanent or loan deals at this stage of the window, with the club pursuing both avenues.

“We’ll try and do both if we can. If we can get a loan one in we’ll try, if not we’ll do permanent,” said Hartley.

“Getting to this stage is always the nitty-gritty and leading into the last week you’ll see more players available on loan who have been waiting around that have been out of contract, so it might be a bit of both.”