As Pools slowly dropped down the Football League pyramid their ability to attract players to the team dropped as well.
A big part of Hartlepool’s recent transfer policy is to bring players back to the North East who are playing elsewhere in England.
Jason Kennedy was picked up on a free after his release from Carlisle at the start of the 2019/20 season and former Hartlepool player Gary Liddle was brought in midway through last season from Walsall.
The season before Liam Noble who was born in Newcastle was purchased from Notts County and Andrew Davies who was playing for Ross County was born in Stockton were brought in for the 2018/19 season. Both of these players were good in spells but ultimately it did not work out and they did not last long.
These additions are all examples of players playing at a higher level being brought to Hartlepool to come home to the North East.
This season Hartlepool have 10 players out of 25 who are from the North East - which is 40% of the squad.
Key players like Lewis Cass, David Ferguson and Luke Armstrong are all from the North East but the major players in the side including all three regular centre halves and midfielders all being from outside the area.
Hartlepool used 36 players in 2019/20 season with Dave Challinor coming in and bringing in some loan players from further afield - 17 out of 36 players were from the North East, 47.2% of the squad.
14 out of the 23 players in the 2018/19 season were born in the North East – 60.8% of the players in the squad, although none born in Hartlepool.
The 2017/18 season Pools had 29 players with 15 of them being born in the North East (51.7%), that finished 15th in their first season in the National League.
The season before that in 2016/17 was the year Pools were relegated, finishing 23rd in League 2 – that year they had 21 out of 32 players from the North East (65.6%).
The 2015/16 was a comfortable season in which Hartlepool finished 16th in League 2 with 17 out of 31 players being from the North East (54.8%).
Ronnie Moore’s great escape season in 2014/15 resulted in Pools avoiding relegation with 22nd, 19 out of 38 players (50%) with most of them being loaned in from other North East clubs.
The clubs first season in League 2 resulted in a 19th place finish in 2013/14 with 11 out of 26 local players (42.3%).
Another high percentage in the 2012/13 season, their last in League 1, were a 23rd place finish resulted in relegation- 16 out of 26 players (61.5%).
The 2011/12 season resulted in a relatively high finish of 13th in League 1 but with 16 out of 31 North East players (51.6%).
14 out of 34 players (41.1%) resulted in a 16th place finish in League 1 in the 2010/11 season – a high result in terms of Hartlepool’s record but with a low percentage.
This stat is even lower the previous year with 11 out of 29 players (37.9%) which accumulated a 20th place finish in League 1.
The last ten years have been a downwards slope for Hartlepool with different players from the North East being involved.
The majority of the first team squads have had major players not from the North East with stalwarts in the side: Ritchie Humphreys (Sheffield), Sam Collins (Pontefract) and Neil Austin (Barnsley) from elsewhere in the UK.
The highest percentage of North East players in the last ten years was the season Pools were relegated to the National League (2016/17) – their worst season in history, with 65.6%.
The lowest percentage was 37.9% in the 2009/10 season which resulted in a 20th place finish in League 1 – a high finish for Pools and even had two players from Hartlepool through Adam Boyd and Peter Hartley.
Pools’ best season in recent history was in the 2004/05 season when Hartlepool finished 6th in League 1 and went all the way to Playoff Finals but lost 4-2 to Sheffield Wednesday after extra time.
They had 17 out of 29 players (58.6%) of players from the North East – two from Hartlepool with Boyd and John Brackstone.
Five out of the starting eleven players were from the North East and they even had two foreign exports with Dimitrios Konstantopoulos from Greece and Joel Porter from Australia.
Figure 1 shows that there is largely negative correlation but with some positives – keeping in mind that Hartlepool were in different leagues.
Overall, I don’t believe that there is much correlation between Hartlepool’s success and the amount of North East players in the squad.
The graph shows that the two squads with the highest amount of North East players resulted in relegation both times, with the highest percentage squad before that, the clubs worst position to date 16th in the National League.
You could argue that the quality of the players was poor, with most of them North East players been made up of youth team players and loan players with little appearances.
The current squad has the second highest stat and the team is performing well around a strong North East core.
Hartlepool’s best season had a high percentage of North East players – so there maybe something there but it may depend on who the players actually are and the amount of games they play.
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