NEW HEAD OF RECRUITMENT | Joseph Pope

Hemel Hempstead Town Football Club is delighted to announce the addition of Joseph Pope as Head of Recruitment.

For the last 7 years, Joe has run the highly successful 'Off The Line Blog' page where he has developed the reputation for being one of the leading analysts and voices for all things non-league.

In this role, he has demonstrated his eye for player identification, strong analytical work and player knowledge, as well as an incredible work ethic and aptitude for the non-league game.

In particular, he has impressed with the quality of his Summer Recruitment Plans in which he has demonstrated the strength of his player knowledge.

In 2024, he worked in a player recruitment role under Ross McNeilly at Whitehawk in the Isthmian League.

Since then, Joe has provided consultation to a number of managers in non-league both in the National League and at Step Two, including to Lee Bircham during his time with Bedford Town in the identification of prospective targets.

Recently, Joe was invited to form part of the judging panel for the National League to assist in the selection of the 2025-26 National League Awards.

Through these opportunities, Joe has been able to ensure weekly non-league coverage including; co-commentary for BBC Radio Surrey, Stones TV and Barnet FC; covering the England C team; his annual coverage of the non-league finals; and through sterling work of NL Full Time Podcast.

It is through this that Joe has managed to build up an extensive contact base within the non-league game and a knowledge of non-league.

In the final few months of the 2025-26 campaign, Joe provided consultation to Chippenham Town manager Gary Horgan in establishing a scouting network for The Bluebirds for the coming season, and in the identification of player targets ahead of the 2026-27 campaign.

Joe has already been working with boss Lee for a number of weeks to lead recruitment for the new season, and he has already shown an incredible dedication to the role with the number of hours of work he is putting into ensuring that no stone is left unturned in our preparations for the new campaign.