Gone to Doncaster

So we'll be seeing him in League 2! Disappointing, but Pools move on without him.

It’s a funny one this, things didn’t quite turn out as expected, he was earmarked by some for higher up the leagues. Maybe if had another season here, proved himself, he may have gone higher, but it’s just speculation in the end. Doncaster?

So this increased budget sees us losing our best player to a team in league 2. What a joke.

Second year in a row our best attacking player has left to go to a club in the same division on a freebie. Really is quite disheartening isn't it.

so no real interest from league one or the championship..disappointed for the lad...still.. they have a nice new stadium..

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/sport/f ... ux-3740263

"As soon as I showed up to the ground it was a no-brainer, seeing the stadium."

Perhaps we matched the salary but he wanted to go. It's not a joke it's just football. Looking for the negatives all the time as usual.

As i've said on another thread, you are now in the business of replacing 15 goals and no end of assists to match our meagre goal-scoring outputs of last season.

I am stunned he is remaining in L2 after all that.

Its embarrassing.

Can't argue with his quotes to be fair, they do have a nice ground and facilities to boot.

On joining Rovers, he said: “I came here, spoke to the gaffer and it was a no-brainer.


"I just want to be at a team that can get me up to where I want to be. "As soon as I showed up to the ground it was a no-brainer, seeing the stadium.

“It’s a huge club to be a part of and I know it’s going in the right direction. I want to be a part of that.”

Please tell is the positives then.

So players are leaving because the Vic is a dump?

The positives:

1. We don't have a player at the club who doesn't want to be here. After 3.5 years he wanted another challenge.
2. It's an opportunity for the new manager to source his own players.

Everything else you complain about is based on unproven assumptions. Players move on all the time. I wish him well and we trust in the management team at Pools to sign a decent replacement.

Until things are actually bad, results aren't coming and the new recruits aren't gelling try and remain positive. If any of that does happen you will be able to day I told you so. Just in case it does I'd like to say well done now to save you worrying about it. So well done.

I'm excited to see what happens....

BillinghamPoolie - Pools do have a bigger budget than last year but obviously Doncaster have a bigger one. It’s that simple.

double figures..."The positives:"

..all spot on there mate...and "unproven assumptions"...so nicely put... but a little too lenient for my liking..

I guess the key negative here is that we seem incapable of having continuity in our attacking playing staff, season to season. Those players you would build a team around such as an Oates or an in-form Molyneux.

Again, not a criticism, just an observation, but in the final few games of last season we looked utter fodder bar 5 or so players. If you proposed we would remove our top-goal scorer and our 22 year-old talisman defender (presuming Odusina soon follows)... you'd say we had an awful lot of work to do in recruitment.

You'd rather not gamble completely on a whole new forward line is what i'm saying, when you could guarantee 15 or so out of a Molyneux, and supplement a roll of the dice on one or two other potential goal-scorers. Quite clearly, Doncaster could pay him more, which is fine. We move on.

Maybe he will be the new James Coppinger, he did well for them and I liked him at pools. That said if he is going for the nice ground he will have an awakening at the lack of atmosphere

Yeah I get the positives that results aren't bad. It is June afterall, are you not even remotely worried we have lost Reece oates to Mansfield and now molyneux to the footballing super power of Doncaster? Yet we have 12 players 5 to 6 weeks before the season. We had a bloody good excuse last year, yet we are somehow back in the same position once again.

Yes it's a new ground but it has nowhere near the atmosphere that Belle Vue had.
It is a bloody freezing concrete ice box.
The Donny moaners will expect an instant impact from him and if they don't get it..................
Really bad move but he is a big lad now and should know what he wants.............but Donny.
Lot of unrest there and supporters think they are a championship club who have gone from being in the same league as their nearest rivals, Rotherham, to being two leagues below them.
I wish him well but totally disagree with his choice but we'll see.

There are no positives here. Yeah there's stretching the truth but blimey, this is taking the piss. I know we will always lose good players but it doesn't hurt so much when they move to play in a higher division or for a bigger club. If anyone remembers Belle Vue they'll know that Donny are not a big club but Mols can clearly see that they stand a better chance of letting him fulfil his ambitions, they have s shiney newish ground and are willing to pay him what he is worth. Being the minnows to the mighty Doncaster Rovers is bloody embarrassing and they are not the only L2 club who make us look that way.

Rumour mill suggests wasn't much in it £££ wise.

dog..."You'd rather not gamble completely on a whole new forward line is what i'm saying, when you could guarantee 15 or so out of a Molyneux"

..this might help your "analysis" and "observations" a bit...mols record at pools...read on...

2018–19 p16 goals 2
2019–20 p11 goals 1
2020–21 p29 goals 3
2021–22 p55 goals 12

..and at his previous clubs gateshead and sunderland he scored a total of three goals...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_Molyneux

Might not be much in it for Luke but it is a contributing factor to his agent's coffers.
As a NE lad who has only played for Sunderland and Pools he probably still lives up there.
I'd like his thoughts after batting with the A1 day after day.

I just don't understand the way we are going about things this pre season. Talk about sucking the enthusiasm out of a fanbase.

Thank goodness others see this too.

Don't worry about it. Fans are doing what fans do. It's always the same but it's base reason is the fact that we are all passionate and impatient.

You are very clever aren't you.

I'll bet there are a few thousand reasons why he will be just fine with it.

We all knew he was going but it is a surprise that he is going to Doncaster. It is not like they are a "massive club" though they have had a lot more success than we have over the past decade or so. I presume Mols considered Pools likely prospects over the next three or four years and concluded Doncaster's were more likely to be promotion/play contenders.

dog.."You are very clever aren't you."

..thanks..and so are you mate..appreciate your analysis and observations..so looking forward to that SQUAD photo..

Donny.....

Well,well,well, what happened to all the championship sides,Derby,Blackpool, Portsmouth, and top Scotish sides supposedly interested in signing him. As I have said before imo he’s not as good as a lot of people think he is. This is basically a sideways move career wise obviously for more money.

When we signed Oates the second time the only person on here who thought he was any good was me. Now people want to build a team around him? Molyneux wasn't consistent until that good run of games. He scored some cracking goals though. We don't sign players on long contracts because they are unproven or are inconsistent. If they have a good season they move on. I thought signing the manager in a 2 year deal with an option for pools to take another 2 might lead to more consistency and perhaps 2 year plus 1 year options for players. Up to the new manager to build a team and he didn't look overly worried to me. I think we have more chance with this management team.in place than the previous ones whichever team they were given.

Expected.
Disappointing.
Doncaster L2?

He could be taking a degree in football stadium architecture….. or maybe he just wanted to be away. I think people expected a better prospect for him, but it never happened.
I wonder how many he’ll notch for Doncaster…..

Lives in Newton Aycliffe so only hour and half way and as good as one straight road

One straight nightmare, Robert. The more you use it the more you hate it.
I am told he lives five minutes walk away from West Jesmond metro station but it's the A1 that is the problem so which part of the NE is irrelevant. I have been negotiating the bloody road since 1978 and have developed a "relationship" with it. Once he gets to the Doncaster turn offs, sometimes his journey is just beginning. I've lived there for 44 years so I have a bit of an idea what goes on but I'm always prepared to listen to those who know better as long as they do know better and not just think they do. Assuming you get my gist.

bob..."Lives in Newton Aycliffe so only hour and half way and as good as one straight road"

nah..2 hours 4 minutes via A1 M1...with the usual traffic disruption?...f/k knows..

https://www.theaa.com/route-planner/rou ... ster,%20UK

Oh the absolute joy of the A1/ M18 junction

Or maybe Rivers are paying an extra 15k per annum for a fully furnished flat overlooking the racecourse for him for 2 years? Who knows and or cares? I've heard that rumour though because I started it.

Or Rovers even. Or Joan Rivers No hang on.

And all the fines for being late for training.
And the notorious Donny lasses.

A team who were relegated, not much ambition on his behalf, money talks, probably got a few bob signing on fee as well. TBH I am not disappointed, apart from last season he didn’t exactly set the world on fire in the previous seasons. If he was that decent Challinor would have signed him, if Doncaster is the best he can do there couldn’t have been much interest from other clubs, probably seen as an average player by them.

Got to agree with you 100%. To me this was the proving season for him to see if he really was the player some people paint him to be. Could he maintain his goal scoring record, because all this teeth gnashing by some at his departure was realistically based on one season. My only gripe with him was goals apart he could be an anonymous player out on the pitch, if he could combine the goals with a work rate he’d have went up the league much further than Doncaster, but club scouts obviously didn’t see that extra something about his game to be interested. We fool ourselves sometimes.
Odd that people accepting he was leaving to greater things took offence when he actually went to Donny, but the market never lies. He was expected to go, he went. Maybe he was one of those many players who got his chance at Pools but still thought of us as ‘little old Hartlepool’ and wanted away regardless to any club. It’s happened plenty of times down the years. Let’s see if the grass is greener in South Yorkshire.

Molyneux was far and away our best attacker last season. There was nothing wrong with his work rate - he put in a shift every game, even when he was played out of position as a central striker. It's true he didn't win many headers in that role!

His form dropped off at the back end of the season after he'd missed a couple of games through injury, but I'd say the same about practically every player in a Pools shirt in those miserable weeks. Not interested in talking down his quality just because he's ended up going to a newly relegated League 2 club. Pools have lost a playing asset that it would have been better if we had been able to hold onto. No doubt there is another goal-scoring winger out there who is available and as good or better. But for nowt?

i liked the lad and dissapointed he has gone. however he is nothing but a good lg.2 player on one with a morecambe/accrington club from lg.1. he has gone for a better deal, money and contract. he isn,t a lifelong poolie who is diserting his club. the big pity is that i doubt he will be replaced by another clubs popular player like the ones we lose.

on top of that they have signed many in the past who never recaptured the form they had before they came there. used to nip over to belle vue a few times a season but less so the stadium of the dodgy burger mainly because my partner has a soft spot for them. always find em as a club very unhelpful and unfriendly unlike pools and dare i say stockport.

I was NOT talking down his quality, just posting as I see it. You see running, you see work rate, I like to see meaningful running, the two are different but opinions differ.

"Thank goodness others see this too."

Will Doncaster get any sort of Parachute payment for dropping down ? Ive never really seen Donny as being a big club - but in reality they have a decent enough fanbase for that part of the world. new stadium and had like others have mentioned, better overall success than Pools - they may have a plan in place with the new stadium etc to get themselves back in L1 first time of asking - bring in the best performing players from last season etc... Mols wasnt one of the best players we have seen pull on the Blue and white - albeit last season he was one of our better players... season before that DC didnt fancy him in a NL cup game. Football is a weird world - one season you have a player who couldnt turn out on the reck for the Hourglass the next they are being tipped to play for Championship teams - it happens we have seen it before and we move on.

Gateshead probably reeling and feeling the same loosing their best front line in decades to a rival NL team who probs this time of asking may push on and get out of that league (cant see it tbh but ya never know).

I know PH will have been pleased to keep Mols - but im sure he was planning for life without him and already has the feelers out for one or 2 in that position - his recruitment at Alloa got them promoted as did last seasons at Cove - every ounce of optimism with this new team - i dont think loosing mols reflects our budget - who knows he could of been asking for 5k a week and a goal bonus of 10k every time - these pre madonna footballers nowadays think they are ronaldo as soon they breach the 10 goal per season mark - There was defenders getting that for Pools back in the hay day every season.