Refused to play a Donny today because some clubs have made bids to buy him and Bettys have turned them all down. Think its disgraceful how some footballers behave when still contracted at a club.

Wonder if he’s off to Wrexham..

Think its one of three clubs Wrexham / Stockport or York my money is on York because he is comfortable up here.

He should be called Mo Armstrong from now on. Thought he was a model pro till now, but that's shitty behaviour.

Always 2 sides to it…must be hard of you know you only have a few years left to
Peak earn and someone blocks you from doing it.
Luke always seemed like a decent non petulant bloke

It appears he isn’t.

He made his bed and should lay in it.

however some clubs do not pick players themselves with a player in a similar position as he is with them. due to this i do not blame the lad too much.

what, to bolster their defence. just think if we had lost 5.3 at the vic and JA was interested in another striker. It would be meltdown on here.

Pools maybe?

Wants to go for more money, fair enough but he has a contract to play for Harrogate and to refuse to play totally wrong.
Billipoolie should note how keeping your best players is not that easy.

If you have a contract, you play.
Regardless of offers or interest from some other club, you have a duty to abide by your contract, because the player would soon kick off if the club didn’t uphold it’s side of the contract.

i blame harrogate as much as i blame him for bucking the trend of clubs not naming players they know will be on their way during the week. he could have gone out and just gone through the motions robbing a team mate who fancied his chances of a start. really he has put in his notice at harrogate and will never enter betty,s again.

Absolutely spot on, Snowy.

This is disappointing to hear, if he has done a
Sylla- he wasn't forced to sign the contract and therefore he should honour it.

That said if it is Pools...........


...........Only joking that's bad craic IF true.

You could say he's had his cake (at Betty's) and eaten it! Maybe had an afternoon tea as well!


Also got to hope that it's a club down SARF as the lad doesn't travel well. Then Pools can nip in , in 18 months time and bring him back to HQ for a song!

He should have gone out and did his job to the best of his ability.
It’s called being a professional, rather than a petulant sulk

Understand, But actions speak louder than words.

Stop his pay and tell him he can train with the kids till January.
I can understand he wants a better deal but there's ways and means of going about it.

According to Harrogate its Armstrong not them.

Surely it's also a case of buyer beware, what's to say he goes to another club then does the same to them if an offer comes in.
Surely it's better for everyone if he honours his contract and they negotiate a way forward?

Easy way to settle this, if we’d signed him and he decided he wasn’t gonna play for us as he’d had an offer, how would we react…I doubt we’d wish him well.

Just to clarify Armstrong made himselt unavailable for the Donny game after meeting with his agent. Sounds like greedy agents are pushing players to do this crap after getting them to sign contracts in the first place. Modern day players are no better than prostitutes... Kiss badge after badge. The only loyalty in football is the supporters.

I suspect some players believe a contract is a one sided contract.

Ask Sylla,lol

cannot see him being on peanuts at harrogate so i doubt its a wage issue. if rumours are correct there is at least 2 div.1 clubs interested as well as others from div.2. basically he has gone so its up to him and his agent to find the best deal for him. like some of our ex players he,ll have had his head turned by the interest and really so would we. he is not a lifelong supporter of harrogate and its a case of moving from one job to another to better himself. haven,t we all done this.

Yes we have left jobs for better pay but we were not on contracts and refused to work.

Moved on to better himself just about sums it up….bugger the club, but most of all, bugger the fans.
They’ll dash the fans hopes , but don’t dare to dash there’s

This has been going on for years and years when a transfer is immenant and players are not included in the game before this happens. he is not just looking for a move as there is one on the cards for him this week. both harrogate and armstrong would both be upset if he got a long term injury on saturday with the club missing out on a transfer fee and him missing out on a move. i know i,m the only one that seems to be on his side over this but suppose thats life.

And some fans would welcome him here with open arms,lol

Some Pools fans still won't accept that he went back to his parent club, who did not want him, and then was lured by Harrogate. Because Pools didn't sign him the club and especially the owner got called everything from a pig to a dog. Contracts should be honoured and if a player wants to be able to walk away from his contract he should negotiate a buy out clause, which either he or his next club should have to fund. How many sicknotes have we had but, as far as I know, they've all been paid whilst out for up to a season or so. I thought Armstrong was bigger than this but I'm obviously wrong.

As long as he’s under contract he should play.
They get an advantage over normal employees where they are safe for the period of their contract no matter how bad they are at playing football.
As for them making all the money they can during a short career, do what everyone else does, get a job.

Clubs are interested in Armstrong then make a bid if not enough to what Harrogate want then negotiate.The balls in Harrogate court until then Armstrong their player and should play if they want him to.

It happens at all levels but it doesn't make it right. You sign a contract and then refuse to honour it in most walks of life and you'd likely be sued. The PFA are very quiet on these type os matters but would kick off big style if the club refused to honour a contract.
If I was a chairman at any club I wouldn't want to take a chancell on signing him.

Most jobs don’t have contracts that long, sport a unique industry in that respect, most jobs a couple of weeks notice either side

I get the theory but imagine your employer could stop you taking a job that triples your salary…. And being honest how many of us would shrug and just ‘get on with it’

Not sure what the answer is but it is more complicated than people think especially at lower level, it’s not like he’ll be on 60k a week and spitting his dummy as he wants to be on 100k !

But when you serve your notice you're expected in most jobs to carry on doing your job until the notice period is up. To down tools is inexcusable when you're happy to sign a contract, unless working conditions become unbearable which I very much doubt they are.
It's a shame that clubs can't afford to let them sit in the reserves until their contracts run out, on basic without goal, win bonuses etc.
We've seen it ourselves with Luke James, Sylla, and Challinor walking out was a similar situation too, although I understand we got compensation for Challinor.

Nobody forces these players to sign a contract. If they don't want to be committed for so long then ask for a shorter contract at the start.

I reckon the club will be withholding Syllas wages due to him not reporting back for training after they activated another year on his contract. The club hold his registration so really he is totally fooked now. He is stupid really because if he returned for now he would be at least earning a wage rather than being unemployed. If I was Raj I would leave him marooned and probably out of professional football for good due to that full year out. This lad must be sick as fook he listened to his agent now.

Most jobs don’t have a contract at all. Cross your employer and you’re out the door in the real world.
In football you sign a contract and you can be utter crap but your untouchable, so I’d suggest they just simply comply with their contract, it isn’t difficult.

Think he'd already agreed to join Harrogate, whilst we were in the playoffs. plus he wasn't our player, so don't blame Pools for not being able to sign him- think it was just unfortunate timing for us.

I do feel disappointed for Betty's boys if he has walked away as alleged, that's poor craic.

He's not the Messiah - he's a naughty boy!

he has not walked away but waiting to sign a new contract with another club. its not like the sylla situation with us. the same situation nearer the end of the transfer period will more than likely come up where someone from say chelsea is left out of the saturday squad as he has a transfer pending somewhere else. fans never like this as they state that he is still their player and should be playing till the day he leaves.

I agree players are kept out when teams are agreeing transfer but from what I understand this is not the case here and that Armstrong is holding Harrogate to ransom and has refused to play when Harrogate wanted him too.

but we do not know all the ins and outs of his situation. has he asked them for a transfer knowing all the interest in him from other clubs and they have refused or asking stupid money for him. everything as an air of secrecy about it nowadays in football and all we have heard from both party,s is that he refused to play last saturday. everyone is basing their opinions on just one statement and not the whole picture of the situation. if he had not had a shortish loan period at pools the whole incident would have passed without a single comment on here. actually if by some miracle we were in some talks with him with it being odds on he was coming to the vic most knocking the lad would be glad he didn,t play.

True we don’t know the in’s and out’s …… but just maybe Harrogate and their fan’s would have liked to hang on to him…. but…this sort of petty behaviour is going to alienate the club and more importantly the fans.. who’ll then lose faith in him…but maybe he knew that all along…?
Then it’s a case of no other option but to go?
Call me a cynic.

True if it had not been for his connection with Pools this would have gone unnoticed but what I do believe is if he returns to play against Harrogate he won’t get the kind of reception he gets from Pools fans.

I would hope that given the furore that he's undoubtedly stirred up, that he has a move lined up to at least League 1.

I reckon it could be a move to Sunlun - Championship Club, near home. That way he'll be on about 6/7 grand a week and would be worth his while

Maybe Sunlun scouted him when Pools played Betty's boys at the Vic ahead of our game with them.

But if it's another League 2 club- Betty's boys would have every right to be more than livid, with the situation.

There are no ins and outs to know in this situation. The only thing that is relevant happens to be the only thing we know for sure, he is under contract with Harrogate. They have their obligations under the contract to pay him etc but he has his obligations too, which apparently he is not meeting.

Not dissimilar to the Sylla situation. Sylla is under contract and until the contract expires or someone buys him, he is supposed to turn up to training and play matches when selected. He has not turned up so we dont have to pay him, Askey has said as much. He cannot sign for anyone else because he is under contract. So at the moment he is clicking his heels. If Armstrong has refused to play, just like Sylla, he is breaking his side of his contract so Harrogate dont have to pay him. If the situation remains unresolved Armstrong is going nowhere but wont be playing and I am guessing he wont be paid. No sympathy for him.

I would be surprised if he went to a championship club. IMO 1st/2nd division is his level.

That sort of attitude travels through the grapevine of football and does a players prospects no good, sadly there’s always some club willing to ‘benefit’ and gullible fans to turn a blind eye if they produce the goods.

totally agree. he is the wrong age now to improve to that level like many others in the past. wrexham have been reported to have had a 300k offer turned down by the club. what do they seriously want for the lad as for me its a bloody good offer for any league 2 player who is playing at his highest level and will only make him dig his heels in even further. that 300k is worth more to them today than say 400k could in a last second move at the end of the transfer period with money they cannot spend till january to replace him.

Maybe money just ain’t an issue with the owner…. @and can the find a suitable replacement?