New Striker x2 - Luke Molyneux

[Janso]

Pools fan on Twitter..... How the hell is this a step up from Hartlepool???!!

Looks a very good player, pleased with this.

Well for one thing Donny's not a shit tip in the arse hole of nowhere.

[mushRTID]

Found myself reading the Hartlepool forum when Bogle signed and they were all raving about this lad.

Great signing. I still think another striker, winger and left back then we are there. Oh and ship Hiwula and Dodoo out.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

The Netto brigade will have to exchange their colours for proper red and white!!

[Lesonthewest]

Really impressed with the signings so far, all a great age, all enthusiastic, all ambitious, all impressed by the stadium & training facilities, & all want to be here. All adds up to a big swing in mentality gearing up to next season. Well done all concerned.

[roversdude]

Gavin Baldwin shops at M&S

[MachoMadness]

Now then. Young, hungry players on the rise? Similarities between them indicating research is going into a style of play? Could this be... A good transfer policy in action? Who's to say?

[SOD]

take a look at some of his goals:
https://twitter.com/lukemolyneux3

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Really impressed with the signings so far, all a great age, all enthusiastic, all ambitious, all impressed by the stadium & training facilities, & all want to be here. All adds up to a big swing in mentality gearing up to next season. Well done all concerned.

Dead right. This is one of the factors that Copps talked about. Talking up who we are and being proud of it. Making the place, the stadium and the training ground feel like a step up and feel like ones where players have to be on top of their game all the time.

You could also see that with Leigh Bromby at Huddersfield who said they had to stop the inferiority complex compared to Leeds and make Huddersfield stand out on their own two feet. They feel they are now attracting players who they may not have considered a couple of seasons ago. Same for their academy set ups. Of course, moneys been invested but it's also a mentality that people will invest in.

I think Copps has done his groundwork and instilling the values and standards we all hold dear.

[sedwardsdrfc]

Agree with above. Also a good sign we are signing top scorers/best players from teams in this division rather than taking older players on bigger money dropping down from the division above. Thats a trap we could easily have fallen into just because we could afford names we might have heard of a bit more.

[Prez]

Im guessing Copps had a big part in this signing with his North East connections.

[Colemans Left Hook]

Pools fan on Twitter..... How the hell is this a step up from Hartlepool???!!

Looks a very good player, pleased with this.

since Hartlepool lost that penalty shoot out in the mickey mouse cup to Rotherham they have fallen off a cliff form wise (Harrogate's form started falling off the same cliff much earlier in the season)

and as we know they sacked their (XRovers player) manager ... - WHO AFTER THE ROTHERHAM DEFEAT WAS THE BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD- EVEN THINK HE GOT A MANAGER OF THE MONTH AWARD THEN-- they look like they are going to become the Hartlepool we all knew in the '60s   persistenly applied for re-election g0d knows how many times

this is the type of player The "Barnsley Vultures" of yesterday would snap up out of the "Rovers nest"  thankfully they are brassic (AND CAN'T GET HOLD OF THE GROUND AROUND OAKWELL) -SHAME

[DonnyBazR0ver]

I think credit to McSheffrey too who is courting players by going to meet them and sell DRFC. Fergie Jnr was one who also went out of his way to make players feel wanted. 

[Chris Black come back]

He played 90mins against us for Sunderland u21s in the Football League Trophy at the Keepmoat in October 2017. We won 1-0 thanks to a rare Ben Khemis goal in the second half.

[Alan Southstand]

BFYP:

2 good signings so far.

Minor correction, I make that 3 good signings so far.

Add to those the hoped-for return of Taylor, Close & Anderson (all of whom seem like new signings to me) and there is definitely a better ‘feel’ about our prospects this coming season.

It would be nice to add Rowe and Agard to the returnees asap, also.

[Chris Black come back]

I hope we can get those three back, but it looks suspicious on Close, while Taylor has been through the wringer these last 18 months. Anderson was in the photos yesterday back at training. Hope he can pick up his better form again when he comes back.

[drfchound]

take a look at some of his goals:
https://twitter.com/lukemolyneux3

No disrespect to the new lad but I have seen these “look at his videos” posts before.
I remember the young lad we got from Man City (can’t remember his name though) and his videos showed some fantastic passes and goals.
I never saw anything similar when he played for us.

[steve@dcfd]

I hope we can get those three back, but it looks suspicious on Close, while Taylor has been through the wringer these last 18 months. Anderson was in the photos yesterday back at training. Hope he can pick up his better form again when he comes back.

If he’s fully fit and no problem with his foot we will see him back at his best.

[Chris Black come back]

Rodney Kongolo.

[DonnyOsmond]

Pools fan on Twitter..... How the hell is this a step up from Hartlepool???!!

Looks a very good player, pleased with this.

I looked on their forum too. How do they not understand to someone in their 20's we are a much bigger club than Hartlepool. To someone that age all they'll know is we've been a Championship/League One team, where as they're a League Two/Non League team. We'll be able to pay more than them too and will have higher expectations this coming season than them.

[Filo]

Pools fan on Twitter..... How the hell is this a step up from Hartlepool???!!

Looks a very good player, pleased with this.

There’s a reason why their inhabitants hung a monkey

[Sammy Chung was King]

Been busy this was a guy I meant to put on this morning as someone to sign.A great signing, again improvement is possible with his age etc.

[Prez]

Im waiting for Jeff Stelling to say unbelievable signing for Donny.

[danumdon]

It looks like quite a bit of forethought and planning has gone into these three signings, the impression i get is that the management team have decided that they want to play an expansive, game with quicker, fitter players who look like they have everything in front of them and want to prove their mettle.

This has a lot of the  hallmarks of someone who is thoughtful, analytical, reads the game well and is experienced in the day to day rigors of the players who play the game at this level and above.

i wonder who that could be?

[Retdon1]

I hope we can get those three back, but it looks suspicious on Close, while Taylor has been through the wringer these last 18 months. Anderson was in the photos yesterday back at training. Hope he can pick up his better form again when he comes back.

Close was on the training pics too from yesterday

[DonnyBazR0ver]

If we can run the legs off teams, then we earn the right to play more expansive, with freedom and skill.

McSheffrey hinted he wants to play this way but didn't have sufficient tools to do it.

This coming season could be a breath of fresh air and how we need it!

[danumdon]

I hope we can get those three back, but it looks suspicious on Close, while Taylor has been through the wringer these last 18 months. Anderson was in the photos yesterday back at training. Hope he can pick up his better form again when he comes back.

Close was on the training pics too from yesterday

Lets hope he turned in today ok and gets a full pre season into his legs, will be like a new and shrewd signing for us, if he can create and get the new lads firing we can hit the ground running.

[tyke1962]

That's a cracking signing , I'd have loved this lad at Oakwell .

Very very good player .

Well done Rovers .

[rover-n-out]

Have to agree with everyone, Luke looks a terrific signing for us,  I know we've all seen video clips galore showing the talents of new signings, and some of them have been a real disappointment.
But there's just something about Luke's goals that make me think this time maybe we have got our hands on
someone who can "Bend It Like Beckham". Excited over the new signings, well done GMc, Copps and his team, and welcome to Donny Luke.

[Campsall rover]

Pools fan on Twitter..... How the hell is this a step up from Hartlepool???!!

Looks a very good player, pleased with this.

Well for one thing Donny's not a shit tip in the arse hole of nowhere.

Well with all due respect to Hartlepool we are potentially a much bigger club than they are even though we will be in the same league as them this season.
Pools have never played in the 2nd tier and is a much smaller town than Doncaster. They have a loyal but relatively small fan base. They live in the shadow of Middlesbrough and will always struggle to build a large fan base unless Boro nose dive to league 2 and Pools get to the Championship and that remained the case for several years.

Think that Hartlepool supporter is either deluded or bitter. 
Or both.

[Jonathan]

If we can run the legs off teams, then we earn the right to play more expansive, with freedom and skill.

McSheffrey hinted he wants to play this way but didn't have sufficient tools to do it.

This coming season could be a breath of fresh air and how we need it!

This.

McSheffrey has taken a lot of stick for the way we played and the results we got when he really hadn’t had the chance to put his stamp on it. When you listened to him it was clear that he didn’t want us to play how we did for much of his time in charge, but needs must and circumstances were against him and us.

We carried a load of injuries, the January window is not the time to do the level of business we needed and to an extent we just had to get by with a very unbalanced / inadequate squad.

So far we’ve recruited players that bring a much needed combination of intensity and end product and I think that gives an insight into how we’d actually like to play.

Personally I think this squad still needs a left back and a physical presence in both central midfield and attack. If we get those I feel we have a balanced squad with options to mix it, and we can probably afford to offload Dodoo and Hiwula in that case.

Whilst the job certainly isn’t done yet in terms of squad building, I’m delighted with the business we’ve done so far and if we can get our remaining targets in sooner rather than later then we can look to a pre-season of actually preparing and shaping the team, rather than scrambling around in the market as we so often have.

Props to the club here. The statement said we wanted to bounce back decisively, the (much maligned) appointment of Copps has seen change and restructuring, and he and McSheffrey have so far done a great job of selling the club to the targets we’ve secured. It gives us something to feel hopeful about. But we need to stay grounded as this isn’t going to be an easy league at all and we’ll still be competing with some teams with big resources.