Harrogate Town reaffirm stance on wantaway striker Luke Armstrong after player makes himself unavailable for selection

The 27-year-old forward made himself unavailable for selection for Saturday’s 2023/24 curtain-raiser at Doncaster Rovers, claiming that he wasn’t in the right frame of mind to play amidst transfer offers from elsewhere.

The Sulphurites rejected a couple of formal approaches for last season’s 16-goal leading scorer earlier in the week and then proceeded to offer Armstrong, who has two years left to run on his current contract, a new three-year deal.

But the ex-Middlesbrough hitman notified the club on Thursday morning that he has decided that he wants to leave Wetherby Road.

Speaking after Town secured an excellent 1-0 away win in South Yorkshire without the spearhead of their attack, Weaver reaffirmed that, regardless of Armstrong’s intentions, the club will only sell him once their asking price is met and stressed that they need to find a replacement before sanctioning his exit.

"My position is quite clear, really,” he told BBC Radio York. “I’ve softened my approach from ‘no sale’ because he has made it clear that he wants to move on, but I have informed him and his agent that two things have to happen before Luke is able to leave the club.

"I have to do what is best for our club and get a significant fee for him, and secondly, we need a replacement, who is not just a stocking filler, but someone who is going to make the fans proud.

"The search isn’t easy inside 48 hours. We have to put in concerted time and energy and also make sure that any offer is acceptable.”

And while the quest to find a replacement for his first-choice striker is now underway, Weaver was keen to stress that Town’s offer of a new contract still stands.

"The door is still open for Luke and I dearly wish him to reverse that decision and come back into the fold, because he is a loved member of the club,” he added.

"The offer is still on the table for him to sign a new deal.”

On the circumstances that have led to Armstrong becoming unsettled, Weaver said: "He has been immense for us, has Luke and I expected a lot of interest because he’s a top centre-forward, one of the best at our level.

"But the interest has been very late and I expected it at the start of the window or even proper enquiries leading to offers in May and June.

"But we’ve only had that over the last week. We’ve turned down offers and we’ve made him a really good offer for what we can do, a new three-year deal, but he did make it clear, he was honest with me, that he wants to move on, and that the interest has had an unsettling affect to the extent that he thought that it would be detrimental to the team if he took to the field on Saturday.

"So, we had to bring clarity to the lads and the tactics, to what we wanted to achieve and I’m so glad that we managed to do that.”

Armstrong signed for Harrogate from Salford City in the summer of 2021. He scored 14 goals in his first season at Wetherby Road and went on to enjoy an even better year in front of goal last term, finding the net on 16 occasions.

He started every single one of Town’s 46 League Two fixtures during 2022/23 and has made 101 competitive appearances for the club in total, scoring 30 times and contributing 12 assists.