Dave Challinor explains why Gus Mafuta left Hartlepool United for National League rivals Boreham Wood and the financial aspects involved

Despite having a year left on his contract at Victoria Park, Mafuta opted to leave Pools in favour of last season’s National League play-off semi-finalists.

And it’s a move that is believed to have been in the works for some time as Challinor told The Mail: “To be fair, there has been interest from Boreham Wood as early as last season when Gus had sort of came out of the team.

“They enquired again when they were in the play-offs and looked to see if something could be done there which obviously didn’t come to fruition.

"As soon as, things were back going again we were able to get something done. I know Luke [Garrard, Boreham Wood manager] well so I’ve kept in touch with him around the situation so it’s one of those things where the move just fits for everyone really.

“Gus has been great since I’ve come in to be fair and even at the back end of last season when he wasn’t starting as many games as he would have liked, he cracked on and got his head down.

"He has done enough to warrant playing every week but we couldn’t guarantee him that here so the move ticks every box really.”

After starting the opening 31 matches of the season for Hartlepool, Mafuta quickly saw his gametime in the side limited as he went on to start just four of the remaining 14 matches of the campaign.

“Ultimately, I think he sees himself a little bit differently to how we see him and would be looking to play him,” Challinor explained.

“He wants to be more of a box to box midfielder and have the shackles off a little bit but we just feel with the squad we’ve got, we’ve got players who are probably more suited to that role than him."

And with Pools operating on a significantly reduced budget in comparison to previous seasons, Challinor acknowledged the financial factors in the decision to let Mafuta join a National League rival for free.“He’s the highest-paid player at the club and with the current state of the club financially with the way things are, any interest in our players, especially the higher earners, we have to consider everything very carefully,” added the Pools boss.

“In reality, with Gus leaving, I can now bring in two players really with his wages. That’s not to say we were looking to get rid of him because he’s been great and when this opportunity came for him to go somewhere and be more guaranteed to play then we were never going to stand in his way because he’s carried himself brilliantly and done things right every single day he’s been in with us.

“There was no fee involved, from our point of view, we have to manage our budget and we’ve done really well with the players we’ve brought in so far.”

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