Departing Hartlepool United defender has message for fans after two-year spell at club

Departing Hartlepool United defender Manny Onariase has issued a message to fans after a two-year stint at the club.

Onariase, who is out of contract this summer, has spent the majority of the season on loan at National League rivals Maidenhead. The 28-year-old defender made 20 appearances for Maidenhead and four at the start of the season for Pools.

Out of contract this summer, he has posted a message to fans on social media. Posting on his X account, he wrote: “Another chapter comes to an end! I’d like to thank everyone associated with Hartlepool football club- fans -players- staff. Even though it was cut short and I never really got to say good bye- I enjoyed the last couple of years. All best for the future. God bless. Manny O.”

Onariase signed for Pools in the summer of 2023 and featured regularly under then-manager John Askey, playing 34 times in his first season in the North East.

However, he fell down the pecking order following the arrivals of Tom Parkes and Luke Waterfall and didn't feature at all in the final weeks of the season, with his last appearance of that campaign coming in March's humbling 7-1 defeat at rivals Gateshead.

Speaking earlier in the season, then manager Lennie Lawrence suggested he was keen to see the defender put himself in the shop window during his loan spell.

"I like Manny O a lot, he's a good lad," he said. "As I said to him, at his age, he's got lots of competition here and I think it's important he's going to play.

"He more or less has done that at Maidenhead, and that's so important. Otherwise, he'll just join hundreds and hundreds of players at the end of the season who are out in the cold. At least he's got a foothold somewhere. "I'd like to see him fixed up and doing well because he's a good man. The move was in everybody's best interests."

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