Grant McCann on Luke Molyneux: "He can certainly be the best player in League One...."
Charlie Crew's second spell at Doncaster Rovers hasn't quite to plan so far - but he's been backed to make a big impression as the season goes on.
The Leeds United starlet spent the second half of last year at Rovers, making a terrific impression and posting 13 appearances to help clinch the League Two title. Amid plenty of fanfare he returned in the summer but so far he's made just three league starts totalling 259 minutes. His last appearance for Rovers came off the bench in late September in the EFL Cup tie at Tottenham and since then his only action has been outings for Wales' under-21s.
Rovers chief Grant McCann believes that the stop-start nature of Crew's international excursions hasn't helped the 19-year-old get into any kind of rhythm. But he hopes that once the final international window of the calendar year is done - Crew is again away with the under-21s for their qualifier against Belarus next week - that Crew can then begin to put together a solid block of performances.
McCann compared the situation to another young international midfielder, after Patrick Kelly went through a similar experience at Rovers last term. The youngster was whisked away by Northern Ireland's under-21s at numerous intervals in the first half of the 2024-25 campaign before making a proper impact for Rovers in the second half of the season.
Charlie Crew. (Photo:Andrew Roe/AHPIX LTD)placeholder image
Charlie Crew. (Photo:Andrew Roe/AHPIX LTD)
Speaking ahead of Saturday's derby at home to Barnsley - ironically the team who Kelly now represents after moving there in the summer on a permanent deal from West Ham - McCann reflected: "It's been a bit stop-start with Charlie because he's here, then he's away (with Wales) and then back. So I think it will be comparable to what we saw with PK (Kelly) last year.
"Charlie came to us in January last year and then obviously came back at the start of this season.
"We've had conversations with Leeds and Charlie's agents to say that once the November international break passes that I think we'll start to see a more polished Charlie Crew. And I'm not saying that he's not now. He's training very well and he's a great kid with good attitude and he's a tremendous footballer.
"But I think once it settles and this window finishes, the next camp isn't until March next year, then I think we'll see a more all-round Charlie - a bit like we saw with PK last year."
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