What's the opinions of him so far then?

Seems to know where the goal is and have some craft,but a little lighweight gets pushed around far too easily,he could turn out to be ok,just my honest opinion

From what MW has said about bringing him to Pools permanent, I think serious thought has to be given to how we play and develop him cos, lets face it, he is no where near the finished article.
Considering we play a lot of long balls in the air up to a "target area" surely that would suggest we should have a big no nonsense target man who can win balls for him to feed off. This target man would also make something of the numerous dangerous crosses we get into the box on a regular basis.
If we are going to continue to play 4-5-1 away from home then Donaldson can drop deeper, leaving the target man to play the lone striker, holding up the ball, winning flick ons etc for the oncoming midfield support.
I like the look of Donaldson but the best way to piss him off or make him lose interest is to ask him to compete in an aerial battle with big league one centre halves.
We'll have to see how M W's thoughts pan out.

Donaldson is better than what we have so if I was MW I would look to extend his loan spell till the end of the season....

Not doing very well at the minute but for me its cause our defence just smash a 40yard ball up in the air expecting him to challenge against some beast of a centre back who wins the header everytime. Maybe a creative through ball would be better split the centre backs cause am sure if he gets away, he would have the legs on some of the centre backs in our league. Its just the way we playing, i think a couple of games ago the ball was in the air more time than on the floor!

Definitely. I can't wait until the end of the season when we can offload some deadwood.
We currently have 28 professionals on the books, I can see that being reduced to at the most 20 with the team being built hopefully around players like Hartley, Horwood, Sweeney and Liddle.
As long as we get to the end of the season with league 1 intact I can see a very interesting pre season.

Good player and an excellent prospect - he is improving with every game and exactly the type of player we should be looking at. There will be plenty of other clubs interested if we don't get him, that's for sure.

Would be a far better player next season for us after getting to know the players style of play would be quality rather than the quantity we have at present

I like the look of him and would be great if we can get him and Poole on frees at the end of the season. As mentioned previously we have alot of deadwood to fell and make way for new players. Would be good if we could get Howard if he gets released at end of season. That would be a potent front 3.

Are we watching the same player here, no better than we have at the moment and you would think he would try and impress!

He's only ever played 4 league first team games in a team not in great goalscoring form. He looks decent and is still very young.

It looked like he got a bit pissed off yesterday with the 20 or so hoofs up field that he was never going to win or get anywhere near. Whatever his strengths are they aren't complimentary to lone striker/hoofball.

Wasn't it his goal that was disallowed and I think he hit the bar also, so he has some promise and he is only a young kid.

May become a hero one day but is he maybe aiming higher than us?

A mention of steve howard in this thread would he honestly come here though? I think he would see it as a massive step down as he can do the business in the Championship.

However he is clearly the striker we need a big target man who can hold the ball up and bring others into the game.

Donaldson looks a great prospect to me, and would love to see him here next season in a front two with James Brown.

Unfortunately James Brown appears unable to play more than once a week, which is very worrying for one so young.

But if he can get properly fit, those two upfront will do for me.

At least Donaldson shoots, and looks like he wants to score. And he is young. Just what Pools need.

Anyone that disagrees is stupid.

I'm agreeing with the Dibble

From the little I have seen of him he is worth a try, has plenty of confidence to shoot and looks to have some ability. With a target man to play alongside him, or even on a good day Ritchie he should do well at this level and probably beyond it.

The lack of a target man hurts us especially when we are trying to hit long balls up field against teams like MK who are physically stronger and bigger than most of our squad.

we need a fit James Brown and donaldson, then we play the ball on the floor, like we did on Tuesday. Easy.

A front 2 of Brown & O'donovan with Donaldson & Poole in reserve would do me just fine.....what? I can dream can't i?

Donaldson was average at best on Saturday, certainly nowt to get excited about.

Dont think its that much of a dream we are probably paying the equivelent out in wages for the dross we have in our squad that could attract these three players to the club.

Obviously I have not been paying attention, but who is this Poole of which some of you speak?

James Poole, was on loan earlier this season. MW suggested he would try and secure him permanently. Scored one goal and would be more for the future than for now.

Ah it's coming back to me, (gives head a shake) I feel better now. Cheers MisterB