By Albatross
January 13 2006

It seems that Hartlepool United are interested in signing Dean McDonald on a permanent basis: after impressing during his loan spell, the club have tried to negotiate a deal with Ipswich Town for the young former Arsenal forward. The news comes from Ipswich's official site, and includes quotes from Joe Royle himself - so this is hardly wild speculation. It seems that a bid of £75K was lodged, but Ipswich have turned it down.

The tone of the article seems to indicate that this may not be a dead and buried deal though. Royle told the site "Hartlepool have made a bid for Dean but it's not quite matched our valuation" and goes on to say that they will need to see what develops.

McDonald impressed during his time at the Vic, and it was something of a blow when the Tractor Boys refused to allow his loan to be extended. Since returning to Portman Road he's made two sub appearabces and one start, but with Royle adding another couple of forwards in the form of Adam Proudlock and Alan Lee it seems he's dropping back down the pecking order again.

The question may be whether Pools are prepared to up their bid a bit, and today's loan signing of Jon-Paul Pittman makes me wonder if he was Plan B in case the McDonald bid failed. Either way, Pools are sure to be unhappy with Ipswich; announcing loan moves for players 24 hours before the HUFC end confirmed things is one thing, but announcing the amount of a failed bid for a player is quite another.