Bolton Wanderers thought they’d struck £0 gold with ex-Brentford and Birmingham star – They hadn’t | OneFootball

Bolton Wanderers thought they had struck gold with the signing of Clayton Donaldson, but he was emblematic of a woeful time for the club.

Bolton Wanderers endured a miserable mid-to-late-2010s and the signing of Clayton Donaldson on a free transfer from Sheffield United perhaps epitomised the poor timing and poor showing of the club through that era.

Having been relegated the year before the first mega Premier League TV deal and missing out on those real riches after an 11-year stint in the top-flight, the Trotters collapsed as a club, both on and off the pitch.

In the summer of 2018, Wanderers were hastily putting together a squad that could be remotely competitive in the Championship, amid financial difficulties under the ownership of Ken Anderson.

Off-the-pitch, things would come to a head in the summer of 2019 and the 2018/19 season remains Bolton’s most recent in the second-tier, and it was a miserable campaign that saw Bolton finish 23rd with just 32 points collected, failing to play the final home game of the season due to a player strike.

Emblematic of a miserable campaign was Clayton Donaldson, who, despite a more than respectable EFL career, endured a woeful season at the then Macron Stadium.

Clayton Donaldson was emblematic of Boltonian failure

At the start of the campaign, Bolton collected ten of those 32 points in just four matches, with Phil Parkinson seemingly beginning to have worked out the Championship.

Donaldson was very much on the fringes of things at Bolton in the opening couple of months of the campaign, and he didn’t start for the club until their 1-1 draw away to Rotherham United in mid-October, in a game in which Donaldson played reasonably well and provided an assist for Christian Doidge’s 84th minute equaliser.

However, the former Brentford striker then went on to produce just one more goal involvement in his remaining 17 starts and eight substitute appearances in that league campaign.

That one solitary direct goal involvement came as a consolation goal, bringing a goal back for Bolton late on a 2-1 defeat at home to Lancashire rivals Preston North End, with relegation now inevitable.

Bolton were a mess and Clayton Donaldson didn’t help

Having avoided the drop in dramatic circumstances on the final day of the previous season with a late turnaround to defeat Nottingham Forest by three goals to two, Bolton were always expected to struggle.

There was an awareness that money was tight, but it became clear over the course of the 2018/19 season that the club could genuinely become extinct.

The man who scored the winner against Forest, Aaron Wilbraham, left his role as the veteran experienced target man for Parkinson’s squad, and his role was filled by Donaldson.

Incapable of making the ball stick, though, Parkinson and Bolton were reliant on a striker who offered very little, with his pace in behind that made him so good at Brentford now very much faded in the second-tier.

The ex-Birmingham City striker is perhaps best remembered for his time at Bolton by supporters for volleying across goal for a throw-in when trying to score in a 4-0 annihilation at the hands of Norwich City in February.

It would be remiss to not mention that Donaldson did notch the equaliser in Bolton’s eventual 5-2 defeat of Walsall in the third round of the FA Cup in January, but it had to be said it was always going to be extremely forgettable in the circumstances – and the fact something as small as that can be remarked upon perhaps says it all in regard to the transfer.

Overall, in a season that preceded a tumultuous summer that saw Bolton enter into administration and saved at the final hour by current owners Football Ventures, Donaldson was emblematic of their off-field struggles, with the veteran attacker scoring just one goal and providing just one assist in 31 Championship appearances, often as their key focal point up-front.

That was some drop-off from the 53 goals he notched for Brentford and the 33 in the blue of Birmingham. That form made Bolton believe they had struck gold at the time of his signing, when they really hadn't.