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When PDC was declared manager I was in the middle, no experience on one hand but a big name and good contacts on the other. Then he started to speak and I was won over, he talked about the team evolving and improving and spoke about the squad as "the family".

Players came and went, those that came drew excitement. Italians with experience from top clubs, internationals, players from higher leagues and players of the season from the leagues below. It was looking good.

Pre-season was a breeze and even the loss to Reading was acceptable. Crewe came, we looked shaky in the 1st half but was to be expected, second half was the pre-season breeze. Cheltenham came and went, well we never win there...

Dagenham had changes but the team were still gelling and played ok in spells. Then Oxford...

...we dominated the game but got out muscled, however we deserved to win. Bristol was superb, PDC seemed settled on a team and they just clicked. Looking good I thought for Shrewsbury. Similar team to Bristol and some stability in the team was good. Lost.

PDC now makes murmurings of making changes for the team again, we do need tightening up in certain positions and we have yet to see the full squad of players fit and fighting for positions but is it worth seeing them? for many of "his" players
have not looked like the quality we need.

I don't know if the failure of the season so far is honestly poor players and poor management (a mixture of the both??) or a failure in my own mind for expecting so much so early, after all, we are the mighty Swindon in this pub league...

Whatever it may be the next set of three home games is crucial, crucial in terms of points urgently needed and cup progress but also crucial in my mind. The next three games will make my mind up where the scales tip on my view of PDC.

Maybe...

The expectation about"exciting new players"is the most worrying factor to me.I haven't seen Magera in action but Im completely underwhelmed by the others so far,especially Risser.I appreciate the passion of Di Canio but worry about the management bit.

Agreed - there's not one of the new players that I'm unequivocally convinced by.

McCormack is the only one that I believe is definitely a good signing at this level.
Clarke also a good signing but I don't think he'll score a hatfull for us.
Gabilondo has looked good in patches but seems a bit lightweight at times.
Kerrouche - I only saw his cameo vs Oxford where he looked lively but didn't appear long enough to form a real opinion, but I'm concerned that he's only ever played at a very low standard of football.
DeVita I think could be a decent back-up player - was not at all impressed in earlier games but last 2 he's done well.
Connell has looked lively in his brief appearances but nothing to suggest he's more than an average L2 player
Esajas has done nothing to convince me that he can be any great shakes.
Devera looks like a bog standard L2 player, no more
Smith also looks an average L2 player and would be decent back-up but we need better first choice.
Risser has not impressed
Magera has been so disappointing but I remain optimistic he will come good.
Lanzano, Comazzi, Atiku and Cibocchi I've seen nothing of.

The better players have been Flint, Ritchie and Ferry, those inherited by PDC, so I am somewhat concerned that we've filled up the squad with players not quite good enough to take us out of this league.

And on 2 year contracts as well

The biggest problem is that we are playing catch up with regard to having a team ready to go for the promotion target set out. Even after 5 matches Di canio doesn't have a settled team yet.
We all have opinions on what the problems in personel are, but if we were getting results it wouldn't matter. We aint so there are problems, and as touched on above in the first post i think they are managerial and with the players. A combination of things aint giving us the rub of the green at the moment.

That said i dont think we are too far off being a decent side once we settle down. The more defeats we clock up won't help though

I'm surprised people are writing off Magera so soon after everyone was jizzing in their collective pants over the signing. Unless I'm mistaken he's not even had a pre-season as he left that Romanian club who were having financial difficulties/irregularities

That's the thing for me, my heart says we just need to settle own but my head says our team is riddled with crap. I keep swaying between the two, waiting for the team to prove either way.

Far too premature to write him off.  He was very disappointing on Saturday but given the standard that he has played at and his stature, I'm optimistic that with increased fitness and becoming familiar with the team he will be a great signing for us.

My only worry is looking at the fixtures ahead and on current form we'd be lucky to get anything out of those games.

I don't think our players are crap (overall) we've just have some dodgy performances all down the spine of the team. Devera has been nervous and very error prone, P Smith prone to his usual errors, Risser ineffective and De Vita doesn't do a lot either. Di Canio has tried to drop Devera where possible, Risser has been dropped which just leaves De Vita and Smith.

The problem is that Di Canio recognised some of his signings were not the best so he got in a handful on new players who are not match fit and havent had a lot of time to gel and fit in. So we are now a good month behind some of the other teams in this league who had their team set out and ready for the first game. We are now also left with some deadwood e.g. the likes of Atiku and Chibocci. The recent signings look good on paper but they wont come good for at least another few weeks yet. And PDC doesnt even seem sure on his favoured starting 11. All of this should have been done in pre season. Im not saying this season is going to be a disaster but with the start we have had and the fixtures we have coming up it doesnt look good and if Di Canio were to walk we would be left with all his deadwood until at least January. Fearing the worst there and obviously hope that doesnt happen.

I wouldn't say that Chibocci is deadwood - as soon as international clearance is recieved I can see him being thrown straight into the side going by PDCs comments recently. Atiku is a strange one and I can only assume he is shite.

IF Di Canio departs then we are in the shit big time, no doubt about that. The amount of foreign players on 2/3 year contracts who joined mainly because of Di Canio is alarming.

How long does it take for international clearance? It took about 2 days for Magera's to come through. Thought we signed Cibocci ages ago!

Calling Cibocchi deadwood seems a little harsh. We've got three players in what (many) people seem to view as the problem positions - Lanzano, Cibocchi and Comazzi who have for various reasons only played 20 minutes between them.

They might be good, they might be shit, but don't see how any judgment can be made on them until we've seen them play.

Same goes for those seemingly writing off Magera already. He's played less than an hour within a week of joining a new team, get a grip FFS.

The results are obviously concerning and can't be allowed to continue for much longer but let's have a bit of faith that we'll get there.

Both results and first 11 will be swinging like William Hague at a bisexual orgy until Christmas.   If we haven’t crucified the manager and players at that point I think we’ll hit second gear and start to see some consistency.

As everyone has pointed out there are far too many variables to ever expect the side to gel and carry on as we did against Crewe.  What is encouraging and a positive sign is that Crewe, Oxford (to a degree) and Bristhole all point to the fact that we can play well and occasionally get results.  Look at last season and how often could you say the same?

In respect to the foreign legion they will take time to settle.  With a couple of exceptions none of the foreign players have experienced English football and of those that have experience in the game they have never played at this level before.  It will take some time for them to adjust and settle.  Look at high profile Premiership players such as Dzeko, Vidic, Silva all took at least a few months to adjust to the English game. 

We will get there.

Personally, I want to see more experienced British involvement in the backroom team.  Not that I don’t have faith in the Italian team but someone with experience may help shorten that learning curve.  Secondly I think we need to have a few more reserve or friendly games to sharpen some of these players and work out our  best side. 

Milan Misun all over again....

And here lies part of the problem.  Too many players being brought in who were not match fit and not familiar/equipped to play  English lower league football. Potentially it could take a couple of months for that to change.  By then the gap could be too big between top and bottom for us to realistically mount any sort of challenge other than to avoid relegation again.

This.

Foreign players need time to adjust to this league. Di Canio is still learning too. It's too early to be worried, I'm still feeling confident that we can go up. If we're not in the top half by christmas then I'll be worried.

I still think we can turn this around and make it a promotion season, lots of teams in the past have been struggling at Xmas and then gone on a run that has taken them up the table to playoffs and beyond.

Its an old cliche but it does take time for a new side to gel and when these players are not from this country then surely that may well take a little while longer to get them to become a team and not a team of individuals.

As long as we arent being demolished by teams 3 or 4 nil them I think we arent far from getting that formula right.

How many times have you seen him...twice?

If you can judge a player after two matches i take my hat off to you, Risser is a good player.....i believe i am a better judge than you :D

We started with one foreigner on Sat....De Vita has been around in Britain for a while, so doesn't quite count.

di Canio's proper foreign imports, either not looking up to it or not visible at all.

Lander Gabilondo started as well, so it was 2 actually. But the team do need time to gel and become a team that want to play with and for each other, they are still pretty much strangers on the football pitch no matter what level or league or country they arrived at our club from, not that many new players can fit well into a team after a transfer and 5 of those that started and 6 that finished the game were/are new to this club.

Im a manager,obviously at a lower level but County League none the less and I can judge a player after 45 minutes.

Who do you manahe?

Bromley Green in the Kent County League mate.

I work in Bromley. True story

Nice. Need an assistant manager?

I'd say that is far too hasty on your part. Of course some players will be out of their depth very quickly,but others may not catch the eye straight away.

Your judgement may not be correct though? Everyone can judge a player whether they're a manager or not they could be miles off.

I don't rate Risser BTW from what I've seen (I hope I'm wrong TBH) but it's a bit black and white to strike a player off after 45 mins. is it not?

Good shout and good luck with Bromley but seeing as Paolo played to a high level and indeed would have had reports from others on Risser i will stick with his judgement just for now thanks....you watching him a couple of times and telling me he is pants wont wash at present,and in fact the game v Crewe he played fairly well in my opinion.
Of course you may prove to be right in time and i could be eating pie again :D

I'm in the minority cause I think Risser has potential, I also thought he did ok on his debut v Crewe, he admitted he was nervous but his goal was no fluke. Also wasnt too far off getting one very similar v Cheltenham. He was very vocal and encouraged the team throughout which was good to see. I think if anything he may be trying a bit to hard to impress and because of that he has been caught out of position a few times. He is not the quickest but is a big unit and won plenty of 50/50's.I'm not saying he is any better than Ferry, Smith, or McCormack but I don't think he is as bad as some are saying. Hope he gets a run out tomorrow night to give him another chance to change people's opinion.

Its easy enough to judge a player after minimal game time. I remember pointing out Casal was shit and always out of position against Tranmere whilst everyone else was wanking over McNamee.

I thought he was shit and rubbish after that game - that was my judgement....still would have given him another couple of games before I cast my opinion in stone, players at any level do have off days...

He was shit and out of position for both goals away at Cheltenham and that was it for me...

I think that's more the point. When he was made captain I thought he was going to be. To me it looked pretty obvious early on that our best two midfielders were on the bench.

Now he (Risser) did miss a lot of pre-season so I wondered if it was a fitness thing, but I have my doubts. Hope I am totally wrong on that.

I guess this is the risk with getting players in who have played a handful of games in the outer mongolia 4th division, and who are assessed against the Spicy Meatball and Firkin select 11.

By the way-I didn't say Risser was "crap",just said that after seeing him twice,I was underwhelmed with him.Leefer I dont blame you for trusting PDC's judgement more than mine-but we seem to be of the same opinion at the moment.

We lost 1-0 at Cheltenham DV, at the moment we are not seeing the best of any of our players but when we start winning and the confidence grows I'm hoping we will all have better opinions of the team.

What?

Not that season we didnt. It was 2-0.

http://www.swindon-town-fc.co.uk/MatchCentre.asp?MatchID=20090102

My mistake DV, thought you were referring to Risser this season at Cheltenham.

I would have thought the mention of McNamee and Casal might have given it away :)

Yeah your right, I was concentrating on Adje's and Batch's post to much regarding Risser.

To put a conclusion to my Risser thoughts, I certainly think it's too early to write him off. But so far he hasn't influenced a game at all (good goal though).

risser was absolute dogshite against crewe. not saying he won't come good, but he was on the bench vs pox, which must tell you something

Think Paolo may of given him the captains arm band a bit prematurely but he needed to name somebody before the first league game. I prefer to see a defender as team captain as you tend to see more of what's going right/wrong from that position. Maybe like some have said, Caddis or Flint would do a decent job ?

I think I'd prefer an older head to captain and let the younger element get on with their own game.

Flint has been fantastic, I think Paolo had him down as a squad player before the Crewe match. I think we all did!

Trouble is who does that leave?  Comazzi?

Comazzi was in the running at the start I seem to remember. Having seen him play in the pre-season games he seems to be a good talker and organiser. If he is better than Devera which is not difficult at the moment he might be a good choice for captain?