Thetownend.com

Interesting stat on Sky. In L1 and L2 the clubs with the most loan signings are all struggling at the bottom of their respective leagues.

Kevin Stewart is back any day now and the Spanish youngster (?) will be another one come January.

To me the philosophy of maximum loans with a need to sell players to survive just don't add up. 5 loans in a team reduces the opportunities for 'owned' players a chance to put themselves in the shop window.

Would like to see Robert start ahead of Gladwin on Saturday.

I can see why though. You get reduced price players who potentially have a lot of quality. Would we have finished 4th without the loan players last season? No chance. And there's no way we could afford that type of player usually. Even the season before last, we weren't too far off the playoffs and we wouldn't have been anywhere near if it wasn't for the likes of Pritchard.

At the end of the day, our club doesn't make much money and the people of Swindon are pretty apathetic towards their own team. That's why we have to take a chance on youngsters and take punts on players like Brophy, Gladwin. I don't blame Power at all for trying to run the club sufficiently, the only thing that bothers me is why there seems to be no plans at all to push ourselves on. I know we'll probably always be a 3rd tier club, probably with a dip into the depths every now and then, but I'm finding it hard to forgive the lack of ambition.

I spend a lot of my time in Reading these days and I envy them. They market the club well, it has a real sense of community and lets be honest, they have a pretty decent stadium. I know it gets called soulless, but it's a fuck load noisier than the County Ground.

It wasn't an issue the last 2 seasons

loan players are calculated punts. sometimes you get favours with the likes of mason, Pritchard and luongo from Sherwood/Tottenham. sometimes you get the next big thing like Slabber/Nouble, who turn out to be turd .

I'm more disappointed by our seeming lack of plan/quality targets on the permanent recruitment front.

That's because our permanent signings provided the impetus to launch a promotion bid. We didn't manage that because of the loans but because of Luongo, Byrne, Gladwin, Kasim, Fods, Smith, Obika, N. Thompson

Would that be the Luongo, Byrne, Obika and Foderingham that originally joined the club... on loan?

Rhyming slang?

Of course, but we're comparing the team last season when they were permanent. Byrne didn't impress too many when on loan.

My point is that if we rely on selling players to survive then stuffing the squad with 5 loans reduces the opportunities for own p!ayers to shine for a possible future profit.

Do you not think any of the current loanees might be available to join on a permanent deal? Thomas and El-Abd are almost certainly lined up, and I believe we put a bid in for Vigoroux before?

loan players are included in the plan to survive. We don't pay much for them, and in return we potentially get a player of a decent quality.

Sure, but we can see already that they will never be a cash cow for the club as last season's players were.

I think last season was an exception with the combo of loans/permanents. The chance of replicating that on a regular basis is slim.

I'm more disappointed that we seem to be shunning our own young players

I have no issue with loan players, we've had some bloody good ones over the years.  However, this season we've brought in too many, which is now causing selection problems for Ling.  

It doesn't say much about the quality of some of our permanent players when 6 of the starting 11 would be loans if that was possible.  As others have said, there doesn't seem to be any plan for improving on this, which is a concern.

I agree to a point, but aren't you undermining your own previous point about Byrne looking no great shakes when he was here on loan? He went for seven figures.

The two Liverpool outfield lads showed a bit before they were injured, and we know Turnbull can look very good in a more settled defensive setup.

I read that as a spoonerism. Can't find "palculated" in the dictionary though.

Could also be a malapropism I suppose...

I suppose, but Thomas and El Abd have both been first teamers elsewhere so I presume whatever potential they have has already been realised.

As an aside,  did I read somewhere that Smith's loan to Barnsley was structured so that it led to a permanent signing in January - whether they still want him or not?

Purely unintentional. I'm happy to call a cunt a cunt.

Thomas and El Abd are clearly outside of our 'usual' plan though- they're short term players brought in to fill a specific gap - not unlike Ricketts last season.

You may be right that it has in these two particular cases, but it's a very dodgy assumption - football history is littered with players who've not impressed in one set-up, first team or not, and gone on to be stars elsewhere.

A classic example being Bradshaw on Tuesday, scored something like 5 goals in 50 odd games for the Shrews in Div 3. Goes to Walsall on a free and 20 in 37, last season.

Or indeed SSP. Why did Northampton let him go? (4 in 40 for them).

Think Gladwin should be the loan player dropped on Saturday. Need as much energy and industry as possible away from home. Would be interested to see something like this, now we're forced into 4 at the back:




Stay deep and compact in defense and midfield, midfield 3 primarily working to break up play (with the odd burst forward from Louis and Robert), but mostly, long-balls in behind for the pacy front three to run onto whenever possible.

Never thought I'd be advocating for long-ball football, but away from home, think passing is suicide with available players/ lack of confidence at the moment.

Gladwin should be the loanee to miss out this weekend, waste of space. Had we not persisted with a midfield 3 of Kasim, Rodgers and Gladwin for so long perhaps we wouldn't be struggling so much.

Thompson may stay a bit longer, but they had to convert his youth loan to a standard loan today - as the emergency loan window slams shut.

Gladwin's current deal expires after Saturday, and Ling expects QPR will have a new manager in by the time we need to extend- so will have to suck it and see.

No doubt in twitterland this is old news and already out of date!

Im not overly fussed on Glsdwin tbh. He hasnt been great since he has come back

I guess making El-Abd and Thomas permanent in Jan would change the loan outlook a fair bit.

Not bad in that number 10 role, but no better than what we have in Robert IMO.

What has Robert got to do to get a start? Been impressed with him every time he's played, I can't be the only one who's scratching his head.

I'm pretty sure you are. Why would anyone want to scratch Robert's head? That's just weird.