Thetownend.com

On the official supporters club facebook page from 7pm this evening i believe

The link for anyone interested

https://www.facebook.com/STFCSupClub

Cheers, my bad, forgot the important bit!

Am I being daft or has it not started?

edit - there’s been a delay.

The perils of live streaming.

I don't do the Facebook. Presumably a brief summary will be posted on this forum?

Vic is so much more direct than bbc

Isn't the Melksham game tonight?

Tomorrow

Yeah very good. I will be annoyed if he doesn't ask about Donohue. How is the guy training but not playing, how will he be match fit?

Is the FB thing still on?

Similarly with the Tweety Blue Bird. You don't need an account or be logged in to view. Currently talking about Carabao cup and game schedule management.

So basically, view away sans AssBook account :)

Ambitions for season - Feels a bit of momentum has been lost due to players choosing to go elsewhere (Doyle, Yates, Keshi) but it can be easily regained with the next few signings. If we get them right, we can be dark horses for play offs. If not, we’ll struggle to compete with some of the bigger clubs.

‘Keeper imminent and another signing ready to go subject to an incoming at his current club. Benda can go out on loan if wages paid in full (watch him turn up at another L1 side)

Front runners for L1 - Sunderland, Ipswich, Peterborough, Portsmouth. Really competitive league.

Reg’s old mate Flitters had a budget above £2.5 million in League 2...frightening.

Maynard is a no - knocked us back last season so won’t re-visit.

Donohue will re-sign but can’t before September 20th (unclear why)

Spite is a glorious thing.

So pleased with his answer to that!

Summary of what I heard:
- Current squad will struggle
- With 5 good signings we may be able to go for playoffs
- Talked about Shrewsbury spending lots.
- Then reeled off a number of other big clubs with bigger budgets
- Next 2-3 weeks, if we get people in, we will be able to get momentum back
- We lost momentum with several players leaving
- Will cause teams problems
- Goalkeeper arrive tomorrow on loan
- Need backup keeper
- Need 5-6 players
- Isgrove and Woolery: Its getting to the point when we need to get it sorted
- Agreed to sign a player from another club. Just waiting for other club to have a player come in
- Need to pluck out a couple of diamonds like last year
- See Sunderland, Ipswich, Charlton, Hull and Wigan. Plus Peterborough and Portsmouth as clubs who will do well
- Wycombe got promoted as they built over a number of years. Implied on our budget we will need the same
- Looking forward to playing against the big clubs
- Centrebacks and strikers much better in the 1st division. L1 have athletic players who are savvy. L2 have players with no legs or young and quick with no brains.
- No idea on season ticket sales.
- Talked about season ticket holders being able to watch on iFollow. Home teams get to keep money from iFollow.
- Salary cap: How will we be impacted? We wont be near £2.5 million. Flitcroft had more than £2.5 million in L2.
- Cooper, Norwood, Maynard (No - cos he turned Wellens down last year so Wellens wont go back), Pitman. Wellens said the other 3 are good players!
- Donahue will sign for the club. Just an issue that he cant sign a contract until Sept 20th. That's why he hasnt played.
- Trialists: How does it work? The ones we have had have been bodies to fill gaps. Back of our mind is that they aren't good enough. Those who are good enough wont come on trial. Would have signed a trialist goalkeeper, but the financial package was wrong
- 5-6 to bring in: Dont want them all to come at the end of the transfer window. Happy for one if he is a known good player, but want the rest in pretty soon.
- Signings within the next week? Wont name names. Will be a GK tomorrow. Close with an attacking player. Speaking to 2-3 players, but not close. Likely to be loans as they are cheaper.
- Cant afford to buy good players. The ones that are cheap arent good enough
- Loan players: If from Champ, L1 or L2 then we pay approx 50% of wage. If from Prem, its about development. At the end of the season you pay a loan fee to the Prem fee. But that fee reduces for every game they play.
- Wellens sees himself staying as long as the chairman shares the same vision. Feels a debt of gratitude to the club. As long as the club wants him and fuels his ambition he will stay.
- Melksham: A few first team players. Hope, Matt Smith will play tomorrow because they have had less minutes than others. There will be 4-5 first team players.
- Wellens watching Blackpool vs Blackburn tomorrow so wont be at Melksham. Also watching Rochdale too.  
- Hope to Port Vale? Wellens said 'Its a rumour'. Said Hope had done well in pre-season. Wellens not letting any attacking players go until we get someone in. Noone will be leaving yet.

On the loan bit, Wellens reckons Benda is worth £5 million now!

Benda being worth £5 million made me chuckle.

I also noted the confirmation that we won’t be offering Ireland anything unless it’s an extremely cheap deal.

cc. Bamboo

*runs for cover*  ;)

Would be a shame if he does end up at another league 1 club due to finances.

Very accurate summary imo. Wellens managing expectations in his normal honest way. Cant help to be impressed with how he comes across.  Essentially 4 extra quality forward options and we push for play offs. Less than 3 and we are looking at being part of the pack in the middle. I think as fans we all completely appreciate his honesty and the reality is that this is dependant on the ongoing/increased support of the owner/benefactor(s) and that is the 6 million dollar inponderable.

Its basically down to Power to back Wellens with a decent budget otherwise we will lose him and there's only so much he can do with cheap/free options. Nice to see he dosen't tip Oxford as one of the front runners!

Ahh, Chang. I've been expecting you  :soapy tit wank: All relative though isn't it? Cheap might be in terms of what he was earning and to what we may offer. So half of his former wages would be "cheap" comparatively but still enough for him to sign.

Ireland has been quoted as saying he would be happy to play for less, just wants the opportunity to be back playing again.

Regarding your comment though, I actually didn't hear RW say what you said though?!

Would be a shame RE: Benda if he were to roll up at another L1 club.

Vicv Morgan, still can't understand why the hell BBC Local binned him. He's an absolute;y brilliant broadcaster. In terms of locality, BBCWilts lost a quality reporter there. It also could quite easily have been a Zoom call between RW and his Dad, until Hannah popped up but she was equally impressive too.

Wellens needed a tripod/monopod though but yeah, Vic Morgan he just loves live broadcast and as others have said, just so much more direct. Kudos to Wellens seemingly happy to natter for as long as they required with out any feeling of time constraints. Good work all round.

Unless I’m mistaken, RW didn’t say that SB couldn’t or wouldn’t be coming here. And we know he’s like a magician pulling rabbits out the hat. Be ace if he does. Fingers crossed.

Nah. RW previously said that any other loan goalkeeper signing will have to be No.1 due to stipulations of the loan agreement and it's a 'waste of a loan' to have one sat on the bench.

Apologies if it’s been mentioned but Wellens also said they’ve spent money on the training pitches over Calne so won’t need to chop and change where they train every week. So will be there for the foreseeable future.

He also said it's a good training ground with decent facilities.

excellent summary, thanks for taking the time to write it up all (mostly NMH).

good to hear Donohue is still on. Is he tagged or doing community service :)

Yep - which it is, I used to love playing there in my Sunday league days.

That's good on both counts. Some consistency on a training ground is welcome - well at least until our own one gets built :holdingouthope:

Ive been running around the training pitch the last few weeks. Grass looks great and well maintained, but I still think it will have issues with drainage like last season.  :hmmm:

Vic Morgan takes me back to the mid 80's under Macari when I bought the tape of us clinching promotion away at Mansfield and he was commentating with Hogetts

Get that audio uploaded Q. A great listen, I'm sure. I may have been born but I wouldn't have known much about it. Certainly have absorbed it via the old man though and of course posters on here.

He's a decent guy and used to travel up from Devon on the train for home matches then board the supporters coach for away games

Great to read your write up of an interview again, didn't listen but can't imagine upon reading that you've left much out, top work, thanks.

Enjoyed it! Found myself thinking back to the PDC days! 😲

Oh I know RE: Vic Morgan. Which was even more rubbish when BBC Wilts decided to part ways. As dedicated as a fan but a presenting delivery style that is quite the rarity these days. Especially in regards to Local Radio. Morgan has always had good balance to his presentation yet you still get enough from him to believe in his love for the club.

You don’t need a Facebook account to watch.

I never knew how he got into following Swindon Town I vaguely remember that he went to school in Malmesbury

They were my bread and butter back then, living and working in France your annotations were how I kept in the loop, thanks again.

Likely not read back but do keep up ;)

Its my mums birthday, that will be it.

makes sense

Then you should tell her to bring her birthday forward.

Could do were it not for her passing two years back.

Even David Peach didn't manage to pass that far back.

Now there's another new thread in the making shite! Ex Town players starting with Hammond in goal, Peach left back.......

I know Wellens is scouting for both the Blackpool and Rochdale matches but it is also a nice convenience for him to spend a bit more time with his wife and kids in Manc.

Plus plenty of clubs/ooc players in that area if he needs to go and have a friendly chat with potential targets.

Agent Robbie  :sherlock:

I’ll not try to be so helpful next time.