Current Predicament...

[Batch]

we are too short of firepower to get above mid table imo.

Power had gone down the road we had to go down in terms of self sustainability. Assuming he's being honest with us on that front, to be honest I don't trust him as far as I could throw him.

And that lack of trust comes solely from what I'd call a closed shop approach. Doing the right thing the wrong way is how I'd phrase it. 

Don't want to go round and round those circles again tbh. I won't be calling for his head, but you reap what you sow on that front.

Obviously I'd rather have a Lansdown or a Majeski in charge and shaping the clubs long term future with their money and drive. I'd also like to win the lottery too.

On the pitch it's garbage, the insistence of playing the Swindon way on a possession stats based system is frustrating. we've seen it work for 3/4 season, it was great. since then garbage. it's got to be addressed be it by Power, Williams or whoever makes us play plod predictable football .

[horlock07]

The ground needs more than a lick of paint and the marketing side of things leaves a lot to be desired.

On the pitch can't really complain. One alright season, one very good season, one naff season, and one season that looks naff again... We are a League One club so we're at our level. I think he has put too much faith in Williams.

I don't see him as the villain many see him as (or want him to be).

The thing is would increased spend on marketing actually achieve anything, if he reads this forum he will see a plethora of posts to the effect of saying 'I am not going to that match as Power has not come round to my house wearing a sandwich board requesting that I attend' so in light of the limited budget available I wonder whether the money is being directed to where in can make a difference and hence the c.£500k spent on players?

[horlock07]

This lifted directly from the ever wonderful http://www.swindon-town-fc.co.uk/ I think illustrates the problems we have....

Brad BARRY's next appearance will be his 50th for the club.

Rossi Branco RAPHAEL's next appearance will be his 100th for the club.

Nathan THOMPSON's next league appearance will be his 150th for the club in this competition.

Not only does it illustrate how much Thompson must have been injured or suspended over the last few years, but also how many games players which probably are not quite there have made over a couple of seasons.

[Tails]

Define a little more ambition? Maybe I expect more but Power has done well with revenue received from players who have departed. Aside from Vigirouz and Norris, we have relied on loans and free transfers. Why could we have not paid fees and made more permanent singings?

Byrne
Luongo
Barker
Smith
Obika
Gladwin
Stewart
Goddard
Vigoroux
Norris

All signed for a fee.

Tijane Reis
Ryan Harley
Ty Belford
Yaser Kasim
Raphael Rossi Branco
Nile Ranger
Dany N'Guessan
Mohamed El-Gabbas
Anton Rodgers
Jake Reeves
Jermaine Hylton
Cameron Belford
Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill
Drissa Traore
Fabien Robert
Ellis Iandolo
James Brophy
Brad Barry
Jeremy Balmy
Nicky Ajose
Henrik Ojamaa
Mamour Bangoura
Jamie Sendles-White
Conor Thomas
Nathan Delfouneso
Sean Murray

All signed permanently. Yeah we've received a lot in transfers out, but I'm fairly certain he inherited a club with huge debts that runs at a loss.

Kinda get your point re. relying on loans, but the class of loan we had in certainly helped push us in. Good way to get quality players without having spend too much ££.

If 'ambition' means signing more players on bigger wages...  Look at Gillingham. They've added big name (if you can call them that) players on decent wages and gone backwards. We did the same after 09/10 and it did us no good. The real problem is there's no right answer.

[Bob's Orange]

I do accept that Power is trying to run a sustainable model and unfortunately that is going to take a lot of patience. The new training ground sounds like its coming along but we are not going to see the bearing of fruits from this for a while, hopefully its going to see more talented young players coming through with the better facilities.

My frustration is the way we play, whilst its 'admirable' that we are trying to play 'total football' I just don't think it can work at our level. The tempo is far too slow, the passes need to be crisp and sharp and Division 3 footballers generally aren't good enough with balls fizzed into feet etc. We have scored 2 very good goals this season that I would say was down to total football, (Murray's at home to Northampton and Obika's goal away at Oldham.) but we just aren't going to be able to do it every week.

Our set pieces are my main bugbear. I guess we were spoiled by PDC's side with some well worked corners and some of our free kick routines were a joy to watch. We don't appear to do ANY practice on set pieces at all.

Finally, it maybe just me but we seem to be bullied by a lot of sides, how many away teams come to the CG, are bigger and stronger than us. The second ball retention seems to be so poor. I did read that Tom Smith made a difference in the Rochdale game but we are so powder puff at times.

Its all a bit boring for me. I find myself going to less and less games, the atmosphere is sterile, the numbers are down, the tempo makes us appear to be lacklustre. I just can't be bothered getting on a train, paying £60-80 for a Saturday where the product makes me want to tear my hear out.

I don't know the answer. I am behind LP but I think he needs to change. His lack of interaction with the press irritates me as well. We should have a much better relationship with the Adver and the local press. Alienating them is just foolish in my eyes.

[Flashheart]

My frustration is the way we play, whilst its 'admirable' that we are trying to play 'total football' I just don't think it can work at our level. The tempo is far too slow, the passes need to be crisp and sharp and Division 3 footballers generally aren't good enough with balls fizzed into feet etc.

Martin Ling made it work.

[Reg Smeeton]

 When you're on a tight budget there's little margin for error. Nobody gets them all right, even Danny Williams, for every Joe Butler or Peter Noble, there was a Ken Keyworth or Barry Lowes.

 There's some right dross in your list Tails, and only to be expected, when you're operating at the bottom of the market.

 It's OK if amongst the dregs you find a nugget or 2, but at the moment we're struggling to get these new lads up to a satisfactory Div 3 speed let alone anything better.

[GL5 Red]

If Williams is relieved of his duties, who can we expect? Cotterell is a tit but given a little resource would take us up the table.

[Tails]

When you're on a tight budget there's little margin for error. Nobody gets them all right, even Danny Williams, for every Joe Butler or Peter Noble, there was a Ken Keyworth or Barry Lowes.

 There's some right dross in your list Tails, and only to be expected, when you're operating at the bottom of the market.

 It's OK if amongst the dregs you find a nugget or 2, but at the moment we're struggling to get these new lads up to a satisfactory Div 3 speed let alone anything better.

There is some garbage yeah.

But this is where the complaint about loans is interesting... If you could sign a Ryan Mason on loan for a season or a Bangoura permanently, where would you go? We can get better players if we use the loan market.

As I said before, there is no right answer. Every signing is a gamble. Every managerial appointment is a gamble. The two things we really seem to miss (on the pitch) is fitness and discipline... Two things that can take push players / teams with limited ability up the table in this league.

[horlock07]

My frustration is the way we play, whilst its 'admirable' that we are trying to play 'total football' I just don't think it can work at our level. The tempo is far too slow, the passes need to be crisp and sharp and Division 3 footballers generally aren't good enough with balls fizzed into feet etc. We have scored 2 very good goals this season that I would say was down to total football, (Murray's at home to Northampton and Obika's goal away at Oldham.) but we just aren't going to be able to do it every week.

I think its a style that when it works is great and when it doesn't is obviously shit!, there were plenty of Man City fans making the same complaints at the weekend and also see likewise about England.

It is all about ability and lower league players don't tend to have it, I remember commenting a couple of years back that there was no point playing out from the back if the defenders did not have the ability to pick a pass to play it, its all about adapting to the personnel you have, they may able to train it into them but could take years!

Our set pieces are my main bugbear. I guess we were spoiled by PDC's side with some well worked corners and some of our free kick routines were a joy to watch. We don't appear to do ANY practice on set pieces at all.

Set pieces seem to be shit in football generally at the moment, how many corners at whatever level seem to fail to beat the first man?

Finally, it maybe just me but we seem to be bullied by a lot of sides, how many away teams come to the CG, are bigger and stronger than us. The second ball retention seems to be so poor. I did read that Tom Smith made a difference in the Rochdale game but we are so powder puff at times.

That's the problem with playing kids unfortunately, the amount of times our players get kicked to shit and nothing happens and then the ball goes up to their wily centre forward, he gets nudged, goes down for a foul and our player gets booked - sadly I think they could do with coaching some cynicism into our team.

I don't know the answer. I am behind LP but I think he needs to change. His lack of interaction with the press irritates me as well. We should have a much better relationship with the Adver and the local press. Alienating them is just foolish in my eyes.

Serious question, does anyone actually read the Adver anymore, their website (like all local media/paper websites) is shit and crap to use, whilst their sports reporting is a fine example of churnalism with it being obvious that they do not bother to dedicate anyone to actually report on the club? No doubt Power could do better although I don't recall any chairman doing monthly interviews live and seeking to answer questions, but would it actually achieve anything positive?

[Flashheart]

Total sport get interviews all the time, it's only the adver that are not allowed. And fuck them anyway.

[Bob's Orange]

Martin Ling made it work.

That is a fair point. The difference being that we had a goalscorer in that side and a consistently decent front 2.

I do think Ajose did get him out of a pickle more than once or twice. How many late equalisers or winners did he seem to score that season? Not saying we were lucky every week mind you! Ling did seem to give us that kick in the balls we desperately needed.

[Ticker45]

This season we have been caught out with the loan system being discontinued in its previous form. You only had to look at our bench Saturday to see how threadbare the squad is due mainly to injury and the odd suspension. I recall Luke Williams saying earlier he was happy working with a reduced squad, well patently that has come back and bitten us pretty badly.

Personally I like the possession football we play but we lack that incisiveness in the final third and everyone knows that we are missing the regular goalscorer that every team needs. Unfortunately they do not grow on trees so do we go route one hit and hope and expect Delfouneso/Obika (when fit!) to be on the end of every ball? I think not under the current way we play.

Whether Messrs. Power and Williams can sort this mess out very quickly then we are in for a long old remainder of the season that does not bode well.

[Reg Smeeton]

That is a fair point. The difference being that we had a goalscorer in that side and a consistently decent front 2.

I do think Ajose did get him out of a pickle more than once or twice. How many late equalisers or winners did he seem to score that season? Not saying we were lucky every week mind you! Ling did seem to give us that kick in the balls we desperately needed.

Most of the late goals were scored under early Luke....Lingy had a big advantage in that we could get in short term loans like Louis, Gladwin and El-Abd, to help out with injuries. No doubt if the rules hadn't changed we'd be doing similar now.

Back in the summer Scunny took Josh Morris from Blackburn, on a free, he'd previously kicked around on loan at a few clubs mostly Fleetwood and scored 11 in 124 appearances. 

This season 13 in 15.....now that's the sort of turd polishing Power would like to see. Goes to show it can be done.

[A Gent Orange]

Ling did make it work but he was also backed heavily in the loan market. That allowed him to play a different way - to 'break' the team between defence and attack and rely on Ben Gladwin to join the two up. Without him, it really wouldn't have worked, much as doing the same didn't work on Saturday.

It also gave him options - whatever you think of William's performance, he really doesn't have any at the moment - reduced to bringing on Brad Barry on the wrong flank to make a tit of himself because we have so many injuries.