Thetownend.com

New Monkey s being slow so:

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/9110383.Stopper_Lanzano_set_for_Town/


Can't say it bothers me if Lucas or Smith leave and the other becomes number 1, with this guy being a number 2.

...whoever doesn't turn up today!

Four keepers is too many. One must surely be offloaded?

Yes, seems a pointless acquisition otherwise.

How old is Mark Scott? Not seen him play but he's presumably not ready to step up.

This has shades of last pre-season. Can't get a striker? Sign another keeper/left back -delete as appropriate.

Sign. Some. Strikers. TODAY.

That is all.

Especially as there's no reserve league this season.

Lucas has got to be on a fair amount so my money's on him leaving for pastures new.

So one of Lucas or Smith is about to go? Hopefully it's Lucas. I suspect he's on more and as I've said previously, I think Smith is the better of the 2.

Cant we sign someone english apart from smith and devera

Starting to do my head in

Who? This is what's doing my head in. Who can we sign that will please swindon fans will join us.

We are league 2,we had this issue last time.

Leon knight ;)

ooooh nearly had a serious reply.

He can be the next Jesionowski or he can be the next Brezovan...

Four keeper without a reserveteam is pointless in the 4th division, so I guess this means bye bye Lucas or Smith - and I'd frankly be glad to see one of them go!

Oh my god

Is that it. Is this the exciting sign we are expecting, are we having to rely on a young keeper nobody's heard of. We should be signing better than this. We've got no strikers, how are we going to score with no strikers. Don't they know how many players have left?

Just thought I'd get the ball rolling.

Even if Smith or Lucas are going, this seems pointless.

We would be left with either Smith or Lucas, with Scott as no2 and a youth team goalie to bench warm in emergencies.

Just can't understand this at all.

This is getting tedious. How about we wait and see what happens?!

so if Lucas goes or Smith goes we would only have had 2 keepers. We need 3 surely?

Just to cheer everyone i just heard on the radio that the deal for the Brazilian Striker has collapsed after both clubs failed to agree a fee.  It would seem there is now little chance of this deal being resurrected.

Ah well at least we have another keeper though   8)

I'm loving it Juddie

Part of me wants us to hold out for as long as possible before signing anybody

Yeah how dare we comment on potentially having 4 keepers on the books, meaning one will be leaving. What do you think this is, a football discussion forum.

Bangkok Red - you are a wind up merchant of the highest order sir - I salute you! We used to have a wooden spoon on a plaque at work for the biggest stirrer, I will have to find it and send to you.

No one is saying don't discuss are they? What's tedious is how every signing is now being greeted with we don't need a keeper oh great a defender etc people are just moaning instead of discussing now.

Not being difficult Batch, but people moaning we've got four goalkeepers/no strikers and whatever else when there is still five weeks to go til the start of the season... we probably will sell one keeper, we don't know. we definitely will sign at least two strikers. Why don't we let Paolo build his squad, then criticise if deserved when the time comes?

I'm boring myself even arguing about the fact that it is still very early days in the transfer market. Show me one club that has their completed squad ahead of the new season...

Juddie, you are right, of course, but.....

It was the club who made such a big deal about getting going faster in the transfer market, and who have repeatedly said that the squad would be assembled before going to Italy.

Firstly, it is natural to react to things as they happen.  I don't think anyone seriously believes this is the final squad. And we agree that the final squad may very well be amazing or may rubbish.

Secondly, its just as tedious to be told commenting on transfer activity/trialists is tedious :)

Thirdly Wiggy makes a good point:


Personally I don't see how stating getting a forth keeper in is pointless unless one is leavingis moaning about anything whatsoever. At worst its stating the obvious!

So they made their intentions clear. Good on them.

Doesn't always work out though.

Taking into account some reactions yesterday Batch (not yours), I beg to differ.

You're right, wiggy, but...

Whatever Wray says, he'll get it wrong.

He said he wants to finalise the squad before Italy: yeah maybe it's a bit naive, because we all know (history tells us) that it's impossible to conclude all your transfer business so early with players on holiday/sifting through offers. But it tells the current squad they need to make their minds up in order to give PDC an indication of who's here and who's not.

If he were to say: "we'd like to put as much of the squad together as early as possible, but the reality is we'll have to wait. We'll get some players and lose others, but the likelihood is we'll finalise the squad end of July/august" people would criticise for the club not acting earlier.

And if he says nothing he gets hammered for not being transparent!

And Batch, discussing transfers is not tedious, you're absolutely right, but criticising the club for not signing particular players or signing more players in one position is tedious, because it hasn't finished yet - no-one is in any position to comment on the squad as a whole because we're still about 6/7 players shy.

i refer you to the post that described the signing ofd this keeper as 'baffling'. well for all we know smith and lucas might both be off, we just don't know. Yes, it would be baffling if we had four on first day of the football season...

One thing we can all agree on... if only we could guarantee the team showed as much passion as the fans do on here, whatever their opinion... we wouldn't be in League Two!

I agree, but as b3nny says if that was their aim there's no guarantee everything will pan out the way they want.

We've already been told there were at least a couple of deals that fell through at various stages of negotiation, surely it's better for them to then take a little extra time to evaluate the next target and pursue him than to just rush through signing whoever they can to meet this arbitrary deadline? (which I concede they did set themselves).

Until all the departures from last season's squad were confirmed they won't have known exactly what players in what positions they need to bring in, the only glaring ones were at the back and up top and to be fair we've signed two defenders and a striker already. I'm certain there will be a few more in the coming days, and also imagine we will flesh the squad out with a few loan signings, which don't tend to get done until closer to the start of the season.

just been reading up on this guy and aparently his height is 171cm. That cant be rights surley? Unless he's got springs in his boots

185cm elsewhere chubbs

fair enough, still thats hardly tall.

So now we've signed a short-ass keeper. How's he going to score the goals we need?

171cm, 185cm, means fuck all to me, what's that in English?

His height fluctuates.

There cant be a keeper in the world at professional level that short! the shortest I remember was Scott Endersby at about 5 foor 9.

We couldn't score last season with strikers

the mexican national team keeper is quite short iirc

as was ex mexico keeper jorge campos at 5ft6 and the current san marino keeper is 5ft5 :-)

Now that IS short!

It's nice to come here and read some relative sense sometimes, the idiots on the adver comments and the FB feed make me die a little bit inside everytime.

I don't see the mass panic, yes we need a couple strikers but there is still so much time left, the transfer window moves so fast by this time tomorrow we could have 4 or 5 new players (doubtful, but you never know!)

Should have been here yesterday !!!!

Relax, di Canio's in talks with United about bringing Rooney here, but is worried if he'll fit into the team...

i think the majority of the forum were stood on the edge of Beachy Head yesterday

6 foot = 184cm.

3cm taller than Iker Casillas.  :D

I can understand why some are worried, what with our track record of bringing in forwards over the last 2 transfer windows when they were needed.

Im not panicing yet, but the sooner they are in so they can build up an understanding the better.

Im still wondering if Knight was the English forward di Canio mentioned or if there is an ace up the sleeve

to be exact

1828.8mm to be very exact

(1 inch = 25.4mm)

He may have great monkey arms which trail along the ground and hands like plates ala kenny allen

I hope Phil Smith goes, Ive never liked him. Lacks leadership and all the other good goal keeping attributes bar being a good shot stopper. I also, hope that they sign a keeper with a bit of charisma because after watching anything Smith or Lucas have done on STFC Player I have been pleased to turn it off and watch something like Sex in the City, if only to make the monotone stop.

Have you seen a lot of Smith then, or just snippets on STFC Player?

What are you on about?

He's asking if you have seen a lot of Phil Smith, or as your post implies, a limited amount through the STFC Player.

Ive seen him make make enough howlers and flap at enough stuff for my mind to be made up thats for sure. Also, Im sorry but he did not shower himself in glory at the end of last season.

I'll always love him for that night at the Valley - should have gone with him at Wembley.

Did he invite you?

In all fairness he was rock solid that night. All other times, I have watched with fear and nerves when he has been betwixt the sticks.

Presumably sell = get rid of one of the useless fuckers rather than actually receiving a fee for one of them

Both can go in my opinion, although Lucas is marginally better than Smith in my view.

He just takes forever to distribute the ball, it really gets my goat - I think its something he's acutely aware of judging by his hurried, nervous distribution at the end of last year.

"Fuck you Arch, He's a great shot-stopper", great - thats the line everyone trots out when a keeper is actually rubbish. I think you'll find every keeper is a pretty good shot-stopper, if they weren't then I doubt they'd make it to the professional leagues.

Frank Talia was a good shot stopper (when he wasn't doffing my sister) but funnily enough I don't remember saying that about Diggers, Brez or Shay Given when he played for us.

Christ I'm in a bad mood... ;)

Agree with this,really thought Lucas would be a great capture,to many injuries and as for Smith i am suprised he has lasted so long with us.

I would keep Smith.

Lucas needs a change of scenery. He's been 'injured' a lot lately.

A change would do him good.

As a bartender in the winners lounge, nothing more.  ;)

Smith is, and always has been, an able enough deputy. Good enough to keep a better goalkeeper on their toes and fill in when needed, too error prone to ever comfortably make the number one jersey his own. Very rarely gets injured too. I'd keep him, but not as guranteed number one.

The biggest problem with Smith is that he lacks that commanding presence around the box, he's a good shot stopper but can't really rely on him with crosses and communication etc.

Keep coming back to the point, we're in the 4th tier of english football, what do we expect?

I would have said that the goalkeeping department was about the one area of the squad that really did not need to be looked at, at all until next summer.

We ought to look at it now - we've got fucking loads of them.

55 pictures of today's training session and Smith / Lucas not in any of them! Also couldn't see Amaankwaah but think he's just had his knee op

Smith was at the 3 Crowns last Saturday night - I'm his stalker

Smith is the best keeper on our books and should start the season as number 1.

He's made errors what keeper hasn't. He's had a lot more good games than bad but no one remember the good ones.

As for distribtion.
He holds onto it, waits for people to get in position then rolls it to the full back - boo he held onto it too long.
He holds onto it, waits for people to get in position then kick it long to our strikers - boo long punt up field
He rolls it out quickly to one of the full backs who is quickly closed down - boo should have held onto it
He kicks it out quickly - boo should have waited for our strikers to get into position.

Lucas does all of those exactly the same but no one mentions his distribution - don't know why.

Smiths handling from crosses was better than Lucas last season - he cost a fair few goals with his shit punches.

It doesn't happen often, but I feel compelled to agree with DV!

(I need to lie down)

I completely and utterly agree. People whinge about Smith's distribution, but it's not really that different from Lucas's - although Smith's kicking is better. They just love to hate him, "because Lucas shouts" (as does Smith, but forget that, he's Smith) and has his sleeves cut off. The only flappy, hesitant goalkeeper that failed to command his area last season and cost us goals was Lucas.

I think Smith's problem is he seems quite meek. Your first choice keeper needs to be commanding even if he's not the most vocal. Smith to me is neither of these and that's why I see him as a more than adequate no. 2.

Having said all that, Lucas is both of the above (in my opinion) but was fucking shite last season so I'd be happy if he fucked off and we brought in a new first choice.

Bye bye Smith please. Lucas is comfortably better and if people dont recognise that had something to do with the difference between the last two seasons!!! Smith makes more howlers than Lucas and lucas is a miles better leader, something PDC wants in his players!

Last season I don't think there was anything to choose between them. Both had howlers at times.

Keep either. But Lucas injuries are a bit of a worry though.

I'd be surprised if Smith and Lucas are still here at the start of the season.

Lucas seems to be a bit of a sicknote these days - keep Smithy.

Mine was excluding VAT.

I don't give a shit if they both leave as long as we have an adequate replacement, both let us down badly last season.

Saying Smith is better than Lucas because he fucks up less is like saying that an Austin Maxi is better than a Morris marina because it broke down 3 times less than the other in the last year.....et us in a Ford Focus, something that is not outstanding and does the job to a good standard but wont let you down every time the weather gets cold or damp :D

Both should go, Smith while he has a good run every now and then as has been mentioned is far too meek he has no control of his box and the back 4 always seem to have no confidence in him, plus he has made some absolute stinkers.

Lucas just doesn't seem up for it, he seems the more likely to go in all honesty.

I have actually been the proud(?) owner of both a Maxi and a Marina in years gone by and can honestly say that neither of them broke down on me!!  :D
I get your point though, and you are right, though not sure we will get much better in L2.

I'd marginally prefer Lucas over Smith, but his persistant injuries are a bit of a worry.

However, I really wouldn't be too bothered if Smith started the season as our number one keeper.

Yep.

Lucas cost us a couple of goals at home to Plymouth, away to Walsall, away to Colchester with shitty punches and thats just off the top of my head. Although not last season, lets not forget the goal at Wembley either.

Apart from that stupid roll it out to their player against Hartlepool I cant remember Smith being at fault for much else.

As for meek, fuck that - I could hear him last season at the back of the DRS and I've got far from super sonic ears (they're quite small, I know)

I cant for the life of me remember which it game it was - but ball over the top, bouncing in the area, Cuthbert back tracking. Smith - KEEPERS, KEEPERS, KEEPERS. Cuthbert heads the ball out for a corner. Crowd....boo give him a shout Smith!


That is an absolute bollocks analogy.

How many goal keepers never make a mistake? Let alone ones that play at our standard.

Edwin Van Der Sarr has had an excellent career, over many years with some quality defenders in front of him but he's still made mistakes

...and your ford focus will still break down!

Last season the defence made both Smith and Lucas job alot harder than it should have been, Next season with a decent defence in front of them there should be less pressure on them and less mistakes.

I cant say I have ever been a huge fan of Smiths or Lucas but when either are on form they are more than capable of holding their own, with a new Gk coach it should give both of them a kick up the backside.

Lucas off to Rochdale according to Adver Twitter

We better get a fee, he's not long signed a contract extension!

Good news

Another one out the door. Just another 2 to get rid of in my opinion.

they can both go, neither of em are anygood for first choice keeper

i think you'll get your wish...

Who would these 2 be, just out of interest? I'm struggling to think who we have left, bar the recent signings!

I'm amazed at how well we've managed to offload last seasons deadwood. I was worried we'd be stuck with the likes of Rose and Prutton for another season...Shudder.....

If the rumours were to be believed i bet charlie austin is rubbing his hands with glee at the thought of mrs l moving back up north ;)

Kevin Amankwaah and Matt Ritchie.

Yeah I know the last one is controversial but being the best player (debatable) in our side is still nothing worth bragging about.

Don't think he's up to much.

"Swindon Town have granted goalkeeper David Lucas permission to talk to other clubs ahead of a potential move away from The County Ground."

From STFC Facebook. Sounds like they're happy for him to sod off at the earliest possible opportunity.

Training with Rochdale apparently.

I'd like to see Smith given his chance to stake his claim as 1st choice keeper, when he comes into the side he genrally does well but must have always had it in the back of his mind that Lucas was first choice and would be back in once fit regardless of how well he does

You are joking right?

Ritchie is the only bloody one that looked like he wanted to be there! He couldn't carry the whole team!

I'm honestly intrigued as to who you think was our best performer last season?

and Manks was injured most of last season unfair to make a judgement, the play off season he was a great performer.

I have no problem with Smith becoming the No.1 however he really needs to step up his game next season.  Whilst he is a great shot stopper his communication & dominance of his box is piss poor

owain fon williams is a free agent i think. dont think he signed a new contract at rochdale

[url width=150 height=170]http://i412.photobucket.com/albums/pp209/maxt384/You-Are-Smoking_Crack.jpg[/url]

Hope you're right would love to see both Smith and Lucas move on, don't feel confident in either as first choice keeper, would be nice if we got a new solid keeper in.

Didn't ritchie do quite well in his spell in league 2 ?

I thought Caddis was our best player last season.

Is did quite well in L2 going to be good enough? Nothing special in L1.

Ritchie has been in the gym every day this summer bulking up and getting fit, so would expect him to start the season flying. Manky good in L2.

Ritchie is more than good enough for league 2. So is a fit Manks.

Fair play he's making an effort. 

Although shouldnt a pro footballer be in the gym every day anyway?

DV, I think he meant he was putting in extra sessions. Not all pro footballers put the extra hours in.

** sighs **

what mrverve said. Everyone deserves a break, but ritchie's worked through his while others have been on holibobs.

Scored 15 goals for Dagenham a few years back on loan. And that was out wide as well.

The sort of calibre of signing we can make. I wouldn't mind him here actually he'd do a job in this league.

joining tranmere by the looks of things

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12874_7012346,00.html

sorry to go off topic but can you tell me who your photo/avatar is of, and has she appeared  in a video nasty anywhere!?  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

that's kelly kapawski of saved by the bell fame - lovely stuff

How can you not know who Kelly Kapowski is?

Is this still just at the rumour stage, or is he actually going to join us?

I imagine he's coming in, as it sounds like Smith is off as well.

so where are these smith rumours from?

I assume we will get another experienced keeper if he goes too

Just a rumour doing the rounds... if true I expect one more with the Italian, so three fighting it out for the no.1 jersey.

How good is Scott? Not really seen him in action

Great Scott!

I have seen him in the stiffs on more than 8 occassions and hes a capable keeper, not a bad shot stopper, not a lot worse than Smith or Lucas but better than Jesionkowski, will need first team games to get some confidence up but I wouldnt rely on him as 1st choice as yet.

Lanzano officially signed now

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/9119845.Lanzano_finalises_County_Ground_switch/

Found a bit of info on him, looks like he played about 20-25 games in the Italian fourth last season

So, has he been brought in to be the #1, or is he going to be in competition with Scott for a place on the bench.

Personally, I hope he's good enough to be the #1

Surely Smith (or Smith replacement) will be #1 for the foreseeable.

I hope not.

If Lanzano has been brought in as an understudy, we need a new keeper.