Thetownend.com

Di Canio holds off naming captain

Swindon Town manager Paolo di Canio will not appoint a captain for next season until after the club's pre-season friendlies.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport1/hi/football/13928965.stm

It does help to have a team first

Very true

I think one of the key new players has a good chance of being captain and he isn't here yet

Is that Comazzi chap usually a capitano himself?

Apart from being a bit thin on the ground in terms of players, am I the only one who thinks our pre-season schedule is looking decidedly threadbare? Two games (I think) in Italy followed by the hardy perenials of Supermarine and Cirencester then Reading.

Not a lot really is it? Is it an Italian thing where they don't like playing too many friendlies? Or was it that in the midst of the relegation dog fight, Wilson going, Hart coming, Hart going, Bodin coming in temporarily, Fitton stepping down etc, everyone thought someone else was getting pre-season sorted :hmmm:

Most of the fixtures should have been sorted in March or earlier and I would have thought it's going to be nye on impossible to get a friendly organized against anyone half-decent at this stage. Maybe Paolo's trying to arrange a couple of 'behind doors' games against Spurs and West Ham?

Or have I missed something? Have I missed loads of other games being announced?

On the contrary i think we play to many friendlies OST.

The tour is about getting fit and for me two friendlies is more than enough with the size of our squad,alright for the bigger clubs with 30/40 pros,last thing we need is crocked players when it looks like a squad that is rather small.

About how many friendlies do we normally play?

http://www.swindon-town-fc.co.uk/Results.asp?Friendly=YES&Season=2010-2011

Seems oh so long ago.

Yes, it is about getting fit, of course. But it's also about playing together and 'gelling' (that old chestnut again) as a unit. I wouldn't advocate going back to the Macari days when we played just about every non-league side in Wiltshire and neighbouring counties (most of which I went to) but I think we're about three games short personally. I'm talking about say, a Conference side and a couple of Championship sides.

...at least nobody should panic if we lose every game.

How many clubs play 3 friendlies against clubs 2 divisions above them? Can't be many!

That was just random really. I just meant I think we are about 3 games short (possibly 2) against decent opposition.