Thetownend.com

Benson set for Town - reports
           

  SWINDON Town could be set to make a late swoop for Charlton striker Paul Benson, according to reports in Yorkshire.

           

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/headlines/9384418.Benson_set_for_Town___reports/?ref=rss
           

Hope there is some truth in this.

@STGary_Rose Gary Rose
Have just been informed that both Murray and Benson are down at the County Ground, still waiting for confirmation

Wasnt the deadline 5pm?

Yeah but you need to wait for football league aproval

Os stating Murray has signed, no mention of Benson.

Would be well happy if Benson came here, vastly experienced in the lower leagues, certainly knows his way to goal in this division.

Hopefully they'll be a little tweet of confirmation soon?!?

This is the latest from Mr Rose...

Still in the office and still waiting, I don't think we will have any confirmation one way or the other tonight
15 minutes ago

Jesus christ! Benson!

I wonder why he failed his medical with the Bantams.....?

Lack of cartilage in his knee....it's that severe it has limited him to only 70 odd appearances in the last two seasons.  Think the failed medical was a smokescreen for lack of funds to complete the deal

Bradford are absolute low of the low. Lets face it, they couldn'[t afford and hoped that once he was there that they could hold the player and Charlton to poor financial terms. This is a player that would absolutely run riot in this league!

The story I read said the move had fallen through as Bradford couldn't agree terms, no mention of this rumoured failed medical. Hopefully we'll here some good news later this morning.

BBC wilts tweeted that Benson is training with town this morning as we wait for his football league clearance.

Wonder whether we will see Clarke go to Charlton in January and Benson sign for us?

OK, I give up. Who is Spatula?

Clarke

Leon C l a r k e.
More importantly, who the hell is Paul Benson!? Pretty sure I recognise the name (probably through Football Manager...), but otherwise, what has he achieved? Prolific? If so, at what level?

You know ....? Spatula

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Benson

Used to be at D+G, very good player imo. Decent at league 2 level and would score atleast 15-20 before the season ends if he joined.

What league to Dolce & Gabbana play in?

 :-[

I've had a shocker! I'll call my own taxi  :bye:

Originally Charlton wanted the player out, was prepared to let him go on loan to us - or anybody - provided we agreed to buy him in January and they were looking for a six-figure fee then.  Don't know what happened then but he ended up in Yorkshire, who then wanted to move the goalposts in terms of the financial arrangements.  Think it was ok let's see if Swindon are prepared to cough up 100 thou for him and it appears we are!!  Is that the Ritchie money being spent??

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11758/7331908/Robins-in-late-Benson-swoop

Fingers crossed that this goes through OK as having someone with lots of experience upfront will be very useful.

Ritchie isn't being sold!

I hope you are right and that he is still here on Feb. 1st.

If he goes for less than £1 mil i will streak across the pitch after he's sold!!

Am I right in thinking that as the Football League haven't okayed this deal by 12PM today, then signed or not we wont be seeing him tomorrow?

Somebody posted a comment that its gone through on thisisstfc (Under the Ritchie story) but this may not be true. We need the news !!

I rate this lad big time...knows the ropes and has the experience we need to fire in the goals! Hope he can stay fit and like others have mentioned I feel he will bang in 15+ before the end of the season!

I usually take anything Wikipedia says with a pinch of salt.....

Haha £1m?! You are joking right?

No more news on this?

He was last seen with Milan Misun in the DRS second concourse

always one step ahead

If his wiki image is that of Aslan the lion then, yes, by all means be cautious.

The clubs needs to clarify this situation as Gary Rose seemed certain he was at the County Ground with Ronan Murray but if that is the case why have we not heard anything? Seems odd.

[url width=800 height=500]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v488/NemosCMPics/ElliotBenyon.png[/url]

Good times.

Looking at the date bottom right of the screen...that was this year?!  Seems a footballing lifetime ago.

Yep, Transfer Deadline day this January. Less than 10 months ago, madness.

Why do the club need to clarify anything? The whole Benson transfer saga has spiralled from both press & media talk if anything BBC Wiltshire or the Adver should be clarifying the situation.

Maybe the club never came in for Benson in the 1st place?

Jesus christ, I can remember that.

I was in the pub desperately looking for updates on twitter.

Or maybe it depended on funds from a possible Ritchie sale.

I think it is more to do with the salary cap

So did he sign or not? Or is he hanging around with Milan Misun

I believe you are right Dean, apparently he was training on Friday at Liddington, but we still await FL approval.

Apparently FL saying that fax was not received until 5.07pm, Jeremy Wray hoping that good sense will prevail as both clubs and player have agreed to the deal.

People still use fax machines??

Wray says on BBC Wilts that the paperwork went through a few mins late due to computer issues.

Thats what the delay is..

quickest way to get a document over which required a signature. Alternative would be scan it then email.

Good point :hmmm:

This is the football league here, they wont let common sense prevail

The football league? Oh, Jesus Christ

Then again, you could argue that if you set a transfer deadline it would be pretty nonsensical not to enforce it.

Just sayin' ::)

easier to confirm the origin of a fax too.

7 minutes late? We'll be demoted before you know it!

Jeremy Wray said they contacted the Football League several times during the process and even before 5pm contacted them again to say they were having difficulties getting the paperwork across to them. The Football League were fully aware of this and told us to send the paperwork anyway.

It nows seems that someone at the league is saying because paperwork wasn't received until 17:07 the deal may not go ahead despite the fact the club contacting them severals times beforehand to advise them of the situation and the league telling us it was ok.

JW hopes common sense will prevail but this is the football league so I'm not hopeful :(

Any news on Hedges?

My thoughts exactly.  What can a fax do that a signed PDF attachment sent via e-mail cannot?  I hate the way that lawyers and HMRC still insist on sending letters as well as their main method of correspondence.  Philistines.

I had heard/read that Benson & his agent had stopped at a motorway service station to fax the signed copy of the forms through to Swindon. I guess it's possible that they didn't have access to anything to scan the document.

Surely if it was this urgent they would just take a picture of said document and email it on their phone?  Quality would probably be better than a fax as well.