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Another player who is struggling in League One now – he has scored only two goals - said ‘no I don’t want to play in League Two’.

Now, this man prays to come here but he is not for us anymore. He didn’t want to join us and help us and now he is struggling, but we still won’t give him another opportunity with us because even though his side are League One we feel we are better than them now.

Looking at the teams who've got promoted out of this division in recent years, the claim that you don't need to spend is a more than valid one.

I do fear what might happen financially if we don't go up this season. Lets hope it doesn't come to that.

For many teams in L2, reaching the playoffs would be considered a success. For us, anything but promotion would be an absolute failure. We cannot afford not to invest to get out of this league.

Struggling? I dont know what you call 3 and abit seasons. Which last season was a play off final. Just outside te playoffs on goal difference atm. To me thats not struggling. Infact out club dont have the expectation of going up wich is nice.

I don't doubt that they (Swindon) have a lot more resources than most (all?) sides that this level, but the manner they are spending it is frivolous and wasteful. You can get out of this division spending a lot less than £500k on transfer fees alone, and there's no way a L2 side needs 6 better strikers than Billy Bodin. If a player like Bodin comes through your own youth setup with the talent he's got then he should definitely be in your plans, not reliant on whether or not the manager can bring in 6 better players and if he can offload Billy. Di Canio doesn't care for the club's long term future, he just wants as much money as possible in his budget so he can buy promotion, but someone at the club should be controlling the money going out. No club in L2 needs SIX strikers ahead of Bodin in their squad, so to let the youth striker go just to spend big money on a replacement is pointless and a waste of £150K up front and then probably £2k every week for the next few years.

These clubs will soon learn, it came to Plymouth, it's come to innumerate clubs in the past, it's even come to Premier League Portsmouth. They will spend like there is no tomorrow and end up hovering over the precipice. To justify that sort of money, they need to be in the Championship (and doing well there too) within three years and that is VERY unlikely to happen. Even if it does, they'll get a reputation as a rich club willing to pay big money and bigger wages and have a book of 30 players. Unless they go on to be a real force in the Championship for a number of years, it will all come crashing down around them.
Don't believe me? Think clubs reach 'critical mass' where they are simply too big to go under? I refer you to our 'friends' in green not 40 miles distant.

The post above is just about as spot on as any post gets. Swindon do not need 7 strikers. Manchester United don't even need 7 strikers. If you have seven of every position, you need a minimum of (obviously) 77 players. Each on an average of £500/week (a low estimate, I'll venture), that's £38,500/week in player wages alone. You're talking over £100,000/week to run the club. That's £5,200,000/year in net profit required just to break even!

Enjoy it while it lasts Swindon, because 6 or 7 years from now, you'll be battling Plymouth and Crawley, and all the other clubs presently being run by idiots, for promotion from the Blue Square South.*

Matt.

*Meanwhile, 'little' Torquay United will be happily plodding along, probably somewhere in the middle of L1, three divisions above these 'giants' of the game and making a small, but neat, profit each year.

Spending 6 figures on Alan Connell was not a wise investment, you certainly won't be getting a return on that.

If Swindon don't get promoted this year it will be ridiculous with the number of signings they've made - big money signings too. Connell was circa £150k, Constable is going to be that again at least, Rooney is also 6 figures, and with the others it must be over half a million. To have a cracking youngster like Billy, who's future at the club is entirely out of his own hands and controlled by how many big money strikers are brought in ahead of him, is a crazy (and unhealthy) way for a L2 side to operate.

He tried to get Constable off Oxford (play-off contenders)
He has got Rooney off Gills (play-off contenders)
He won't let us have Bodin (play-off contenders)

My guess would be that Di Canio will go after a Shrewsbury player next or, if he sets his sights a bit higher, one from either Southend or Cheltenham.

Connell never is or was worth the money you paid for him. Constable himself is a pretty limited footballer as well. If you are offering 150K I'm suprised Oxford won't rip both your arms off to grab it. Ask yourself why Constable has spent most of his career at League 2 and below?

I really don't think anyone will be any the wiser as to whether PDC is a good Manager or not as quite simply he will have chucked so much money at it that he will simply be tagged as having "bought his way out of the League". At the moment he seems hell bent on trying to buy out the best players from the best teams in this division thereby not only strengthening his own teams chances but also weakening others.

As for the man himself, based on his performance at Plainmoor on Boxing Day, you really do question his coaching/manangement abilities ... given that, as far as I could see, he spent half the game with his back turned on the game, ranting at the subs/coaches/whoever on the bench - quite surreal and not like anything I have ever seen from an opposing Manager!

Most L2 forums are the same. Even Crawley fans think we're buying our way out of this league!

Anything less than Champions is failure.

Mr. Wray has been excellent so far. Everything he has done has been spot on and with each day he shows up Fitton run as chairman more and more

So if we finished 2nd that would be a failure??

Christ almighty.

As long as we go up, i couldnt give a fuck how, be it playoffs or automatic

Totally agree. PdC made mistakes early on and we lost ground, we're now making it up. I want us to be champions but the main thing is to go up and then compete next season.

I've noticed an undercurrent of opinion on TEF that "expects" us to be promoted this year.

I am a natural pessimistic - and I don't expect promotion (I bloody well hope for it), I just can't help thinking that come May and if we haven't made it - how much shit we are going to get from the likes of Torquay, poxo and the rest....

j

I don't see anybody expecting it, except maybe DV. We have to get the points just like every other team in this league.

That does not change the fact that promotion is the minimum requirement for a successful season. Anything less will be a failure.

Love the maths of the post jj quoted, 7 strikers so we need 77 players? Pretty sure we have two positions for strikers meaning all of his maths needs to be halved.

You could always turn off your computer.

 I do worry a little that it appears that "we" or a significant number of our fans are "expecting" promotion - and we are gaining a bit of a WACCOE reputation! We are clearly ambitious and quite rightly so - afterall we are Swindon and we do what we like, but fuck me it'll be embarassing if we fail.

Paolo is fucking ace and I do love him.

As for the player, a league one player with 2 goals to his name? theres a lot of those out there!

I am also pleased he wont stand for any arrogance from potential signings.

There is a fine line between expecting promotion and thinking you deserve it no matter what.