Thetownend.com

3 good players very happy with the first 3 signings of the summer!

Goal scorers and an expierenced class winger!

Really?  Hadn't heard anything myself...



:D

Confirmed by skysports http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/12691/7824247/Di-Canio-seals-triple-swoop (http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/12691/7824247/Di-Canio-seals-triple-swoop). Looks like a good few captures and they all seem to be free.

Fuck me....that Gary Roberts is hell of a signing!

Good signings on paper. Hope they fit in to life under PDC.

I checked on wikipedia and they all seem to be white from what i can gather, so i don't think PDC will have a problem with them.

:Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

hahaha

Where did you pull that one from? Ha

Great coup, hope they do the biz....said to my pals we'd sign Roberts a few weeks back after Holmes went to PNE and saw he was released by 'Udders!!

Having a look around the league 2 clubs forums I found this.......I know some of you arent interested in what other teams think of us so dont bother commenting that we shouldnt be looking around other teams forums, some of our fans are genuinely interested in what other teams are saying.

Apparently going to bankrupt the club signing these players according to Yokels and PNE forums, what with us being £10.7 million in debt.

Here is Yeovil's take on it.

http://www.tgr2.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4989


Preston saying we are paying Williams £5k per week which is why THEY of all teams couldn't compete with us for his signature, also stating that we are such a small club compaired to them. Also that Williams is a one season wonder even though 2 weeks ago they were revelling in the fact that he may sign for them.

http://www.pne-online.net/forum/showthread.php?73514-Gary-Roberts-Andy-Williams-and-James-Collins


A head to head of Swindon vs Preston signings from the PNE forum, stating that we will go tits up this season in their opinion.

http://www.pne-online.net/forum/showthread.php?73521-PNE-v-Swindon-Signings


But the best of all comes from such utterly bitter Screwsbury fans on their forum.

I share the Williams concerns, but other than that, it's all quite amusing.

We have become quite Huddersfield-like.

Fuck 'em. Let them think what they want.

I trust this board aren't spending money we can't afford.

Isn't this the Preston who paid alot for Lee Holmes, which put us out of contention of signing him?

And I very, very, very much doubt we're paying 5k a week for Williams. It's just a stupid rumour started off the Yeovil forum.

Williams has only had one season of fair success that is very true.

He doesnt have a bad scoring record though and has done it in a fairly poor side at Yeovil so with better players around him he may hit it off well, we will soon see.

Although saying that I would still have him as third choice striker after Benson and Collins.

The differnce between us and shrewsbury is that we just want to push for promotion again instead of staying in league 1.

Wasn't that figure ridiculed by Williams, STFC and his agent a few weeks ago?

Seems like a repeat of last summer in terms of what our fellow supporters in League one think will happen

A) Paolo will go crazy quit/be fired
B) we'll go bust

I don't remember reading anything like that, I'll take your word for it.

From what I'm aware he's only played as a striker for the last 6 months, prior to that he was invariably a winger. Similar path to Connell I suppose, although he's bigger, quicker and, from what I can gather, better.

Yes it was

I know he started as a striker at Aston Villa and was made into a winger at Hereford, then has switched backwards and forwards between winger and striker ever since, but I believe most of his games until last season were as you say as a winger.

Meh fuck em.

Shrewsbury are losing all their players and have replaced them with shit like Asa Hall ffs!

Reckon graham turners tried to bum them all and they didnt like it

Cheers BR didn't think I had the imagination to dream it :D

My recollection is that this time last year the comment from a lot of opposition fans was more along the line of 'he'll only last 5 mins'/untried & untested/Swindon are going to regret this gamble etc.  The 'you're going bust' accusations only appeared months later when it became apparent that he had lasted more than 5 mins and that Swindon were not going to regret the gamble.  It was a fall back.

I, for one, don't want to get too complacent about the sustainability of what we're doing though.  I do believe that our spending is more sustainable than a lot of opposition fans would have us believe.  (Yesterday's signings, for example, being a case in point.  What seems to have irked Shrewsbury fans more than anything is not so much that we have taken Collins, but that we have taken him for next to nothing.)  However, we have not seen the financial statements for the season just gone (for the year ended 31/05/2012), and neither will we for some time.  Crowds are up and revenues are clearly stronger than they used to be but, until we see the numbers, we cannot really know the extent to which costs have also gone up...which, undoubtedly, they have.

But it's not as if we have paid any money for these 3 - apart from wages, of course.

How on earth Shrewsbury can bemoan Collins going 'sideways' to Swindon I don't know - they get promoted and cant, or dont want to, hang on to their main men.

Who would want to stay at a club that shows no ambition.

We have a young, energetic, high profile manager and they have got Methusela - surprised he didn't burst an artery last season after them not getting that penalty at the CG

Don't know who the Championship club Roberts was on about, but I bet he'll be popular saying they would be at the bottom of the League next season!

Think it was Sheffield Wednesday.

If it was Wednesday then he's mental!

I heard it was Peterborough.

I think we'll make a loss again purely because we haven't sold a player for big money this season. 2 seasons ago we sold Austin, couple of years before that Cox etc.

Still time for ritchie to go yet ;)

If we could get over a million for him I'd sell him.

The players coming in to the squad now are not just 'fillers' - they are proper footballers.

Another 3 like that - and we virtually know who they will be - and it will be some squad for League 1.

I reckon Preston can expect the sort of start to the season like we had last year - whether they have the funds and/or the manager to sort it out remains to be seen.

Just as an aside - can anyone honestly see us getting a shot at the PL again in the not too distant future?

Emphatically, no.  The Championship is the Promised Land.  The Premiership would fuck us up.

Re James Collins;  Like most Salop supporters, I'm sorry to see him leave.  What you'll get is 100% endeavour and a fair few goals.  I just looked at his stats for last season (sad bastard that I am), and he scored 16 from 43 matches (9 from the bench), which isn't too shabby.  Whether he is better than what you already have and are bringing in remains to be seen but I wish him well and thank him for his efforts in getting us promoted last season.
Good luck to both STFCs for the coming season.

again

But if we go up again next season, how can the club put the brakes on progress without forcing PdC out and us ending up yo-yo-ing again.

The parachute payments for those dropping out of the PL now are far and away superior to when we had our one year.

And why cant Swindon but Swansea, Blackpool,Norwich et al can (and have)

It would cost millions to make a team capable for the Premier League. Get to the Championship first the jump the gun. We're not in the Championship yet, this season won't be a walk over like a lot of predicting.

Didn't see Reading, Swansea, Blackpool, Norwich spending millions getting there.

Reading are back up there again so it doesn't kill off every 'smaller' club.

And, by the way, we will piss the league again

In terms of getting to the PL we would need to have had a good couple of seasons in The Championship, ideally in a much improved stadia with 20,000 fans each home game. We are a much better run club now and the people who back this club wouldnt do so if they didnt think we could reach the PL. The key would be to avoid relegation so we could become established even if it is only to the standard of Norwich, Bolton, Wigan and the likes.

Thanks for that.  Delighted with the signing, obviously.  Only time will tell how it plays out for us.

For yourselves, proper rebuilding job on the cards now...as we had to do last season.  But time is very much on your side.  Collins, Wroe etc. leaving now is a better situation than all of this happening in July.  Best of luck.  I lived in Shawbury for a few years as a kid (long time ago now!) so have something of a soft spot for the area, if not the football team.

Reading, Swansea, Norwich and Southampton did it with a bigger fan base and much better infrastructures.

Blackpool are the only team to do it who are similar in size to us fan size wise, who won the playoffs with good form.

We need to improve our stadium alot, we need to attract more season ticket holders. Which the club are trying to do. The club are obviously aiming for the Premier League at some stage, or they wouldn't be overly concerned about developing to the stadium, but if we get into the Championship because we will not "piss" the league this season, we just need to establish ourselves in the division.

We aren't comparable with Swansea, Reading, Southampton or Norwich. All get much more through the gates and have much better facilities. Swansea, Southampton and Reading's rise began when their new stadiums were built. The redevelopment of the CG will be a key part to us if we're ever to consider making it back into the Prem one day.

I've seen Swansea's rise first hand, and its incredible what Premier League football can do for a city. Would love to see Town back there one day, and actually compete.

Reading a bigger fanbase? Youre having a laugh.

They used to get 3k at elm park ffs.

And what were Swansea getting at the Vetch?

Obviously the development of the CG is crucial, but I see no reason why Swindon cant be mentioned in the same way as those clubs mentioned.

And add to that, Wigan

Only Norwich and Southampton have traditionally large fanbases, though.  In both Reading's and Swansea's cases, their attendances were boosted enormously by their respective ground moves.  In both cases, they were getting smaller crowds than we were prior to this.

Swansea's case is particularly striking, as this graph of their average home attendances shows.  Prior to the move to the Liberty Stadium, they were consistently averaging 4,000 to 5,000 at home.  After the move, it trebled to 15,000.  Promotion to the Premiership has now added another 5,000.  Their fanbase is a very recent phenomenon.

Swansea Town/City Average Attendances

[url width=499 height=291]http://scfcheritage.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/graph.jpg?w=500&h=291[/url]

Edit:  For some reason, the graph is back to front, with more recent years on the left hand side.

Saints and Norwich were getting 20,000+ in league 1 every game.  We aren't comparable to these teams in the slightest, regardless of what the future might bring in terms of our stadium.

Reading as a town has grown a lot in the last 20 years in terms of population which has a factor on the element of their plastic fanbase.

That kind of shows what I meant, It would cost millions to get into that position, Im not saying this club doesn't have the potential to get those attendance size, seeing were nearly doubling Swansea's attendance in League Two, it's just were not there yet and we shouldn't be expecting Premier League anytime soon until we see some serious investment.

But we've seen serious investment (appropriate to the League we are in) - last season and now this.

If we had the 25,000 stadium we would be no different to either Reading or Swansea if we were in the PL.

And as for the growth of Reading as a town, I would imagine Swindon has more than mirrored that.

I'd be happy to finish top 10 next season... the Championship is the next realistic target within the next 2 years I reckon.

Quite possibly, as a lifelong out of towner I don't really have a clue about Swindon as a town itself.  

I would agree with that.  Reading may have grown to a degree, but look at a map and it is still basically the same shape that it was 20 years ago - where as Swindon has moved north.  Reading's success is down to a ground move and very astute financial/commercial management.  Their potential fanbase was always there - including a very wealthy hinterland.  It just remained untapped for a very long time.

Like I said though, It would cost millions to get our stadium to 25k, and we would have to invest in the squad aswell, which with plenty of teams such as Blackpool still recieving parachute payments we cannot compete with the clubs that size in trying to bring in top top players for that league.

Brighton are a great example of how well things could go, they're attendances were poor before they moved to the Amex and they ended it up selling around 15k season tickets because they got promoted and moved stadiums, you can see a big growth in a short space of time and now you could say Brighton wouldn't look out of place in the Premier League especially seeing they've sold 23k season tickets so far.

It wouldn't be quick and cheap at Swindon. The point im trying to make.

We should be aiming for a top 6 finish minimum, with these new signings I can see us possibly sneaking into the top two. the team will going into the new season on a high and they'll have the belief that we can get back to back promotions, we wouldn't be the first team to do this.

I'll be honest here and you can flame me if you like...

I would fucking hate Swindon to be in the Premiership - all we would be there for is to make up the numbers.

I agree with you mate, although it would be nice to see the town play with top teams like man u, arsenal, liverpool and chelsea.

To be fair games with teams like that should be in the cups and not the league.
more excitement imo

I think last season showed the league you are in is far from the most important thing.

Me  too. The novelty value would be overtaken by the tedium of everything the Prem brings with it though.

Begs the question what is the level that most fans would be happy with? To be honest we'd struggle at sustainable championship football on current numbers. But I guess the aim is to address this over time.

Agree to a degree as well, our ultimate long term goal at the moment is to get ourselves established in the Championship.

If manage to do that for a few years then aspirations might naturally change and the Premiership become the target.

One step at a time though

Personally, playing teams like Ipswich, Bristol City, Sheff Weds (& United), Barnsley and Leicester week by week would be enough for me.  These were the clubs we were rubbing shoulders with when I first started watching.  I'd be happy just to be back there, and watching us play in a full ground.

Mid table Championship is our Premiership if you ask me.  Maybe the occaisional flirt with promotion and relegation every few years, but a competetive team mid table Championship would do me.

If we did manage to get to the Prem I would prefer us to take the Blackpool route and try to stay up without spending beyond our means.  Would be nice to have say one or two seasons in the Prem every 10 years just to experience it now and again, similar to what Reading have done.

Yes.


And yes.

Current crowds would not support Championship football, I'd agree.  But the Swansea example shows, I think, that crowds would not just grow, but would grow significantly if a well executed ground move/redevelopment went together with continued success on the pitch.

A few years 'doing a Huddersfield' and being a regular top 3/4 League 1 team would do for me. Not just a one-off good season.

This for the next little while definitely.

Without wanting to piss on people's bonfires, we've only just got out of league 2 and haven't been in the Championship at all for 13 years.

As much as our future on and off the pitch is as bright as it's been for a long while, talk of the top half of the Championship is a couple of years away yet. Can't wait though.

Just being back in the second tier will also do for me. Our attendances would be much higher than they ever were in the same league back in the 90's. Coupled with a redeveloped stadium, we could average 12k-14k with an established Championship team.

I think talk of Premier League football is a long long way off for this club. We should be aiming to consolidate in this division this season and not have too much expectation to win back to back promotions (regardless of what Paolo has said)

I would like to see us in the next 2-5 years win promotion and consolidate in the Championship like Barnsley have done. Once we're a decent Championship side hopefully the ground will have been improved and then maybe we can dream of taking the next step.

Doing what Blackpool have done is more the exception than it is the rule.

I don't give a fuck what league we play in. I go to football with my mates. We get pissed, we sing stupid songs and we take the piss out of people and then we go and get more pissed. The moment it stops being fun is the moment I stop going, our league position just isn't important to me.

From a Terrier, Good luck Gary Roberts at Swindon Town.

Gary has been a great servant to us and while he fell out of favour to some degree last season I feel he still has plenty to offer. On his days he's as good as anything in League one and can provide moments of real magic. That said, I still think he needed to move on and face a new challenge. He's a great lad and if allow him time to settle in I'm sure he'll be a great asset.  :D

 :spoton: :spoton:

Agreed. Now, wheres that jaeger