Thetownend.com

I'm not going to wish you good luck, because you've just signed for a club we're competing with for promotion.  But you do go with my thanks for a blinding few seasons at Swindon Town.  You were on your way to becoming a Swindon great, no doubt about it.  Very sorry to see you go, and privileged to have seen your last game in a Town shirt yesterday evening.

The temptation is there to have another dig at the club you've just joined, but I'm going to try to avoid doing that.  What I will say, though, is that I hope you have bigger challenges ahead of you than Bournemouth.  Will watch the rest of your career with interest.  All the best.

Well said, not going to slate him at all, unless it turns out he pushed for the move.

Have a feeling it was out of his hands...

Well summed up,

Wish him well. (For every season we're not in the same league as him)

Spot on Ardiles. Thanks Matt.

As long as it is not at the expense of STFC then good luck to you Matt. A model professional in most of your time here. :bye: :cry:

Very well put Mr Ardiles

Well said. But..

Bournemouth...seriously MR...Bournemouth...

The ball boys in the Championship await you.

Good luck.

Brilliantly put Ardiles.

Dear Matt,

We should have signed Danny Ward. Don't give a fuck what happens to you but fuming at STFCs short sightedness and lack of ambition.

Best Regards,
DV

This must be how Shrewsbury fans felt when they sold Collins to us.

I agree with DV, ah nuts

Echo the comments on here, remember Ritchie scoring at the Valley (4-2 league win) right in front of me and we got on Sky with him celebrating! I slipped over and bust my ribs  :D

reckon we've managed to get any sort of sell-on % fee for when bournemouth do go tits up and have to sell him themselves?

Yes, but at least they  arguably got fair market value. We haven't.

Personally I don't think so, I think it's a fire sale to the first bidder as cash needed for the foreseeable future to keep club going.  :sherlock:

And there's a little bit of me that wants you to break your leg on Saturday, sorry.

Well said Rich, who could've predicted this last night!

I think those of us that were there would have given him a bit of a send off at the end of the match, or maybe not?!

He's dead to me.

Fuck you Ritchie you total cunt.

Subject to football league approval. Be really funny if it took them over the cap.

How the fuck they're not over the cap already is anyone's guess. They've spent loads more than us and have much lower gates.

Sorry all i cannot agree with the happy slappers......been a good player for us,......he was under contract with us and could have said no.
I mean if Yeovil had offered the same deal would he have gone....course not.

Not any bitterness towards him but he obviously rates Howe more than Di Canio....i dont and of course only time will tell.

Well said Barry.......i kind of wanted to say that also...............but i have never used the C word in public ::)

Matt who?

I'm only kidding anyway. I'm just chuckling away at most posts and watching TV with a degree of amusement. :)

Given how much they've paid on transfer fees, I guess the only possibility is that their owner has ploughed equity into the clun.

Well put Ardiles, some tremendous goals to remember him by.

Not so sure that Bournemouth is the best place to maximise his career but I am often wrong!

dont expect to be told how much we actually got.There's no way,however,that his signing for Bournemouth guarantees they will finish above us-that's a ridiculous assumption

He stayed when we went down and played a massive part in getting us up again.

Forced out now I'd guess, short sighted shit we have all seen before, wonder how PDC will react?

 :hmmm:

Goodbye

If there was no other way to keep the club going until takeover complete, and hence the squad together*, I guess he may reluctantly accept sacrificing Ritchie...provided there is money coming in so he can bring in others if not now in the loan window.

Still can't believe the club we sold to and the rumoured fee though. I'd imagine nobody is happy with that

* if we sell anything that moves tomorrow then I'll take a flier he'll take flight!

i hope he drops dead and rots in hell for all eternity

I'm going to reserve my message to MR until I know the reasons behind his departure?

Same here.  At the moment I'm feeing he didn't have much choice, but I may be being naive.

Yep voice of reason.

i am currently experimenting with a method of delivery for the smallpox virus using bees. i aim to launch this at dean court

In Matt's Ritchie's video he clearly states his sale was part of the takeover deal somehow...

"The new owners have come across and said this is part of the take over deal. Whether it's the new owners or the old owners I'm not quite sure..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSXHDmk5Edc

the condition of the takeover was that Ritchie had to be sold as McCrory doesn't like him?

It's probably as simple as someone else said, ratification may take a few days and this tides us over in the limbo period.

Perhaps Ritchies grammar overshadows his !  :)

Thanks for everything but I hope we achieve more than Bmuff this season.

He's gone - I wouldn't have anything to say to him. Same as any other player. I hope he does well but not too well this season.

Close the door behind you you Matt, thanks for the goals, no player is unreplaceable.....move on.

We definitely would had we known on Tuesday what we now know today eh!

oh well, he was no Bobby Barnes.

However, he did stay after the clusterfuck of a season and get us back up.  Ferry and Caddis deserve credit for that too.  (Was it just those 3...who am I missing?)

nobody who played many games that season - Flint, Thompson, Storey.

Timlin and Amankwaah stayed for a while...

oh and Smith of course

Blimey, so really just those three (as blaming Flint, Thompson or Storey for that season would be insane!).

Got a feeling this move will only be a stepping stone for you Matty, Hope you have a Happy and injury free career whatever path you choose (or is chosen for you ! ) your certainly one of the players in recent years that has been able to leave with their head held high.

Interesting that he phoned PDC directly to say he'd signed. Doesn't look like he engineered the move himself but at the behest of the board.

Probably because he was worried if he didn't, he'd hunt him down for not turning up for training this morning

The bloke may well have sacrificed himself for the club. He may well be one of those rare breeds these days. (I suspect he wont be losing out financially mind)

I won't slate him he was class for us but I don't understand Bournemouth he could have gone to championship easy. We all heard the palace rumours that would have been a great move.

Good luck in the future Ritchie

I suppose it's the lot of a Swindon fan: constant upheaval interspersed with sporadic highs amidst the otherwise mundanity of football. If Paolo leaves as a result of this then I have to question whether i'm prepared to carry on with this roller coaster.

"You build them up and you knock them down"