Thetownend.com

The search is on for new boss as MacDonald quits
           
           


  SWINDON Town are searching for their third manager in less than four months after Kevin MacDonald left the County Ground over the weekend.

           

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/headlines/10547272.The_search_is_on_for_new_boss_as_MacDonald_quits/?ref=rss
           
           
           

Second?

No. Third

PdC, KMac and the new fella

They weren't searching for PDC four months ago though  :)

4D means we're searching for a second time for a third manager presumably....matters STFC do get a bit confusing sometimes. We've got a senior player like Caddis, saying he's no idea what's going on, at the same time as many on here reckon everything in the garden is rosy.

I don't think there is anyone on here that has not expressed some concerns about the new owners at all.

Not one person has said that EVERYTHING is rosy just that some things that some fans are concerned about may not be as much of a concern as some fans make them out to be.

I myself have many reservations about the new owners and I know that other "supporters" (for the want of a better word) of the board also have the same reservations as I do as it is pretty obvious that that post was somewhat aimed at the so called "happy clappers", none of which at any time have said that we have nothing to worry about.

you would be correct if the headline read "STFC are on their third search for a new manager in 4 months" what the headline actually says is they are searching for their third manager (ie how many managers not how many times they have searched for one)

Like who exactly? This constant casting to the extremes is tiresome. Just because someone doesn't agree with your doom-laden prophecies of catastrophe doesn't mean they think everything's wonderful, they just maybe think that the pessimism can go a bit OTT on occasion. You look for a reaction and you get it, that doesn't mean the world always divides black and white into doom merchants and happy clappers.

Ward/Miller - Macdonald - New fella.  3rd Manager in 4 Months.

True. I would like to see the headline "Swindon Town begin searching for what will be their third manager in four months".
I'm just being awkward.

You're not being awkward, you're being wrong.


We need to get a manager in sharp-ish to try and get a squad together that is ready for a league campaign in a month or so.

3 weeks away from the start of the season and our squad is a mish mash of trialists, youth teamer and loanees.  Not exactly ideal for planning purposes.

Have Spurs announced what squad they are bringing on Wed?

We do have some experienced pro players left. But If ward goes I think we'll be in do do at the back

For what its worth i updated our squad on FM 13 to what it is at the moment. The media predicited we will finish 8th

Oh, sweet. Feet up lads, it's gonna be an alright season.

What is tiresome, is making what I consider to be wholly reasonable posts about the direction the club seems to be heading, and getting slagged off without proper debate.  My basic premise since the new Board came in has always been a need to be vigilant about their actions and motives...which given the circumstances of the takeover, seems wholly reasonable. The ins and outs up to last week suggesting that continued vigilance is prudent.

As regards the manager; at the time of KMac's appointment I stated I was happy with him, and he shouldn't be judged on his work for 12/13, but for 13/14 when the circumstances would change radically due to the need to downsize the club, and the inevitable reliance on kids and loans...of course many stated that this was the usual doom laden bollocks.

At no point, have I criticised the policy of downsizing the club, as I've always stated we're a small club, a fact I hope is reflected in the remunerations taken by the Board members for their "time".  Of course stating we're a small club, leads to the usual criticism for Eeyore like tendencies.

I've no problem with initiatives like the gigs, as long as the pitch doesn't get ruined, as has previously happened...I've welcomed the news that pitch investment is to be kept at the previous recent levels...

I like initiatives like the proposal to stick a roof on the Bank...but will like it even more if it actually happens.

My main concern atm is the impact of Lee Power...it may be coincidence that in the week he's formally announced as effectively DoF, the manager quits, KMac had previously stated he'd been communicating with him so the announcement might have been no more than a formality.

It may even be that Power has something planned out all ready, so we'll get a seamless transition...guess we'll find out soon enough for better or worse.

I agree with Reg

The club is being run by a bunch of clowns. Nothing new there. All I personally care about is what happens on the pitch. August 3rd can't come soon enough! Regardless of who is in charge and who is playing they will ALL have my support.

All of that is perfectly reasonable Reg and I'd agree with most of that. What I took exception to and prompted my use of the word "tiresome" was this
which is palpable bollocks. Which may amount to "slagging you off without proper debate", but then that didn't constitute a "wholly reasonable post". When you post reasonable sensible notes of caution about the direction of the club, which you often do, those posts largely get proper answers, even if folk don't agree with you. And in my personal opinion, people dismiss those signs of caution at their peril. But as I said above don't be surprised if people react when you just post bollocks with no substance

It's like Flash/Jutty all over again  :wink:

It's not nearly so camp as that, definite homoerotic flirting between those two. With me and Reg it's good old-fashioned manly respect. And not a hint of Greco-Roman wrestling in front of the fire. Oh no. Not at all.

I have read this forum for years before registering and you have always been by far THE most negative of posters that I have read, by miles.

You are always evasive when confronted and in the way a politician would answer you bypass the question and make yourself so hard done by.

You are more to blame than many for creating a divide between fans calling them happy clappers/doom mongers.

Not ever has any poster said all is rosy at STFC yet you decide that they have and created your own argument based upon your own Swindon insecurites, lets face it you love an argument and yes sometimes you have a good argument but most of the time it is to get a reaction from people such as Flasheart or Pauld or DV or Peter Venkman or whoever is the target for having some optimism etc etc and anyone that makes a personal attack against these posters you seem to back them up shouting down their opinions as much as they do yours.....your post is incredibly ironic that you cannot see that you yourself do EXACTLY what you moan at others for doing about shouting down posts without argument.

Cant we just agree to disagree on opinions rather than trying to create a divide amongst fans for "scoring points" on a fucking internet forum? pathetic in the extreme.

I am neither a happy clapper or doom monger and I dont think anyone else is, we all have worries about the ownership but some of us are much more tolerant of other people opinions and dont label them immediately...which creates animosity between groups...groups which certain posters like to create themselves and label other posters in despite there actually being no differing groups at all.

We are ALL concerned even the ones that seem more optimistic.

That is all I am ever going to say on the subject.

Lets just get on with supporting Swindon through thick and thin, some fans fuck off at the first sign of trouble but almost all of us it would seem want the club to be successful and win things and maybe with the right manager coming in we actually can start doing that again, I for one want to get back to supporting Swindon on the pitch and not being overly concerned by whats going on behind the scenes again.

I will become anti board if and when I am given reason to do so, currently they seem to be doing pretty much the right thing and maybe Kevin Mac actually left because he felt he couldn't do the job? I dont think he needs to come out in public as it could harm his chances of employment in the future and it could harm the club, he did the honourable thing and resigned....lets move on and get the new manager in, whether its somebody with a Spurs link or not I don't care as long as we produce the good on the pitch where it matters.....and if we dont them we move on with another manager.

We as fans will be around a fucking lot longer than ANY manager or player at the club so we follow who is in charge and a divided fan base does nothing for support of the team at all so why dont we try and back the team whoever is in charge?

Never heard of Bart?

You can be Alan Bates to my Ollie Reed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiIkDq5ewr4

Oh great, so you get all the booze then? :)

BUT we love each other really.

Reg's realistic view can upset some posters but not me. Some people live in a red n White dream world.



BUT nobody can defend the fact that on July 15th we have no fucking manager.....I defy anybody to defend that shambolic state of affairs.

I think all the evidence suggests I spend more time in pubs than you...of course there will be some on here who deny this stating " no Davis spends more time drinking at home than Smeeton, which is not being accounted for" further Smeeton is trying to undermine the very foundations of the TEF with his philopolemicism.

You piss pot Reg :)

No chance am I going head-to-head with you in a drinking competition. Petty arguments on forums are one thing, but I know my limits! :)

I don't think anyone is, are they? It's clearly all a bit of a horse's arse.

I'm probably one of the posters Reg refers to as thinking everything is 'rosy'. I'm not upset by his 'realism', although at times it does seem like certain posters (not just him, I'd hasten to add, before anyone thinks this is becoming a personal attack) will deliberately try and find the negative in a situation.

The loss of Kmac is a case in point. We've lost our manager in pre-season. That's not exactly the best situation in the world (slight understatement), and everyone with half a brain can see that. The actual reasons for his exit have yet to come out, and there are several explanations that are contradictory, or don't make much sense, but immediately lots of posters have jumped on the 'slate the board, it must be their fault' bandwagon. Which is tiresome to read every time I come on here, if nothing else. It may well turn out that Powers' involvement has triggered this, but it's equally likely Kmac couldn't handle a couple of negative chants, or he's been offered a cushy job elsewhere, or any number of equally viable theories. Immediately jumping to the conclusion it's the board's fault often can distract from the real reasons.

I am not a board apologist. I have my worries about them, concerns about Power etc., but deliberately trying to find the bad in everything that happens at STFC and blaming it on them just seems a bit childish and ridiculous. They have been poor with regards to their PR and answering questions properly, and that has only fuelled the negativity that some fans have felt towards them.

The business meetings held recently were a good example as to how the board can conduct themselves well in the face of the fans, instead of answering questions incoherently on Twitter. Perhaps a few more of those and a few less ROAAAARS and they might begin to change a few people's minds.

 Although Reg was wrong to say people think everything is rosey his points in general lately have been bang on the money imo.
Actions speak louder than words so whatever board members said the other day was irrelivant to me. What we have seen is a number of false staements which then come to nothing, the squad dismantled and filled with kids and many from one club alone, the manager quitting before the season has even begun.

Everyone will have a different take on any issue but i'm struggling to see many positives at the club. Even Moreshead's headlines are becoming more and more negative by the day and he's been pretty optimistic. It's not looking good

I'm in Reg and arriba's club.

Me too. Must be age related  :)

Me too, Still got my ST which ill be using but to be honest for the 1st time in a long time I'm not at present excited the season is almost upon us.

I don't know whether it is an age related thing or not, because if it is I will have to join the club!!  However, I do feel some people really do need to wake up and smell the coffee.  Black and PDC have gone, there's no going back.  The club was up for sale for at least 6 months prior to the current people taking over and we were not exactly knocked down in the rush to take it on, it was only when Black provided the necessary impetus by withdrawing his funding that matters came to a head and the present board took over - a big gamble by everybody, had it not gone through we were going into administration and they took it over without going through due diligence.  At least give them some credit for that, they had never run a football club, didn't have the first idea of what was involved but have knuckled down and are at least trying to put OUR club on a more even footing.  Communication is, or was, definitely not their strong point but they do appear to be working on it. Yes, it is hard to swallow that we cannot get any tom, dick or harry into the club - as we were able to with the previous lot - and the pennies have to be watched, but we do still have a club to support, it just may not be as successful as we would all hope for.

This sums up how I feel about it all. Looking for some sign that we won't be completely rubbish this season.

I will agree that it is hard to find many positives at the moment.

but with that in mind you can't argue that so many of our fans will take any peice of bad news and blow it well out of proportion.

That's a fair reflection of how I'm feeling at the moment.

Obviously as a fan I want the club to be as successful as possible on and off the pitch, and it remains to be seen where we are headed on both counts. But their doesn't appear to be an imminent danger of the club going bust and I can't pass comment on the quality of the team until we've seen them play (not to mention who is calling the shots in the dugout come 3rd August).

A lot of my enjoyment from going to watch Swindon comes from catching up with people and meeting mates that you never see otherwise for a drink before the game. At least there should be plenty to talk about at the first few fixtures this season, as everyone puts their view forward of how things could and should be done better and who of the new team looks any good or a bag of shit (much as we do on here).

That's half the fun of being a football fan to me, and while my enjoyment is obviously greater when the team is doing well, this situation as is certainly wouldn't keep me away.

how is it being blown out of proportion?
You say yourself it's hard to find many positives.

That's the kind of attitude that kept me going through the Andy King years, that I don't really go to the football for the football. And back then I didn't, and I had some good evenings in the pub talking about what a pile of shit we were with my friends.

But however many people want to rewrite it as the most disastrous period in our club's history, the Paolo Di Canio / Jeremy Wray year-and-half reignited in me the idea that I could go to the football for the football. Having drifted away from the club I bought right back in. That's where the disappointment and disinterest in the current state of affairs stems from in my case.

It's hard to find positives but that doesnt mean people should search for negatives that aren't there. Some of the accusations thrown at the board have been ridiculous, and the abuse also seems unwarranted (at the moment).

Look at how mental this forum & twitter go when bad news breaks. Conspiracy theory galore.

This! Fed up of making rational relevant points about this board and explaining my reasonable cynicism and being told to 'stop moaning'

Stop moaning about being told to stop moaning.

It's quite funny really, we have posts complaining about people complaining about people complaining about the board. We could really do with some football starting to take our minds off all this.

I'm going to start a post complaining about the people who complain about people who complain about the board.

Good,maybe you will stop fucking moaning about the board  ;)

http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/spurs-coaches-les-ferdinand-and-tim-sherwood-head-contenders-for-swindon-job-8709777.html

I liked the comments.

Jack Ah  NEW  44 minutes ago
It'll be great for both clubs. Sherwood works with the spurs youth squad a lot. He'll probably loan and buy some of spurs young talent (some of which are good enough but do not get continuity at one club). He also has a great relationship with the spurs first team. Our young players that have broken through rave about him. As for Les he could make a great number two and learn to expand his coaching credentials.
Reply 0

Woodsy  NEW  1 hour ago
Sherwood holds a lot of power at Spurs and is being groomed as a future first team coach, al la Barca style. There are rumours he has a bigger say in transfers than AVB. Can't see him leaving.

As we have no strikers I'm not sure what Sir Les does day to day so maybe he'll head over to Swindon Hotspurs.

Disgusting....

My sauces have confirmed that the next manager will be Les............................................Dennis.

Apparently he feels the time is right to relaunch his career as a comedian and Swindon Town is the ideal place to do it.

Our survey said...

If Les Dennis gets it, i'll give you the money myself.

:facepalm:

The thing that worries me the most is the potential loss of dignity of our little old club. We don't want to be anyones feeder club, fuck right off. We may be little, but our history is as proud as anyones, albeit at a lower level in the football pyramid.

No problem with a business like relationship with another club, but not interested in anything that takes away our autonomy.

We have heard a lot of talk, but the facts right now are the squad has been depleted of any experience, costs have been slashed, and the manager has fucked off without another job to go to, not exactly a receipe for success at the moment is it?

 

Have to say I agree 100% with this. Though we haven't become Spurs B yet.

Here is a hypothetical, what if we were allowed to become Spurs B and did just that. That would be it for me, what say you all.

If that unlikely, hypothetical situation were to happen, I wouldn't bother any more.

^^^ should say I'm not suggesting at can and will happen, far from it ^^^

Nonsense.

If (and I know it's an if) we went up would people still be complaining that some of our players happened to come from a particular club? Would people look back on the 2013/14 promotion season back into the Championship and lament our 'loss of dignity'?

No. No they wouldn't.

All that matters is whether or not they are good enough.

Not to me it doesn't. I genuinely have no interest in watching an official reserve team.

edit: Oh wait, you said "some players" as in we could recruit from other clubs/home grow some. That's different to what I was proposing with the hypothetical.

How would it be a reserve team if it is our 1st team?

Like it or not we are currently a 3rd tier team and have to rely on players that are not good enough for higher leagues,  too young or past it. Every team in L1 is full of reserves or rejects from clubs higher up the chain.

I think you are wrong.

I'd rather be a supporter of a shit independent football club.

If I was only interested in success I'd support Man United.

Well, because when I said if it was an 'Spurs B' team I meant officially, above board, sanctioned by the league.

Mind you even if it was unofficial with only 1 club providing our players I think I would feel the same.

So when's the last time you kicked off about us taking on loans from other teams.

We got Simon Cox on a loan from Reading. A rival club. Did you complain then about us being dependent on other clubs?

????? Don't see where you are coming from BR, the above quote is clear enough??

Think I should add that if it was the spurs hierarchy calling the shots in regard to which teams we play then I would also say fuck off.

Asides from that I could not give a flying one where our players come from. Their ability is the only thing that concerns me. I cannot understand this resentment to us accepting these players from spurs.

I thought the hypothetical question was in relation to becoming the official feeder team, name change and all? I don't care about loans or first dibs or whatever else is going on.

However, a direct change to the identity of the club would make me question my support but that won't happen.

We're overlapping in posts, innit.

I think it's my fault and I've misread what was being said. Sorry.

Fink so blood.

So consensus so far is strong links yes, feeder arrangement no.

If we were to officially become a Spurs B/reserve feeder club I wouldn't have any interest in following us. But as it stands we have a relationship with a top premier league side which offers us the cream of their emerging talent. As long as it's not an exclusive arrangement and our club still has autonomy I see only a positive.

FWIW totally agree, though I've no idea if the cream of their talent is good enough yet.

Pritchard sounds like he was in demand so I've got hopes from him, Luongo looked half decent, Byrne has potential, the others no idea.

If Spurs tried to circumvent the rules and make us an unofficial B team by loaning us players and letting us sign players with a cheap buyback clause then you can be sure the FA/FL would punish us and not Spurs.

Official or unofficial, the club could go fuck themselves. Under the current rules, we can't be the 1st one. Lets see what develops over the next week or so but we are in danger of becoming the second one. I'm Town, end of.

This shit, right here. FA won't bother going through the whole lengthy and expensive court battle that putting Spurs under scrutiny for circumventing the rules, they'll just punish us because we're an easy target.

This is why football is fucked. The little clubs get shat on, made examples of, and the big clubs get away with stuff that would get others demoted divisons.

Not got a clue as to the rules, but how would that scenario be different to what Watford did last season?

What do you mean becoming the 2nd one

....cultivated over years of floodlight failures, betting scandals, illegal payments, shafted creditors, administrations, fascists and child killers but - let it be said - never, never any paedos

Do u reckon Peterborough fans kicked off saying they were becoming man utd b team when ferguson gave them players? Haven't Yeovil took spurs players for years? People on our board have contacts with a premiership club. Move on

Never say never.

In my 40+ years of watching Town I've not known of us getting 5 players from 1 club in 1 season - and possibly still counting. 

If the loans are good then I don't really give a fuck where they've come from.

3 current and 1 former spurs player in our starting 11 is hardly the worst.

;D

Did you complain when we got Ferry, Caddis, Cuthbert and Hutchinson from Celtic?

Was there as much hysteria when Fitton announced we had official relationships with Man City, and a less official (it might have been official?) one with Celtic?  Did we not have a bunch of Celtic loanees and perm signings in the same squad at one point?  I know the Man City one has to be one of the worst official links ever, but everyone seemed happy with the professional approach being taken by Fitton and the potential it gave us - or maybe my memory is getting worse.

In fact, the new board seem to be using the Fitton Guide to Being a Football Club Chairman right now:

Find new revenue streams
Invest in youth talent with future resale value
Keep costs under control
Use links with other clubs higher up the leagues to supplement point 2
Get less outgoing thoughtful and coach driven Managers in place

The big difference seems to be the starting point.  Fitton's approach seemed like a breath of fresh air following the Diamandis reign of terror.  Jed's approach seems like austerity gone mad in a way Osbourne would cherish in light of what went before with Wray and PDC.  As much as I disagree with a lot of what Reg may state, I do agree that the approach his full of risk right now because it is a dramatic change and having the Manager walk out is a big spanner in the works.

He did say 5.  4 is palatable, 5 is indigestible

I certainly complained about Hutchinson and I gave Cuthbert a right bitching last season at Orient. Its a good point but we had signed other players from other clubs. I know we've signed Smith from Fulham but it all seems a bit insestuous to me and I don't think we're finished yet.  

Oh, and didn't Reg coin the Happy Clapper thing for me back in 2005?  If so, fuck off all you other pretenders.  If not, I have ego issues.

Indeed

Perhaps that extra 1 makes all the difference?

and 6 would make be spontaneously combust

And a Portuguese cousin of Misun.  We can't take anymore loans from them, so if they want to sell players on the cheap to us and run the risk of us having new owners with new ideas in a year willing to challenge historical gentleman's agreements about contracts, they are as crazy as we are.

Izz just a wafffer fin mint.

 :popcorn:

We can take 2 more as we've signed 3 and got 2 on loan. the max from any 1 club is 4, so 2 to go as well as any permanent signings.

I don't think any hysteria was coming from those raising concerns, in fact quite the opposite.

I've supported the club for more years than most on here have been alive and to my knowledge, this is the first time the prospect of us becoming a feeder club of any sort for anyone has been even suggested.

Thats cause for concern in my book, even if it is only a remote possibility. Its not about the number of loanees its about the relationship.

3- hall, luongo, pritchard on loan.

just to understand, is everyone who is against the spurs players joining on loan against having ferdinand/sherwood as manager? at what point is the tipping point and would you stop going?

Do you reckon Supermarine fans have the same problem with taking players from us?? They must be furious,no wonder their crowds are so low.

They were never all here at the same time were they?

Plus Caddis and Cuthbert were permanent signings. Which, to me anyway makes a whole world of difference because we have no obligation (which we may not have with Spurs anyway)  but we've had loan players with those arrangements before.

Personally I'm against a situation where we are obliged to play the Spurs youngsters and are not allowed to shop else where for loan players or even permanent signings.

Whether our current agreement creates that situation or not I don't know.

id be pissed off if any club forced us to play their loan player. people should only play if they are good enough. the assumptions going around are all without merit. if kmac was still in charge this would not be discussed, the assumption is that he quit because he was forced to take spurs players on loan and play them. i thought it was on record last season that kmac said tottenham had the best performing youngsters and he has watched them closely. the fact that ferdinand apparantly applied and missed out on the job last time makes me think he will get it. in which case this forum will go into meltdown and the spurs takeover completed

That's a very good point. Maybe the Diamandis era would be a better point of comparison for assessing what we have now.

It was your insistence on the likely beatification of Andy King, and the canonisation of Mike Diamandis that did it. There's a few on here who hold out hopes for their man, because of Lee Power's ROI U 21 caps...but the boy has a long way to go before acceptance into the heavenly host of the Catholic Church

3 (4) more, we can take 4 loans + 1 youth loan from one club (+ emergency loan keeper).  A max of 5 loanees can then be part of a match day squad.

As the likelihood of Sir Les increases, it is possible to see the logic here. Power's mate Sherwood fires Les a stream of kids for them to get experience, and a safety net for those not good enough at the ends of contracts. We get a guaranteed source of players relatively cheaply....finders fees etc can be included all round. Of course all this has to be conducted within the rules, as Watford did last season.

Sir Les gets a break in management, so may be prepared to put up with the interference....if it works out his CV is enhanced and he gets a bigger club.

It hasn't happened yet, but will make for an interesting debate if it does, so let's see.

That's what I thought.

There seems to be lots of negativity about us becoming 'Swindon Hotspurs'. To be honest, that doesn't bother me.

I realised years ago that Swindon weren't ever going to get into the Premier League and win it. I came to the conclusion that we would bounce around the lower leagues with the potential for the odd Championship flirtation once in a blue moon.

That being the case, all I want from the club is for it to field a team on a Saturday. I'd like that team to win more than it loses, so that it gives me a buzz going into work on a Monday.

I'd also like us to unearth a gem every now and again that does wonders for us, nets us a few quid and goes on to bigger and better things in the Premier League.

So, whether we do that as Spurs Reserves or not makes no odds to me.

As for Sir Les - Why not? (Especially after seeing the 009 video!!)

Can't disagree with any of that TBH.

I am also in agreement with NMH just about word for word too.

The pendulum swings between harmony and attrition ...

I would look at the appointment of Ferdinand differently to that but see where you are coming from.Ferdinand is highly thought of at Spurs and has had a fair few offers of management already. If the manger is being told who to play who to sign like many think then I really can’t see why he would want to risk taking Swindon on as a first job if he is being told what to do. Les Ferdinand does not strike me as a yes man and I would think Power will know that

I think we will see one of two scenarios.

1)   We won’t employ Ferdinand
2)   We may see a change of strategy regarding the recruitment


The board have made some massive fuck ups from when they took over but one thing I have noticed is that they do seem to be learning from their mistakes,well I think so anyway 

That was what I was trying to find out earlier in the thread. An official Spurs B would be a no (even if it was still called Swindon).

I don't feel comfortable with the arrangement Reg suggests either to be honest. It would depend on how the arrangement worked.

If we HAD to take the youngster and HAD play them that would be a no from me, though its not as simple as not going as I wouldn't want my son to miss out due to my pigheadedness.

If we took them with a view to seeing if they are good enough, but brought players in from other sources and played who we want then it seems like a good arrangement provided its affordable (given we may need additional players)

I too would feel uneasy with us becoming the reserve team. If they want to strike up a relationship where they send us exciting young prospects to be included in the first team on merit, at our manager's discretion, then fine, it's a good partnership for all involved. If they arrive with loads of strings attached "must play x amount of minutes per match, must get x caps over the course of the season", then we stop being our own club with our own boss and start being Spurs' bitch.

We are not Spurs' Bitch, we're Swindon fucking Town and shit though we may be we're our own club with our own traditions and our own way of repeatedly getting close to something resembling glory and then pissing it away at the last moment. Any club trying to come in and take away our autonomy and our history, or even diluting it in the slightest can fuck right off.

This whole situation is interesting, because I posited an idea a while back about all Premier League clubs being forced to take on lower league clubs as 'partners', with a share of players, funds etc. for the benefit of both involved. I do not pretend to have Chang-like sauces or prescience, but it'll be good to see how this works for us so I can see how it evolves my theory down the pub.

I'm agreed on this point as well. Last season we took 3 spurs kids, 1 was good, 1 was promising and 1 was kicked back as soon as he stepped out of line. Hopefully the 3 loanees we have brought in are good enough to compliment the team/squad. Hall sounds like a solid football playing centre back, Pritchard an exciting attacking midfielder and Luongo, we already know is a good midfielder.

As I see it, having a link up with Spurs, one of the best teams in England with a bloody good youth system can only be a good thing. If we had a link up with Wantage Town and they were sending us their reserves to get first team experience, then we could have a proper moan, but surely getting these calibre of players can only be positive?

Though, like many others,  I don't have a problem with a link up as long as the club doesn't surrender it's autonomy there is one aspect of this that is really troubling me, namely selling on our good young players for a decent profit.

Though we all hate it when a top player leaves, being a  'selling club' is the reality for teams our size, after a few lean years since the Fitton take over we've done quite well in the transfer market. Cox, Austin and Morrison all went for cash, on top of fees for the likes of Flint and a few youth players, even with various sell ons they should have bought us a healthy return.

 If we are operating at a budget of 2.4 million each year, a large transfer every few years represents a very healthy top up on our income. If our young players are all loanees or signings with 'buy back' clauses, this revenue stream will dry up.

We do still have our own youth players in the squad though. Oakley, Storey etc may yet continue that run. We have also signed two other young players not from Spurs who presumably don't have any buy back clauses or anything either.

As you and others have said though, as long as it isn't taken too far and our club/mananager/DoF are in control of who we sign and play the link could be a positive and we should hope to make the most out of it.

Without knowing the small print on the Byrne deal it's difficult to judge.

On the subject of making money off players, we've just accepted a bid for Caddis for Blackpool.

'Theoretically' we wouldn't necessarily need big sales as we would be provided with a 'free' replacement from Spurs. Also 'theoretically', the 2.4 million wages might be paid by Spurs to run their 'reserve team'? Furthermore, players wouldn't automatically play, as the manager (who would also be a Spurs employee) would have a squad at his disposal. If the players weren't good enough, the manager would tell Spurs to go and buy him a better youth at a certain position.

So, back to the point. Going for Ferdinand, Sherwood or Rambo (who could be paid by Spurs still) could be a good move (to run Swindon Town Spurs NextGen)

Really?

I think this is crucial.  Our club must have final say on who we sign, and the manager on who he picks to play.  Any interference here is wrong.

Any link (formal or otherwise) will only last as long as the parties on both sides want it to.  Once there's a change of leadership here or at Spurs, they'll go in a different direction if that's what they chose.

Oh, and to go back to the Celtic link, JPM was formerly Celt.  So that's about 5, I think.

People mention Swindon Hotspurs we have had a close link with Tottenham or Ex tottenham people for years at least 4 managers have played for Tottenham

According to BBC Sport on Twitter.

5 in total over the years I believe Ardiles, Hoddle, Gorman, Mackay and Allen.

64 players and managers have either played for us/managed/assistant managed(Poyet) us and played for spurs at one level or another apprently.

So if Les is the 6th, by that law of averages, he'll win us a playoff campaign.  Go Les!

Doesn't mean we've had a real link. It's possibly just coincidental. It's like saying I have a link with the toilet because I choose to shit in it instead of the hedge. I could use both if I wanted.


Can anyone find another team that has more/similar numbers? Perhaps we're secretly twinned with Luton without our knowing? IT'S ALL A CONSPIRACY I TELL YOU!

Some of those links may be a bit circuitous, if you've nicked them from Banyard's site.  I've always been under the impression we've had plenty of Spurs connections, but I'm sure just coincidence.  In my 50 odd years I can recall us signing 3 players from Arsenal....Nicky Hammond...Jo Kuffour on loan...and recently Boateng...again I'm sure just coincidence.

Well as an example...Bristhole Shitty and us have had 69 mutual players/managers over the years...hows that?

Perfect, thanks Venks.

Shitty are definitely our reserves.

It was taken from swindon-town-fc.co.uk.

Yes we rarely get players on loan from the Arse thats very true, or come to think of it I only remember 1 from Villa...Steve Cowe since I have been following Swindon, whereas I remember 4 from Liverpool over the same period Tanner, Darby, Thompson and Warner.

Over that same time I worked out we have had 18 loanees from Spurs.