Mixed Feelings?

[Frigby Daser]

Trying to think of the last goal scoring centre mid we had in the mould of Mcloughlin?

Grant Smith, albeit for a short spell.

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

The idea is clearly to push for promotion. Of course we are taking a risk. Players like Roberts can't have come cheap wage wise even if he was a free. We took risks last year and it paid off. To go up again we'll need to the same. I'm all for it to be honest but of course if we do fail to go up within the next 2 years it could affect the club in the longer term.

[Arriba]

Grant Smith, albeit for a short spell.

Easton

[Paolo69]

Kevin Horlock

[Bewster]

none fit to lace Alan Mcs boots

[Reg Smeeton]

Trying to think of the last goal scoring centre mid we had in the mould of Mcloughlin?

Steve Foley overlapped Alan Mac, but was here after AM had moved on.  They are a rare species and therefore highly desirable.

[TheDukeOfBanbury]

Think I have mixed feelings about the way that things are going at SN1.

Last year was glorious, in so much as we had a proper clear out and seemed to start again from scratch. I really admired the club for this as I think it was a bold move to removed the cancer. Then, it seemed as if we turned into Blackburn Rovers. Bringing in Holmes, McEverley and Bostock seemed a little over the top and I think contributed to us losing a Cup Final. But thats not my point...............

I'm excited about these 'better quality' players that are signing for us, but part of me doesn't like the MLB/NFL/NBA approach that we seem to be adopting ie Buying a team. I guess I wouldn't be keen to see wholesale changes in personnel both this year and next, perhaps, in order to secure back to back to back promotions.

There's part of me that pines for a run like in the 80s when the core team from the 4th division stayed with the club through to the Premiership. Upgrades were done along the way, but they were subtle rather than wholesale.

I guess I'm saying it would be more satisfying to win League 1 by improving the players that we currently have rather than buying success.
 

I think the "core" of last season will remain in the side this season.
We won the league last year but you could still see the weaknesses and gaps. Left Back, Another Midfielder and a Goalscorer.
After years of misery and selling players to survive I would take this "time" at Swindon as magical. I know where you are coming from a few years back but the aim is Championship.
We are bringing in players who can cut it in Div 1 and at a push make it in the Championship.

Enjoy the ride mate. Think of what could have happened if Diamond Mike & the Portugese were running the Club ?
You could be talking about a player good enough for the Conference South that would be a useful addition to the squad.

These are great times and I can't wait for the season now.

[leefer]

Man City bought the league....no doubt about that.

There attendances will not dwindle....and the million or so who saw the team go through the City with the trophy do not give a hoot whether money is spent or not in pursuit of Glory.....that is me that is.

I want teams to fear us because of the quality in the team....that will cost.....its time after a century in the doldrums(more or less) we aim higher.

With this manager i believe we will be in the Premiership in three years....but it will cost.

[DiV]

In fairness we havent shipped out many players have we?we havent got rid of many first team regulars or people who played much of a part last season.

The likes of De Vita, Smith, Risser and Connell who all did a job are all still here, it is only certain fans that have written them off - not Di Canio, well not yet anyway - as they are all still here.

[Cibocchi_Is_God]

To be honest, my opinions/sentiment towards footballers disintergrated after the debacle of 2010/11. There is no loyalty from clubs nor players anymore, so as far as I am concerned any strategy that brings us success is the right one. Regardless of who is sold, who is brought in, how much we pay ect. As long as the club is still secure and we are moving in the right direction I could not give a fuck who is bringing us success or what other fans think of us and our percieved 'big money' spending/chopping and changing.

[Reg Smeeton]

I guess I'm saying it would be more satisfying to win League 1 by improving the players that we currently have rather than buying success.
 

Think we're miles away from buying success because we've signed a couple of Div 3 freebie journeymen and a raw but promising Div 4 striker. Evidence suggests that we need a bit of strengthening just to stay in Div 3 . We have been relegated twice from here in the last 6 years.

Div 3 as we know is a horrible league to get out of in an upward direction....last time we managed it we were spending 500K on a striker in the close season. Now if we were doing something like that, then I think you could say we were 'buying' our way out of the league.

[Posh Red]

Interesting topic, and got me thinking about the idea that we kept the core of the Div 4 winning team.

So looking back at Lou's team/squad, of the 12 players that played in the most amount of games that season, only 6 of them were to repeat that the following season.

Andy Rowland didn't play again,
Bryan Wade & Charlie Henry were much less used the following season.
Colin Gordon was sold.
David Cole only played a handful of games & was replaced by Tim Parkin
Kenny Allen was similarly replaced by Fraser.

Of the regulars that played the following season, joining the afore mentioned Digby & Parkin we did see Jimmy Quinn, Mark Jones, Phil King & Steve White join all of which were regularly in the starting line-up that season.

The following season was a similar story, with Rambo, Stumpy & Coyne out of the team to be replaced by Bobby Barnes, Jon Gittens, Kieran O'Regan & Steve Foley as regulars.

In fact, by the time we got to what is effectively the championship, only four of that league winning squad played regularly (Fridge, Kammy, Bambi & Hockaday), although Stumpy played 20 odd games too.


I guess the point is that there is always a turnover of players when you move up a division.
Even those that stay are in danger of being replaced by new faces, even more so in this day and age with the Bosman ruling.

[DRS]

Fuck me reg has started already.

[RedRag]

Ha Ha, DRS

However, as usual, an interesting take on the situation from Reg  [was the £500k striker the Chief?!]

We are not "buying" our way out of the division as such but I suspect that in the current climate we are moving up the expenditure league over previous seasons.  Collins, Roberts and Williams will ALL receive a signing on fee and obviously our wage package (as well as "ambition" and PDC's charisma) has had to impress them.

Whilst this is a long way short of "buying" success, I would venture these are the sort of players who always used to slip our grasp and go somewhere else (usually Huddersfield wasn't it?).  It is a positive that finance, the board and PDC are changing our place in the League One pecking order for attracting players and equipping us for success, if not buying it.

The original point however is an anxiety that we may be overspending and oddly enough I am not sure what financial benefits would accrue from reaching the Championship.  Are Coventry, Portsmouth and even recently promoted Scunny in great financial shape?  Two of them (unlike us) at least have a high volume of core support to aid revovery if well managed.

For the moment I feel we have spent some money on some interesting players and this will bring its own pressures.  PDC has not been afraid of this last season though so let's risk some optimism, shall we and leave the finances to the Board, eh?

[DRS]

Scunny have just signed Kennedy on 1300 a week.My point was more about looking like relegation fodder.