Franchise v Swindon Town Matchday thread

[STFC_Manc]

It's on the timeline PowerPoint presentation used on those April minutes I believe.  There is a section about the Academy Project, which doesn't actually quote that goal, but the timeline shows it for 2025 as well.

https://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/siteassets/2022-23/documents/advisory-board-april-2023.pdf

Slide 8 = "Standards continue to improve in Academy with plans for a Category 2 Academy outlined"

The action item for the Academy states:  "A high-quality academy is essential for the future success of our
club. It provides a cost-effective way to develop homegrown
talent and builds a strong team foundation for long-term success."

Yes i can see it now, it says "Standards continue to improve in Academy with plans for a Category 2 Academy outlined" this is post 2025, as you can see it says plans for, not they will achieve it and thats 2 years as a minimum.

So hopefully you can stop beating the drum of they haven't achieved the stated aim of tier 2 academy, as it's a long term aim.

[Nomoreheroes]

[Bob's Orange]

Without wishing to bring the thread back on 'track', as I'm currently bored on the train to Euston I'd give my thoughts on my trip to the land of the concrete cows. First impressions as we parked up next to stadium:MK was that it was a mighty impressive structure. Mrs Bob was very happy with the array of shops to peruse, and after some pre-game grub (the bang bang cauliflower in Wagamamas sadly lacked the usual fiery spice, still tasty mind) and a couple of Asahi, it was onto the game. Although managed to squeeze in a pint of Strongbow dark fruits for good measure. A wise tactic as I was able to fistbump a confused looking Dan Hunt, of the Loathed Strangers pod 'fame'.

Great numbers and noise from the travelling town fans but as often happens as soon as the game kicks off, it was a bit like I imagine being on the moon. Franchise having such a big stadium and then sticking fans miles up (although the seats and view is very good) in the gods seemed strange and the lack of any noise at all in the home ends made for a pretty eerie time. The game itself wasn't really a 'classic', Franchise probably felt lucky to go in 1 goal up, both teams not really doing a huge amount.

Second half, for all the goals, again wasn't massively entertaining. RHM's energy was giving the Franchise defence a lot to think about, but often ended up down blind alleys. Charlie was getting more and more frustrated and I did wonder if our chief tactic is going to be to get the ball into Hutton to cross into the box if Young and Austin might be a better option to start games with RHM coming off the bench. With that Young came off the bench and scored a better, right in my eyeline. Sweet as a hazelnut in a jar of treacle. We then looked to dominate proceedings but Franchise then woke up a bit, Jack Payne took the game by the scruff of the neck and a neat goal followed by a harsh own goal put the game to bed. We did pull a goal back from a set-piece which made me wonder what might have happened if we had any corners, bizarrely we had a grand total of 0 which might be a first this season?

Let's not kid ourselves, October has been a struggle, we thought it might have been. The great start to the season had provided hope but whilst our first 11 remains relatively competitive, the bench has absolutely nothing too it beyond Young/RHM. November gets no easier with Mansfield and Stockport at home. We live in hope as always but it's going to be a challenge to stay in touch. Austin is starting to look more and more frustrated, I can imagine deep down Flynn might be also.

It took us 45 minutes to get out of the car park after the game, typical being kicked when you are down.

[Legends-Lounge]

I mean, again. Thank you for your service? But just because you've had to put up with decades of misery doesn't mean it always has to be that way.

Thank you, I don’t need an award BTW. No, it doesn't, I am just pointing out historically that’s the way it has been with a multitude of owners and therefore you will not be surprised if the next decade or two are the same. After all for all of the niceness that Stadium MK has, they’re in L2 as well…

[Peter Venkman]

Come on inside....

[Legends-Lounge]

I’m sorry, but the L1&L2 yo-yo club has only really happened over the last decade. Throughout our history we’ve predominately been a League One club (yeah, huge difference I know) with the odd venture into the Championship, and now, L2. I’m not someone blinded enough to think we can become this sustainable Championship club, but I don’t think asking for Swindon Town to be a team that is steady in L1 is a huge ask. After all, it’s what the club has been for the majority of its history. In fact, I don’t think it’s much to ask for a competitive team in L2, but that is apparently a bridge too far these days.

Of course, every club suffers poor periods in their history, and as a fan you sign up for some shit times too, but 20+ years outside of the Championship and six of our last seven season in the basement division indicates that we’ve had more shit in recent years than clubs of similar size to us. And no, I’m not asking for us to magically do a Luton or Bournemouth either. Just being even a Lincoln would do.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Swindon_Town_F.C._seasons

[Stef Troll]

Good one.

Someone has already done the research, on here.  We have one of the smallest squads sizes in this Division.  That clearly comes with a risk.

Next, who is actually out injured right now that changes us, Brewitt?  Nobody else really.  Devine hasn't even played a full game for us, has he?  I presume Uwakwe is injured, not exactly nailed the LWB spot down anyway.  Clayton is even back, so we really are not that stretched in terms of first teamers being out.  We are stretched because we have so few first teamers.

And finally - who is to blame for out recent poor form - well, either someone or many people are, if we are saying this is poor form.  If so, then trying to determine where that responsibility may lie seems like precisely the sort of thing you'd expect to find a forum.

Whilst we may have one of the smallest squad sizes in the division, there are free transfers  who Flynn can bring in to deepen the squad. Flynn has constantly said he wants to add quality and not quantity (which I think is a sensible approach). I’m sure these free transfers are currently better than the 16 year olds we are sticking on the bench. However longer term Flynn doesn’t seem to believe that signing the free transfers is the right strategy for the club.

Sutton United may currently have a deeper squad size then Swindon. However they are bottom of the league. For all we know their strategy may have been to have a whole squad who are solid 6/10 players whenever they play. They can therefore deal with injury crisis/loss of form of players better then we can. Swindon on the other hand may have decided to invest more of their budget on marquee players (ie Kemp, Austin) and then sacrifice having a deeper squad size. I do not know if this is true or not, this is more an example.

Things were great at the start of the season when we had a fully fit squad.  Now it’s being tested and we have lost a couple of games.

In terms of blame, I do not blame anyone. Flynn was given a budget which he has spent how he saw fit. I’m sure if he had his time back he would have maybe signed an extra couple of bodies of a lower standard just to flesh the squad out with more bodies. However he went for the quality and not quantity route.

Ultimately we are in the top 10 which is where the bookies and even Charlie Austin thought we would be  (he was interviewed by talk sport at beginning of season).  

Unfortunately there are fans on here who are unrealistic and seem to think that as we have one of the higher home gates, we should be near the top of the league. Bournemouth, Luton and plenty of other clubs mustn’t have read the memo.

[UTR]

Whilst we may have one of the smallest squad sizes in the division, there are free transfers  who Flynn can bring in to deepen the squad. Flynn has constantly said he wants to add quality and not quantity (which I think is a sensible approach). I’m sure these free transfers are currently better than the 16 year olds we are sticking on the bench. However longer term Flynn doesn’t seem to believe that signing the free transfers is the right strategy for the club.

Sutton United may currently have a deeper squad size then Swindon. However they are bottom of the league. For all we know their strategy may have been to have a whole squad who are solid 6/10 players whenever they play. They can therefore deal with injury crisis/loss of form of players better then we can. Swindon on the other hand may have decided to invest more of their budget on marquee players (ie Kemp, Austin) and then sacrifice having a deeper squad size. I do not know if this is true or not, this is more an example.

Things were great at the start of the season when we had a fully fit squad.  Now it’s being tested and we have lost a couple of games.

In terms of blame, I do not blame anyone. Flynn was given a budget which he has spent how he saw fit. I’m sure if he had his time back he would have maybe signed an extra couple of bodies of a lower standard just to flesh the squad out with more bodies. However he went for the quality and not quantity route.

Ultimately we are in the top 10 which is where the bookies and even Charlie Austin thought we would be  (he was interviewed by talk sport at beginning of season).  

Unfortunately there are fans on here who are unrealistic and seem to think that as we have one of the higher home gates, we should be near the top of the league. Bournemouth, Luton and plenty of other clubs mustn’t have read the memo.

Think there’s some reasonable points in there, some questionable points but I’m going to selectively pick out that last paragraph.

I think this club should at a minimum always be challenging near to the top of this division whenever we’re in it (caveat for major external circumstances), that’s the bottom line for me and every year we don’t do that is failure in my eyes and that’s not an unrealistic take. However, that opinion is separate from my opinion of whether this squad has the ability to do that, that is where you have to be realistic and see that this squad isn’t prepared well enough to do that so it would be silly to expect that. That’s where the criticism gets levelled to those involved in putting this squad together which Clem is part of as he sets the budgets. It’s not the squads fault that they’ve been set up with so little depth that our best XI has to play almost every minute and run themselves into the ground, is it Flynn’s? Potentially but if he’s hamstrung by budget then it passes him too.

Either way, we always knew October/November when we play the good teams in this league is where we’d struggle and I always said I’d hold my full judgement until we’ve played those teams and so far it looks to sadly be as expected. Get Mansfield and Stockport out the way and then try and stay in touch until January when this squad can be given a major boost with the right investment.

[Nomoreheroes]

I suspect that many without a team are without a team for a reason.

Not sure whether any of the vociferous posters have heard of saving or money management? The simple premise being that if you don't spend money in September, October, November and December, then maybe you have more money left over in January. Then you can shop in the more expensive section for the rest of the season or invest for the future perhaps?

[UTR]

I suspect that many without a team are without a team for a reason.

Not sure whether any of the vociferous posters have heard of saving or money management? The simple premise being that if you don't spend money in September, October, November and December, then maybe you have more money left over in January. Then you can shop in the more expensive section for the rest of the season or invest for the future perhaps?

Free agents at this point of the season are mostly pointless. They’ll take until near Jan to get up to fitness and if they’ve not been picked up by now then it’s giving a wage to someone that’s probably not up to scratch that can be spent elsewhere in January with more options as you say. There are exceptions of course and if we have people training with us now with a view to January if others fall through then it’s more reasonable.

That’s the problem, once we went past 2 weeks after the window shut, the opportunity to bring in good/useful free agents like Flynn wanted was gone. That’s where my frustration came from, Flynn wanted more players in the window, didn’t get them (actually lost more) and then wanted 2 after the window and still hasn’t. The chance for those passed long ago and we knew we’d be stuck with this light squad until January.

[Posh Red]

I suspect that many without a team are without a team for a reason.

Not sure whether any of the vociferous posters have heard of saving or money management? The simple premise being that if you don't spend money in September, October, November and December, then maybe you have more money left over in January. Then you can shop in the more expensive section for the rest of the season or invest for the future perhaps?

My son was saying the same thing, sign someone now in £1500 a week, or sign someone in January who’s on £2500 a week.

However, recent history has shown we probably won’t spend the extra money in January.
I’d like to think we will sign Kemp on a permanent deal, and then use a loan on a Center Forward (please)

[Nemo]

There are 11 more league games before January 1st, 33 points up for grabs (plus Crawley on New Year's Day, which with the best will in the world we won't sign anyone before). I can see the "wait for January" logic but we really could be out of contention by then on current form.

Currently, we're 9th, which isn't that bad. But the pack are catching us quickly - we're 3 points from 7th, but also 3 points from 17th!

[THE FLASH]

Listened to the first half.

Watched the second.

Never moved on from Gills.

Too slow for a lot of the match.

Ten minute purple patch but never got the goal that would of changed it.

Defending laughable.

Only one positive ...Young scored. Frustrating he can nail a corker like that but miss a sitter last Tuesday night!

the second came well too late for us.

Once Young was on, the bench was very inexperienced.

Feel a bit for Flynn. Is it me or does he sound hacked off at every interview...pre or post match.

[Ides of March]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Swindon_Town_F.C._seasons

Unless I’m being stupid, which is a possibility, all that is showing me is that we’ve spent the majority of our existence in L1, and have spent significantly more time in the Championship than League Two, which is what I suggested.

[ChalkyWhiteIsGod]

Unless I’m being stupid, which is a possibility, all that is showing me is that we’ve spent the majority of our existence in L1, and have spent significantly more time in the Championship than League Two, which is what I suggested.

You're not.