For the Attention of Martin Ling ( DoF)

[Petrov788]

Swindon have brought in 9 new players (Loans and Free Transfers). Just saying

How many have left?

[Bergen]

Five players have left Swindon, and three others have been released.

[Petrov788]

We need a striker, a defending midfielder and attacking midfielder I reckon. and we'll be ok. Two weeks to go, that's a long time in a transfer market.

I think a lot of teams with a lot of ins - also have a lot of outs. A lot of teams at this level decide to overhaul the squad or are forced too because players don't want to renew their short contracts. We've kept a solid spine from last season and if we get in 2 or 3 more quality players, we'll be laughing. The injuries are a concern yes, but you'd rather have injuries now with no points on the line that later on in the season.

[Petrov788]

Five players have left Swindon, and three others have been released.

exactly. Their squad has increased by 1

[Beradogs]

Swindon have brought in 9 new players (Loans and Free Transfers). Just saying

All of them youngsters from other clubs apart from Cian Harries:

Oscar Massey – Plymouth
Tyrese Shade – Leicester
Sol Brynn – Middlesbrough – Loan
Reece Devine – Man Utd
Cian Harries – Bristol Rovers
Ciaran Brennan – Sheff Wed - Loan
Jacob Wakeling – Leicester
Tom Clayton – Liverpool
Ronan Darcy - Bolton

Which ones would you have taken in our team? Bearing in mind gshaw doesn't like padding the squad with youngsters and Colebrowns?

Just on the balance of probabilities, if you bring in that many players from clubs of that stature, some are going to be decent.

[The Big Shot]

Swindon have brought in 9 new players (Loans and Free Transfers). Just saying

All of them youngsters from other clubs apart from Cian Harries:

Oscar Massey – Plymouth
Tyrese Shade – Leicester
Sol Brynn – Middlesbrough – Loan
Reece Devine – Man Utd
Cian Harries – Bristol Rovers
Ciaran Brennan – Sheff Wed - Loan
Jacob Wakeling – Leicester
Tom Clayton – Liverpool
Ronan Darcy - Bolton

Which ones would you have taken in our team? Bearing in mind gshaw doesn't like padding the squad with youngsters and Colebrowns?

Just on the balance of probabilities, if you bring in that many players from clubs of that stature, some are going to be decent.

But gshaw doesn't want a squad of padded youngsters - all those apart from one of those are youngsters with little experience.

If we'd gone down that approach people would've complained about a lack of experienced signings and the circle would've just continued.

[gshaw]

Ling is still trying to convince us all that we have a large squad because he's "signed" 6 academy players to pad out the numbers.

Wellens made it clear early in his tenure he wanted better strength in depth within the squad. The transfer activity thus far leaves him with even fewer options than before.

On that note Colebrown seem to have both disappeared, no particular mention of them in the injury briefings yet absent without trace for the games thus far.

The thing is, when you look at all the squads in League Two from last season, all of them are padded with various youngsters and Colebrowns - including Forest Green who went up as champions. Exeter padded their squad with youngsters from their academy and it helped take them up - albeit took them a few years.

Its a far more regular thing these days in the lower leagues due to budget contraints/covid etc. Granted yes, we need better and more experience in CM I get that, but youngsters padding the squad as you say is all across the board in League Two.

We aren't any different.

I was told we had the smallest senior pro squad in the league last season and we've let more go since then. It's the balance that's wrong in our case imo as per the comments from a certain Mr Jackett

[Rich Tea Wellin]

If only we’d had any sort of experience that our recruitment wasn’t up to scratch. Annoyingly there’s been no indication of this, with every transfer window being better than the last. If only we’d been able do some lessons learned and improved things. Oh well, at least there’s January to improve.

[Reflecto]

Here's my take...might be completely wrong...

The board may have inadvertantly set up the operation so that the DoF is rewarded by gaining revenue from our Academy sales - ML speaks about this often and lists the successes. This drives ML's strategy which favours trying to get the our academy players the most exposure as early as possible. Which is a good thing re: academy sales but may be less good for the more important first team performance (which actually needed more experienced pro's).

[Qin]

Here's my take...might be completely wrong...

The board may have inadvertantly set up the operation so that the DoF is rewarded by gaining revenue from our Academy sales - ML speaks about this often and lists the successes. This drives ML's strategy which favours trying to get the our academy players the most exposure as early as possible. Which is a good thing re: academy sales but may be less good for the more important first team performance (which actually needed more experienced pro's).

This is an interesting concept. It would explain a lot actually.
I think , our club would be better served by a different DoF, because Ling isnt very good at his job IMO

[HARVEY T DENTON]

Can anyone remember transfer windows before ML took the DOF role?

[PutneyO]

I've just got banned from Facebook for refering to Wallis Simpson as a Trannie .....well she was !

[Long slender neck]

I've just got banned from Facebook for refering to Wallis Simpson as a Trannie .....well she was !

Great, but not sure Martin Ling will be interested.

[PoundhillO]

Here's my take...might be completely wrong...

The board may have inadvertantly set up the operation so that the DoF is rewarded by gaining revenue from our Academy sales - ML speaks about this often and lists the successes. This drives ML's strategy which favours trying to get the our academy players the most exposure as early as possible. Which is a good thing re: academy sales but may be less good for the more important first team performance (which actually needed more experienced pro's).

This is an interesting concept. It would explain a lot actually.
I think , our club would be better served by a different DoF, because Ling isnt very good at his job IMO

Your last sentence sums it all up perfectly, in fact I would say that Ling isn’t very good at his job is an understatement.

[Long slender neck]

And you're not a very good supporter.

[BoniO]

This is so ridiculous. How does anyone know this is down to Ling? It might be the board that are putting the constraints in. The US is going through a massive stock market correction with huge inflation. Maybe they've tightened the purse strings.

You come on here, making sensible posts based on facts - it’s not the way this board works

[PutneyO]

I've just got banned from Facebook for refering to Wallis Simpson as a Trannie .....well she was !

Great, but not sure Martin Ling will be interested.

Sorry, wrong thread

[redintheface]

Nigel Travis thinks the sun shines out of Lings ar-e.

Does that explain the current heatwave?

[spen666]

Give him credit, he’s managed to bring in 2 new players. You can’t rush these things.

Martin wouldn’t survive for long in a job at Bradford City.

Remind me which division Bradford are in ?

Quanity doesn't bring success

[RedDwarf 1881]

Give him credit, he’s managed to bring in 2 new players. You can’t rush these things.

Martin wouldn’t survive for long in a job at Bradford City.

Remind me which division Bradford are in ?

Quanity doesn't bring success

This is what I’m wondering . Have they brought in only quantity or have they managed to get the quality . I suppose we’ll only find out when the season starts.

[CEB]

The thing I love most about this is that the OP has sensibly added the initials of Ling’s job title, ensuring that only the correct Martin Ling will get to read this thread.

[tuffers#1]

Here's my take...might be completely wrong...

The board may have inadvertantly set up the operation so that the DoF is rewarded by gaining revenue from our Academy sales - ML speaks about this often and lists the successes. This drives ML's strategy which favours trying to get the our academy players the most exposure as early as possible. Which is a good thing re: academy sales but may be less good for the more important first team performance (which actually needed more experienced pro's).

This is an interesting concept. It would explain a lot actually.
I think , our club would be better served by a different DoF, because Ling isnt very good at his job IMO

Your last sentence sums it all up perfectly, in fact I would say that Ling isn’t very good at his job is an understatement.

Ah "The HATERS " are back .

[gshaw]

Here's my take...might be completely wrong...

The board may have inadvertantly set up the operation so that the DoF is rewarded by gaining revenue from our Academy sales - ML speaks about this often and lists the successes. This drives ML's strategy which favours trying to get the our academy players the most exposure as early as possible. Which is a good thing re: academy sales but may be less good for the more important first team performance (which actually needed more experienced pro's).

I've wondered something along the lines of this...

- the club / DoF has to justify the costs of the academy

- to prevent a young player leaving for free they have to be signed to a pro contract, usually max of 2 years

- the only way is to put youth players in the "shop window" of the first team, which doesn't leave a lot of time to send them out on loan to NL, hence the likes of Kyprianou and Young not doing their time there and skipping straight into first team where they learn "on the job" but that comes at the expense of results when they inevitably make mistakes or aren't up to the physical demands of L2 senior football

- after half a season the hope is they can be persuaded to sign a new contract or be flogged on

- money then has to go back into the academy to pay for the costs of running it (still loss making at present remember). The cycle begins again, Kyprianou becomes Obieiro and we go back to square one

The problem with that last season was the number of (particularly youth midfield players) all learning but none of them looked ready to be a benefit to the team rather than a hindrance. Wellens soon took them all out the side apart from the one who they must've had an inkling was being watched by Peterborough.

[Jessica]

The previous post is an insult to Richie Wellens. The rest of it is unsubstantiated rubbish.

[Top of the JES]

The previous post is an insult to Richie Wellens. The rest of it is unsubstantiated rubbish.

Jessica, unfortunately like most clubs we have more than our fair share of idiots who in the main post complete rubbish. The majority of O's fans are I'm sure happy to let Martin and Richie get on with thier jobs and get the squad finished before the season Kicks Off. Unfortunately though there are a few on here with an agenda who simply have an irrational dislike of Martin Ling, been like this for a while and anyhing that goes wrong at the club he gets the blame. It's only a small vocal minority who hide behind an alias on here, probablt best to just ignore them.