Swindon Town have settled in a mid-table position in League Two this season, meaning transfer planning can truly commence.
From a relatively nerve-inducing 19th-placed finish last term, the Robins weren’t a million miles from knocking on the door of the play-offs.
Now, with the summer transfer window ahead, they can use this time to bolster their squad to try and break into the upper echelons of the fourth tier.
We asked our Swindon Fan Pundit, Ciaran, what his dream transfer window would look like.
Swindon need to start recruiting for promotion
Speaking to Football League World, Ciaran said: “Dream summer 2025 window, aside from signing, you know, Virgil Van Dijk, Mo Salah and Erling Haaland, a realistic one would just be to sign experienced players that are proven at League Two and even League One level, but they’re not past it.
“So, they’re not getting on to like being nearly 40 years of age, or 38, or 37. They’re still young enough to have longevity at the club and still very capable of playing League One football.
“So experienced names that can play League Two, or even better, League One football across the park and some young promising players as well to come through to provide that bit of flare and technical quality.
“I think just some experienced, proven names that aren’t injury prone, because we seem to sign a lot of players that are very, very injury prone. If they’re big names or if they’ve got a lot of experience, we will always sign them, and they’ll be injury prone.
“So they’ll have played very few games the season before or they’ll carry big recurring injuries and which is always disappointing because we don’t know how much we’re going to get out of them and these are players that we’re going to rely on.
“It’s happened for the last two or three years at Swindon, where we’ve got these players. We expect them to become big parts and then they spend most of the season injured.
“So I just want players that are experienced, proven and have the quality to form a promotion chasing side, but also able to do it at the level above and be here for two or three years.
“That’s what I would love to see us start doing and start building that way in this summer transfer window, don’t need anything too mad or anything, that’s just what it is.
“But also, obviously, still getting younger players in but rather than getting loans in get us younger players that we can develop as well and develop into the players that are here for quite a few years, or sell on them for big fees to go to compliment the lads coming through from the academy as well.
“That’s what I would love to see in this summer 2025 transfer window.”
Swindon must lean on Ian Holloway’s experience
In Ian Holloway, Swindon have one of the last generations of old-school managers, who are used to running a club from top to bottom, honing in on transfers and squad building.
If, as Ciaran suggests, they want to build a squad for the next few years, to build towards promotion, then they couldn’t be better placed with Holloway.
| Holloway’s record at Swindon, as per Transfermarkt | |
|---|---|
| Date appointed | 25 Oct 2024 |
| Games managed | 35 |
| Wins | 16 |
| Draws | 9 |
| Losses | 10 |
| PPG | 1.63 |
At Swindon, in the modern game, he may not command as much control as he may have done in previous jobs, but he has enough experience in squad building, like that seen, famously, at Blackpool, to warrant him having a big say.
It will need to be controlled, because he doesn’t always stay put in a job for too long, but if it’s a squad they want to build, with grit and determination to fight for promotion, they they must use Holloway to their advantage.
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