Swindon Town Summer Transfer Under Ian Holloway Been Revealed

We’re not long out of the winter window, but for struggling teams like Swindon Town, the summer cannot come quick enough.

They appointed manager Ian Holloway midway through the season but, following his arrival, flirted with relegation before climbing slightly higher in the table at the beginning of the new year.

Many suspect there will be a big shake-up at the County Ground, as Holloway attempts to arrest the decline Swindon have slipped into in recent years.

Our Swindon fan pundit Ciaran echoed those sentiments when asked to discuss likely departures.

Speaking to Football League World, Ciaran said: “I think this summer is going to see a very, very high turnover of players for us.

“I think it’s going to be somewhere in the region of seven to 10 at the minimum end of the scale. I think Holloway is going to have a big, big clear out and basically want to start from scratch with his own squad, with the exception of a few star players in between.

“The players that we’ll keep would be like Harry Smith, Aaron Drinan, Will Wright, but players, getting rid of, I think Jack Bycroft needs to move on the goalkeeper.

“He’s been here for two years now. It’s just not clicked for him here. I think he’s a National League keeper at best. He’s done okay. He’s just too inconsistent, even by League Two standards. Like I’m not expecting him to be of a Premier League standard playing in League Two, but even for a League Two standard keeper, he’s just too inconsistent and he costs you too many points, and realistically, that could be the difference between promotion, not promotion next season.

“I really can’t see him playing much next year or in the second half of this season. So, I think we’ll see him move on, probably for his career. He is out of contract, so I can’t realistically see us renewing it. He’s not, I don’t think, warranted enough for a new deal.

“I also think Jake Cain should probably leave and that’s for the good of his career. He’s out of contract as well. He should leave purely to get more first-team football. I think he’ll enjoy a bit more first-team football towards the second half of the season with the squad being as thin as it is, seemingly, on injuries at the moment.

“But once the squad’s fully fit again, he’s going to be a bit-part player and that’s all he’s ever really going to be with us. I think he needs to either drop down or just go somewhere else and reinvent himself and fight for that place. He’s been a good squad player to us, but I think for the good of his career, he really needs to move on.

“But other than that, I think most people that are out of contract this summer are going to leave Swindon this year. There’s going to be a big turnover, there’s going to be some shocks.

“I think like Joel McGregor may leave because I think some higher-league clubs are going to be interested in him. Maybe some League One or low-end Championship clubs will take a punt on Gavin Kilkenny.

“Both of those are under contract for another little while, so I think if we saw a decent, sensible offer for either of those, we would put very much part company with them and they’re probably our highest-value players.

“For someone to come and buy Harry Smith, I think they’d have to put sensible money in for us to sell him, but I can’t realistically see any League Two clubs next year spending a ridiculous amount on a forward that has been inconsistent with the seasons he’s done it.

“I don’t think any League One clubs are really going to go in for him because he’s never really proven himself at that level.

“Most likely, in terms of big player sales, Joel McGregor the young right-back. He’s obviously young, he’s played a lot of first-team football. He’s a very attractive proposition for a lot of teams.

“As well as Gavin Kilkenny. He’s young; he’s played a lot of first-team football this year, real break for him there.

“He was very promising and very highly thought of at Bournemouth, then he wanted to go out and play. A lot of clubs will like that, and they’ll be willing to invest in them because they’ve definitely got bright futures in the game.”

It’s not uncommon to be able to name a number of players who probably won’t be playing for a club much longer following an unsuccessful season — it’s much harder to get their replacements right.

And usually, save for incredibly nifty scouting or stumbling across a diamond in the rough, this comes at a price.

Swindon supporters are already on the back of owner Clem Morfuni, who some see as partly responsible for the club’s recent decline, and a winter window that saw just 31-year-old goalkeeper Connor Ripley and two loanee strikers arrive won’t have done much to turn the tide of opinion.

If Morfuni is intent on retaining the club, then he must give those truly tuned into the game, like Holloway, the means to construct a squad capable of ascending back up the fourth-tier table. Anything less will only increase pressure on the owner.

As Ciaran identifies, there are likely to be a lot of departures at Swindon this summer, but the new players replacing them need to be the right recruits.