Done Deal at Swindon Town

The Sale Goes Through at Last!

The sale of the club has gone through and the new owners are settling into the boardroom at Swindon Town Football Club. However, there has still been no direct word from Jed McCrory and the other members of the new consortium regarding their plans for the club. The statement released on the Swindon town website (Swindon Town Statement) was from Sir William Patey, the outgoing chairman, and allowed him to indirectly vent his spleen over the departure of Paolo Di Canio and his team of backroom staff. The words are very telling and serve to illustrate the breakdown in relations between the manager and the club's board, and the chairman in particular. Reading posts on various forums, the fickleness of the average football fan seems to be coming to the fore with many people, who probably wholeheartedly supported Paolo Di Canio prior to the events of Monday 18th February, are now condemning him without recourse to the full facts. For his part, Di Canio has released a statement via the Swindon Advertiser (Paolo Di Canio's Statement in the Adver) where, apart from describing his frustrations, he states that the board have not responded to his resignation letter of 12th February. If this piece of information is coupled to the fact that the new owners have kept silent for the time being, perhaps there is a way back for Paolo and his management team? After all, if the club hasn't accepted his resignation and those of the backroom staff who left two days later, they are technically still employees of the club. I would be in support of this scenario, the one where Paolo Di Canio and his team take up where thay left off, but, as stated in a previous post (Implosion at SN1, but Still Top of the League!), the volatile Italian would probably have to eat a large piece of humble pie before he's allowed through the doors of the County Ground again. 

The Daily Mail

A ridiculously puerile and condescending article was written in the Daily Mail on the 20th February regarding Martin Samuel's opinion of Paolo Di Canio. He's entitled to his opinion, but what I take exception to is the tone of the article in relation to Swindon Town Football Club and the lower leagues of the English game. Read the article here (Daily Mail Article) and you decide. The other thing that has annoyed me is the fact that, despite trying three times, the Daily Mail has failed to print my comment. In view of that, below is my retort:

A typical, condescending, Premier League biased piece of reporting. It doesn't matter, it's only Swindon Town! They only have an average gate of 8,000. Well those 8,000 support their home team and do not hold to the franchise aspect of supporting a team from another part of the country with which they have no cultural heritage and no allegiance. The story from SN1 is significant as it highlights the lack of communication between the two factions (outgoing board and those wanting to buy the club) and the despicable way that the manager, the man charged with bringing success on the pitch, has been left out of the loop. Paolo Di Canio has been a breath of fresh air in his honesty and the way his heart is firmly emblazoned on his sleeve. The manner in which you dismiss a lower league story as not having any significance in the great scheme of things illustrates the blinkered view in this country that the only thing that matters in modern day football is the Premier League and the "Big Four".

Would you agree with me?

Related articles

• Implosion at SN1, but Still Top of the League!
• The Fat Lady is Singing at the County Ground Tonight!
• Facts, Opinion and Swindon Town

The Fat Lady is Singing at the County Ground Tonight!

The breaking news in the Swindon Advertiser is that Paolo Di Canio has resigned and walked away from Swindon Town Football Club. In some ways, history is repeating itself in that Lou Macari, then the manager and architect of a resurgent team, was sacked after less than one year in the role. That was 1985 and a protest by the fans saw the board overturn their own decision and reinstate the former Manchester United player as manager. Paolo Di Canio has been in the role for a bit longer than Macari had been, but he has now sadly departed. Once again, those that run the club have managed to shoot themselves in the foot and the new owners will find a hostile reception waiting for them when they take over the reins for allowing the charismatic Italian to go.

Unfortunately, I think in this case, a fans protest will be to no avail. The new owners have probably a manager in mind who they would like to have in charge of the team, but, not since the days of Macari has Swindon Town Football Club had in Di Canio a manager who had such a rapport with the fans along with a sense of direction on the pitch. The team is still riding high, but the "team" includes the manager and his backroom staff. The behind the scenes team will no doubt follow Paolo Di Canio and how long will it be before the discipline and hard work that they helped instil in the players erodes and, along with it, the performances?

Footnote:

As of the morning of 19th February, the club hasn't stated whether it has accepted Paolo Di Canio's resignation...could there be a further twist in the tale?

Related articles

• Has the Fat Lady Sung at SN1?

Facts, Opinion and Swindon Town

I am not a trained journalist and, having a real job, I don't have the time to chase or follow up stories. Therefore, the collective blogs I have written concerning Swindon Town are mainly my opinion and conjecture, with a smattering of facts gleaned from my own experience and the football club's history. However, I don't think anyone reading my musings would expect the contents to be anything but opinion. However, I like to check my facts first and stay away from anything that could be construed as libellous. It beggars belief then, that some of the British national Dailies resort to making things up in order to fill their back pages rather than write the truth.

Paolo Di Canio shunned the national media post match at Colchester and only gave a brief statement to the two local media outlets he probably feels he can trust and with whom he has a rapport - the Swindon Advertiser and BBC Radio Wiltshire. The statement concerned his players and the Red Army of fans who follow the team up and down the country in all weathers (I wish I could be one of them, but family finances dictate that being a full time fan will probably have to wait until the kids have left home and I'm retired!). Rather than re-report what was said to these journalists, the Dailies made up some tripe about the imminent sacking of Swindon Town's manager once the club takeover had been ratified by the Football League. Thankfully, the head of the consortium, Jed McCrory, has issued a statement through "The Adver" refuting any such notion and states that all members of the consortium are looking forwards to working with Paolo and his team. ("Jed McCrory Rubbishes Sack Plan Report").

I don't know, but in my opinion, once the takeover is ratified and Paolo Di Canio and the new board have their "get to know you meeting", the events of the past fortnight will be forgotten and STFC will be top of the league.

Damp Squib!

"Transfer Deadline Day" is akin to Christmas Day for football fans. The anticipation of what present you're going to get allied to the fact that Father Christmas is as generous as the size of your parents' wallet ensures that the rich kids get their bikes and Scalextrics whilst the poor ones don't even get the Action Man that was on their list; instead they are given the crappy plastic doll from Hong Kong whose clothes don't fit, cannot hold a rifle and that falls apart before kick off on Boxing Day! So, watching the BBC coverage of "Transfer Deadline Day" via the web, it was disappointing to see that the Beeb was pandering to the dreams of the rich kids (Premier League) in speculating what Santa was going to bring them as a late Christmas present at the end of January. As a fan of a proper football club, i.e., someone who supports the team of the town of their birth rather than pretend to have some affiliation with a team in a city they've never been to and whose dialect they wouldn't understand, I had one eye on the webpage of the Swindon Advertiser to see what business Paolo Di Canio was conducting after the horrendous decision by both the off-going and oncoming boards to sell Matt Ritchie to AFC Bournemouth for a mere fraction of his worth. 

Matt Ritchie

I went to bed feeling that, although David Beckham would be kicking himself for choosing an obscure French team in which to play out the last few months of his footballing career rather than take pride in putting on the sacred shirt of STFC each Saturday, at least the three players that had been lined up would do a decent job for Swindon in the run-in towards the end of the season. As I snuggled into the duvet, I felt assured that all the various parties had to do was sign on the dotted line and the poor kid's Christmas morning wouldn't be the damp squib that it usually is each year. Imagine my horror to find that, when I woke up, not only had Santa not left the toys, but the owner had repossessed them before my parents had left the toyshop -"You don't look like you can afford them, so you can't have them!"

I dare say that Bradley Wright-Phillips, Marlon Pack and Danny Green will be Swindon Town players come the start of the "Loan Transfer Window" in a week's time, but, as a fan of Swindon Town, it has been deflating and I'm left to feel like the poor kid at Christmas, playing with the Hong Kong soldier doll whilst the rich kids cycle around the estate on their new bikes.

You Heard it Here First!

As stated in my blog post of 4th January, Swindon Town Football Club is up for sale! But don't push the panic button yet or head for the emergency exit. Unlike previous times when the club went into administration, where every Tom, Dick and Harry was owed a penny, the debt owed is to the investment company, or Andrew Black. In order to mitigate his loss, he's looking to sell his majority shareholding which is why Sir William Patey was brought in. Being a canny sort, after all, you don't amass an internet betting fortune by being as daft as a brush, Mr. Black has let Paolo Di Canio get into a promotion -winning position this season before officially announcing his intentions of finding investors for the club.

For me, the noises emanating from SN1 are positive. The chairman has already been in talks with potential investors and, given that the Town play in red, I wouldn't be surprised if the investment comes from the Far East and the currency bandied around the club is the Chinese Yuan. With China emerging as the economic superpower to rival the USA, that's where I would be looking for a new owner. Oriental companies want exposure in the West and attaching your business' identity to a sporting franchise gives valuable advertising and an affirmation that your company has hit the world's stage.

The declaration that Swindon town may have to go into administration is, using poker parlance, a bluff on the part of Andrew Black. As stated on the Swindon Advertiser website, there are interested parties jockeying for position; Andrew Black has stated the dreaded "A" word in order to get them to hurry up and force their hand.

Related articles

• For Sale - One (Recent) Careful Owner!
• Swindon consider administration
• Swindon ponder administration

Is it Back Me or Sack Me at Swindon Town?

Like most Football League managers, Paolo Di Canio holds a pre-match press conference on the Thursday before Saturday's game. This usually allows him time to convey his thoughts in an English vernacular that he has obviously picked up during his time as a footballer, plying his trade both in England and Scotland, rather than as a student in a classroom learning how to conjugate verbs. The resulting transcript may sometimes have to be read two or three times before the gist of what was said comes through. Other times, the diatribe that the Roman produces as he fulminates on the latest issue that has got his goat needs no explanation; whether his statement needs translating or not, an annoyed Paolo Di Canio is a spectacle worth watching and listening to!

New Swindon Town Chairman,
Sir William Patey

"Oh, b******s!"

This was fine and dandy when all was right in the world of SN1 and Jeremy Wray was the Chairman of Swindon Town. Supporters of the club could listen to the Thursday rant and know that Mr. Wray was there to take Paolo to one side after his meeting with the hacks and calm him down with a soothing word or two in the fiery Italian's ear. Now in Sir William Patey there is a new Chairman at the foremost club in Wiltshire and a stricter regime in the boardroom. This is what makes this week's railing at the internal politics within the County Ground a little more disconcerting. Not since Glen Hoddle's tenure as manager has Swindon Town had someone whose own ambition has been the catalyst for success, dragging the team kicking and screaming along with him. League One consolidation may be the official aim of the club for this season, but for someone like Paolo Di Canio, a student of Bushido, continuing the momentum from the success of his first season as manager of Swindon Town and achieving back to back promotions is the one and only goal for this year.

So, the report in the Swindon Advertiser today makes for unnerving reading. (Adver Report - Di Canio's 20 Minute Rant). The team are in a healthy position in the league going into the Christmas fixtures and it is imperative that Paolo Di Canio is in place to steer them through what can be a difficult time in the season. However, reading the news item, it would seem that the Swindon Town manager could be having a crisis of conscience, his own ambitions seemingly at odds with the directions he is being given by the board. Hopefully, all will be resolved as soon as possible at SN1, but, unfortunately, there is no longer the sage advice of Jeremy Wray to counter the emotional outburst from the already managerial legend that is Paolo Di Canio.