Football Season Guide

Swindon's 2013/14 campaign was remarkably good, given that the Robins managed to fight for a play-off place despite losing the core of their squad over the summer. Mark Cooper received a lot of praise for the work he did with the Robins in the previous season, and the promising manager will need to produce his magic once again in order for Swindon to have a decent league campaign, after they had another underwhelming summer transfer window. They main blow the Robins suffered during the summer was the departure of Alex Pritchard, who was their arguably best player last season, who departed to return to parent club Tottenham. The Robins were always going to struggle to keep hold of the talented attacking midfielder for another year, but the problem is that they did absolutely nothing to compensate for his departure - and this was hardly a surprise, given that it is well-known that the club's financial situation is far from good, and that there have been budget cuts over the summer. Due to that fact, Cooper, who has not signed a single player of proven League One quality during the summer, will be expected to heavily utilize the loan market in a bid to strengthen his threadbare squad. Derby County defender Josh Lelan has already signed on a one-month loan, and the Robins are expected to add two or three more loanees to their ranks before the season kicks off. It needs to be noted that the length of the list of players who left the Robins is somewhat deceptive, as nearly all the players who left hardly featured last season, either due to injury problems or due to simply being out of favour. However, the likes of Jay McEveley and Troy Arcibald-Henville did play their roles last season, and their departures leave the Robins short in numbers and proven quality at the back.