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The
plight of Swindon Town
It's difficult to believe that only 7 years ago
Swindon Town were promoted to the Premier League for the first time in their history.
Especially when you consider that the club are now struggling for survival, are enduring several board room bust ups and have no money to purchase players.
For as long as I can remember (About 15 years as a supporter) Swindon have always been a selling club.
Never really earning the big money that is needed to do really well.
But times now are extremely hard, and the club struggles to even sign a player for cash.
Being forced instead to sign players on free transfers.
The plight of Swindon Town has not happened just over the past 3 or 4 years, as many outside of
Swindon seem to think, but trouble started as early as 1989.
Ex chairman Brian Hillier made such a mess of the club that the club were demoted from the old first division back in 1990, after securing promotion after a 1-0 win at
Wembley against Sunderland.
At that time Swindon had a damn good squad, maybe not as good as the likes of the mid table sides at the time, but
I and many Swindon fans believed that we had a squad then, capable of surviving the top division.
Unfortunately the authorities deemed that the actions of Hillier, and then manager
Lou Macari betting against his own team in an FA cup tie a year earlier, warranted the punishment of a demotion of two divisions.
The only saving grace for Swindon was that the club were later re-installed back to division 2.
That decision started a chain of events which now sees Swindon Town struggling for their future.
And the decision by the authorities left a nasty taste in the mouth of everyone connected to the club, especially after seeing the likes of
Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur not being given the same punishment for similar offences.
Swindon Town earned promotion again just 2 years later, but the damage had already been done.
The club had already lost the majority of the original promotion squad from 2 years earlier and we had lost manager Ossie Ardilies.
Although we had a very good manager in Glenn Hoddle and a fine squad, it was clear to see that Hoddle was only using Swindon as a stepping stone to greater things, and many of the players were either ageing or like Hoddle, using the club as a stepping stone to greater things.
Losing Hoddle at the beginning of the clubs Premiership season was a massive dent, and with 3 key players also moving from the club Swindon never had a chance in the top flight.
Relegation was almost inevitable from October onwards, and despite being
labeled as one of the best footballing sides in the top flight, the club suffered immediate relegation back to the 1st division.
Many other top players left the club after this set back, and since that day Swindon have never recovered. Although the rot had begun to set in almost 3 years earlier.
Swindon are now struggling in the lower depths of the 2nd division. With the off the field struggles and little cash, the future now looks extremely bleak for the club.
This is an extremely difficult situation for Swindon Town fans to take, especially when you look at the big name managers the club have attracted over the past 15 years. Lou Macari, Ossie Ardiles, Glenn Hoddle, John Gorman, Steve McMahon and now Roy Evans.
It's strange to see the club struggling so badly, despite attracting some big names in football. But with the club losing money all the time there seems no way out of the trouble.
Copyright - Kevin Porter 2003 |
