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Swindon Town's FLW fan pundit outlines his hopes for the club in the upcoming off-season

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Sitting 11 points behind the top seven, it would take a remarkable late play-off push for Swindon Town to be in with a chance of promotion from League Two this season.

And with no threat of relegation, being 18 points ahead of the bottom two, Robins fans are understandably looking ahead to how their club can improve ahead of a fourth successive season in the fourth tier.

Since Ian Holloway took over at the County Ground in October, Swindon hold the tenth-best record in League Two. Clearly, there is reason to be hopeful ahead of the 2025/26 season if they keep the 62-year-old in charge alongside a squad who are willing to play his way.

That's one of the views of FLW's Swindon Town fan pundit, Ciaran Daniel, at least. But, if there were to be any changes in the side over the off-season, he wouldn't mind his side dipping into non-league to develop a hidden gem.

Swindon Town should repeat Charlie Austin transfer strategy, according to fan pundit

When speaking to FLW about what he feels Swindon Town should do in the summer transfer window, Ciaran said: "I want us to pluck a potential star from non-league who we can develop and fall in love with.

"I'd like us to take a leap and find someone from the National league, National League South or even below [...] find the next Charlie Austin, Jamie Vardy or someone similar."

Charlie Austin got his first break in the EFL at Swindon Town after playing in non-league for the likes of Kintbury Rangers and Poole Town. His goalscoring exploits at Swindon saw him kickstart a career which would see him make over 100 Premier League appearances.

Ciaran feels that this strategy would align with Ian Holloway's plans to develop stars who will remain at the club for years to come, rather than taking in players on loan from leagues above.

"I feel Holloway is the kind of man who would go for someone in non-league. He's old school and doesn't always believe in under-21 players," he explained.

"As much as loans are good, and you can get some good talent from them, you only have them for a season and I think that that damages clubs in the long term.

"I want someone who will be ours for two to three seasons, and then we can shape them into a player who could potentially become a club legend."

Consistency is the main key for Swindon Town this summer

However, whilst Ciaran believes that a few upgrades will be needed for the squad to challenge at the top of League Two, he stressed that the main factor in determining whether Swindon Town will be up there come May 2026 will be whether the majority of the squad can stay at the County Ground after the culmination of the current season.

"It feels ever since our owner, Clen Morfuni, came in, we've been unstable with managers and the squad usually changes every season as the new manager wants to put his stamp on things," he explained.

"We're not finishing in the best of positions this year, but if we had Holloway for a full season, I think we would probably finish in the play-offs, so this team is good enough and a few tweaks and quality additions could see us challenging for the automatics too."

All-in-all, 20 players have come through the door this season at Swindon Town. Ideally, that number would be a lot lower next season, according to Ciaran.

"We don't need wholesale changes. Maybe four or five fringe players out of the door. The groups showed that they would run through brick walls for Holloway and if too many key players left then that will disrupt us yet again and we'll have a similar start to this season.

"If we keep the squad together, get quality business done early and hit the ground running in August, we will get a foothold in this league and hopefully storm it."