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Power will only buy for right price, despite loan alterations

Swindon Town chairman Lee Power will continue to conduct his transfer business in the usual way, looking to the football league to develop his Robins team ahead of the 2016/17 season, only delving into the international market where necessary, he recently admitted.

With the revamped loan system coming into play in English football as from next season, club teams will now be required to retain a greater number of full time players on their books, in a bid to prevent teams becoming overly reliant on loan deals.

As is common place in lower leagues, many clubs flesh out their squads with the use of loanee acquisitions. But now, faced with these changes, Town chairman Lee Power has admitted he will still conduct his business in the usual way, and will look to purchase players only if the price is right.

Speaking recently on a BBC Wiltshire fans' phone in, Power addressed supporters' concerns about how the club would conduct their summer activity, in a window where permanent signings will be required.

"If the right player becomes available, like I have done in the past, i'll always go and buy the right person. If it's the right money and the right  deal for the football club," Power began.

"Obviously we have got targets that we're looking at, but especially at our level there isn't too many teams who do pay fees. I don't know what the stats are but I think since Martin (Ling) we have spent money I believe on transfer fees to demonstrate we would go for the right player if he became available."

Power however admitted he would not stray from his personal policy of firm negotiation and economical spending.

"I think everyone in the football world knows that I won't be paying over the odds and like to drive a hard bargain, that's my job. But if the right player was there that's what we'll be doing, but you have to be clever and you do have to use that loan market like everyone else has done," Power explained.

Addressing a fan's concern about the risk of gamble aquisitions of unknown foreign signings, Power admitted an element of risk is always involved, reciprocating the caller's use of the phrase 'punt'. Using case examples of underwhelming signings Henrik Ojamaa and Mo Bangoura, Power explained:

"I think there is a 'punt' for every player that you bring in. You can only study what you see in front of you when you go and watch them.

"You can't get everything right unfortunately. We try to, but it doesn't work like that. I'm sure there's going to be many more who come in who don't fit the bill or aren't up to scratch - that's football. 

"What we can try and do is get more right than we do wrong and I think we've done that since I've been at the football club. 

For those two players (Ojamaa and Bangoura) for different reasons it didn't work out for them. Of course it is difficult and at certain times maybe Ojamaa was a bit last minute, because the difficulty is you're working on deals all the time and you think you're going to get a deal done and then you get let down at the last minute and you've still got a space to fill. 

"It's quite difficult. It's a bit of a jungle, football, and it's quite hard to navigate."

When posited the club's potential intentions to once again explore the foreign market, Power conceded he would much rather stay within the Football League itself to discover talent.

"It's not a market generally at our level that you want to use if you don't have to, to be honest. I'd rather go into the non-league. Players like James (Brophy) or Rafa (Rossi-Branco) who we've had for a while. I'd rather drop down to that level," said Power.

"Peterborough do it very well, have made millions of pounds and have had very successful teams by going into that market. 

"The international market is normally used by Championship or Premier League teams. I'm blessed in some ways that some of the biggest agents in world football are close friends of mine, so i'm lucky enough that I can use their contacts and they'll know how to go into that market.

"But obviously it's very difficult because we're going into it at a low level so it's not generally something we'd like to do and it won't be something we'll be flooding the team with anyway, that's for sure," he added.

Who do you think Swindon Town should be in the market for this summer? Let us know your views in the comment section below:

 

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