What Swindon Town need to do this summer: Part Three

Swindon Town have a big summer ahead of them under new manager Mike Flynn if he is to turn the team into promotion challengers next season. Total Sport’s Joe Acklam looks at the work that needs to be done during the close season.

In the final part of this series looking at Swindon’s summer, having sorted out the current squad and bolstered the defence, we will not be looking at where the midfield and forward line need improvement.

Defensive midfield

Saidou Khan, George McEachran, and Jake Cain have all played at the base of Town’s midfield at various points of last season, but the key thing that the present group of midfielders lack is size, which despite their technical quality, allowed Swindon to get dominated in the middle of the park.

To compliment the current options at the County Ground, Swindon should be looking for a midfield enforcer, in the mould of Rohan Ince.

Although Khan showed himself to have a streak of competitiveness in midfield, which boiled over all too often, the team severely lacked a player capable of being destructive in the middle of the park and allowing the creative quality of the others to shine.

After a brief look through the players who have been released in the EFL, I haven’t found a specific player that was to my liking that Swindon should be looking at, just someone in the mould of a more physical midfielder who can break up play and given the ball to the wing-backs and McEachran to create.

Striker

The presumed shift towards a 352 will see Town move to a front two and Charlie Austin being partnered by either Jacob Wakeling or Rushian Hepburn-Murphy sounds like an exciting proposition.

Instead of looking for a direct replacement for any of those three, like every girl on Love Island, we are exclusively looking for size.

A target man to fill in for Austin when needed seems like a sensible plan, as he is unlikely to be able to play 90 minutes 46 times next season and a front two of Wakeling and Hepburn-Murphy takes away a potential avenue to play longer when necessary.

Two David Flitcroft-era Swindon target men are available following their release from sides promoted from League Two last season, which is not a time you particularly want to run back, but both seem like the kind of player Town could be after.

The obvious former-Swindon alumnus is Luke Norris, but my personal preference is for Harry Smith as I can’t morally suggest that Town sign Norris again.

Smith’s first spell in Wiltshire was not overly successful, although there were many mitigating factors which caused that, and at six foot five, he is very much what I am looking for and after a stint on loan in the National League he may be willing to accept a role as an understudy.

Smith scored 11 goals in the first 20 games of the 2021/22 season for Leyton Orient before his and their season fell off a cliff, prior to falling out of favour after Richie Wellens came in and during the back half of last season he scored seven goals in 12 matches at Barnet.

Town will not need to rely on him for goals, but he has proved to be very effective when he is firing.

In all likelihood none of the seven players I have suggested will be signed by Swindon, but this is the general direction that I think Flynn should be looking in to turn the existing squad into something more suitable to what he is trying to do, as well as filling the holes which existed last season.