Something was bound to go wrong wasn’t it? It was all going to well for Paulo and his band of merry men.
Swindon Town have been hit with a transfer embargo due to overspending on wages and fees.
Now this sounds very Leeds United and people will say ‘Good! Make an example of them!’ however it feels like Town have been done a little bit…
They have overspent and have broken the Financial Fair Play rules, where clubs must limit wages and fee’s to 65% of their turnover, but they have done by a mere by 1.5%. The reason for this is slightly out of their control also…
This came about because a tribunal demanded that they pay £340,000 up front for the aquisition of 2 players last summer (James Collins and Troy Archibald-Henville). Slightly unfair as Town we not under the impression that they had to fork out up front for the duties of both of these players.
Had they paid the sum in 2 installments, as they initially understood, then Town would have been well within the budget set by the FFP rules. Also had we still been in the Transfer window now, they could offload a player or two to combat the wage and fee rise in order to deal with this issue.
As it happens, we aren’t and they’ve now got a transfer embargo upon them.
So what does this mean for their Double Promotion hopes? Well, nothing just yet… however as the season goes on and the injuries mount up, Town could see their hopes fade away should they struggle to field their most competetive side. A competetive side can come by way of buying and selling in the Winter market – that of course Swindon will be prohibited from enjoying.
What about the bigger picture? Does this mean that PDC will move on if a bigger club comes calling and Swindon have fallen short?
Who knows. As far as we can see, he’s respectful to the club and has always said that he will honour his contracts. Good for Town fans, however we’ve seen it all before in Football – for example there is a photo of Robin Van Persie in his Arsenal decked bedroom with a shirt on saying #1 fan. Money talks…
All that matters is that right now, the Town are in a fantastic position to go on up to the Championship. They’ve got Villa at home in the cup at the end of the Month and they’ve got a fantastic manager who is getting the best out of a terrific group of players.
Let’s just hope the journey continues.
Red Army!
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