Swindon Town preparing Plan B should loan deals end in January says Wellens

Richie Wellens has revealed that Swindon Town are already preparing replacement options should strikers Jerry Yates and Eoin Doyle be recalled by their parent clubs in the January transfer window. Total Sport Swindon’s Ryan Walker spoke to the STFC manager ahead of this weekends League Two home fixture against Oldham Athletic.

Having scored 28 goals between them this season, Eoin Doyle (18 goals) and Jerry Yates (10 goals) are the divisions top scorers with their goals instrumental in taking Swindon to the top of the league table. 

However, with both players facing the possible re-call decisions of parent clubs Bradford and Rotherham respectively, Swindon face the realistic possibility of losing their potent strike force in the January transfer window. 

Speaking on the issue, Wellens explained that Swindon are eager to keep the dynamic duo but admitted that the club is being sensible by planning for their departures. 

“We have got a number of loan players and we can’t afford the loan players that we have. We just can’t,” said Wellens. 

“If we had to sign those players on permanent deals then we would get nowhere near their wages.

“We’d like to get to January before we start speaking about contracts to players,” he added. 

“Myself, Paul Jewell, and the Chairman [Lee Power] are having daily conversations about certain players. 

“Plan A is to keep all of the loan players, but plan B and C has to be about replacing these players so we are having these conversations more or less on a daily basis.

“We still need more players. There are players out there available in January,” he said. 

“There might not be somewhere out there that has scored twenty goals this season, but is there somewhere out there that we think if they are in our team would they score goals? Yes.

“We’re not going to get a player in who has scored 15+ goals this season. One because the team he’s at aren’t going to let him go, and two because someone at a higher level would then want to take him.

“We’ve got to look at who is a good footballer, who makes the right movement in front of goal, and if he was in our team would he score goals,” said Wellens. 

Swindon also faces the risk of losing over ten of their current first-team players come the end of the season with the likes of Keshi Anderson, Kaiyne Woolery, Dion Conroy, and Lloyd Isgrove all currently having contract expiry dates of June 2020. 

But whilst the STFC manager remains calm about contract extensions, he revealed that the hierarchy at SN1 need to start giving players longer deals as the club attempts to earn promotion.  

“When this club has been on a slow decline, then it’s difficult for the chairman to put their trust in one manager and put their belief in him,” said Wellens. 

“You get situations of do you like this player? Yeh we like him and we should be giving this player a two or three-year contract. The chairman then isn’t sure and gives him a one year deal to see how it goes. 

“We give him the one year deal and if he’s not very good then we have an easy way out, but if he is very good then we have the problem where other teams may come in for him and the transfer price is much smaller because of his contract length,” he said.

“That’s what this club has been like for a number of years but we’re turning it around and it is something we need to look at.

“Players need to be on longer contracts. We have a lot of players who can make the step up to League One very easily. 

“The players that have then come into the club are only on one-year contracts. A lot of the lads have taken their opportunities this season and they need to keep doing so.

“If you bring success to a club then rewards come to every single player,” said Wellens.