Swindon Town Rumour Rater: Bogle or Bogus?

The first week of the 2017 January transfer window has almost passed and Total Sport have taken the time to rate the rumours regarding Swindon Town.

Poor form for Swindon that sees them perched narrowly above the League One relegation zones has induced angst and frustration amongst its fanbase.

This has not been lowered by the lack of transfer activity thus far, with not one face making its way through the doors of the County Ground since the turn of the year.

On Monday, following Swindon's 0-0 draw with Southend, head coach Luke Williams said he was "very confident" of having new signings in place for Saturday's (tomorrow's) game against Shrewsbury but at the time of writing no such thing has occured.

Despite no-one putting pen-to-paper at Town yet, a few names have been linked with a move and we have rated the likeliness of each one out of ten.

1) Omar Bogle (Grimsby Town) 

Scoring 18 goals in 23 games for a newly-promoted side is going to get you noticed and, unfortunately for Grimsby, interest from other clubs.

One of these is Swindon, apparently, but does it come from a reliable source? Not quite. 

"EFL Transfer News", a Twitter account with 123 followers, is the outlet of which the 'story' originated has only been tweeting regularly since Sunday and the one pre-January transfer deal they 'reported' did not come to fruition.

Add this to the fact that Rotherham, in the Championship, have had a £350,000 bid rejected (Football League Paper), it seems even more unlikely that Bogle would leave the Mariners for a struggling side in the division below a club that Grimsby are not keen to sell to.

The title of this article is dedicated to Bogle but this one is going down as a bogus rumour.

Rating: 1/10 

2) Nicky Ajose (Charlton Athletic)

It is undeniable that this season Swindon have failed to fill a Nicky Ajose-shaped hole in their squad.

When the Manchester United trainee departed for Charlton in the summer for a reported £800,000 fans in Wiltshire were worried and it turns out rightly so with replacements Luke Norris and Nathan Delfouneso only managing seven goals between them in all competitions so far.

Ajose is not enjoying life at Charlton, that much is true, with seven goals but regardless he is Charlton's second-top goalscorer this season so they would be foolish to let him go.

Add to that the source of the rumour - "SkyBetLeague1" (a Twitter account with 1,145 followers this time) could quite easily have pinpointed 'unsettled striker' and 'former club' and generated false hope for those that crave it in the winter window.

Coventry, a team even worse off than Swindon, are linked too with Russell Slade their current manager having been the one that took Ajose to the Valley wanting to work with him again.

The fact that Swindon are in a better position than the Sky Blues gives this one a bit more traction than Bogle, but not much more.

Rating: 3/10

3) Ricky Miller (Dover Athletic)

Keeping with the theme of strikers, given that Town are so desperate for them, the next one rumoured is Ricky Miller of Dover.

This is another one born by "SkyBetLeague1" and with good reason given that a number of teams in the division have had genuine links with the forward.

Peterborough, Millwall and Gillingham have all been banded about with Miller and Swindon have somewhat of a penchant for picking up non-league talent.

His manager, Chris Kinnear, "hasn't got a clue" whether Miller will stay or go and we do not know if Swindon are a likely suitor either so we will sit on the fence with this one.

Rating: 5/10

4) Ben Gladwin (Queens Park Rangers)

Less of a rumour this one, more a case of fans putting two and two together, but are supporters getting four or five from that sum?

After recalling Michael Doughty from his loan early QPR have added a centre midfielder to their ranks which does not bode well for Gladwin's future with the Hoops considering he cannot get into the side as it is.

Gladwin has not made a single appearances in the Blue and White of the Rs this campaign and since his 2013 move to Loftus Road he has been loaned out twice, to Swindon and Bristol City, after the former sold him to the West Londoners.

Will Swindon really want to sign the 24-year-old for a THIRD time though? Remains to be seen.

Rating: 5/10 

5) Dorian Dessoleil (Sporting Charleroi)

Saving the best until last? It is the one most out of left-field, anyway.

"SkyBetLeague1" are at it again linking Town with a move for the probably mostly unknown six-foot-two Belgian defender who has a whole one line of Wikipedia page to his name.

The sheer randomness of this one makes it interesting. If the Twitter account has made the story up, why Dessoleil? Why Swindon? How do they even know who Dessoleil is?

For that reason, and that alone, he gets a high-ish number.

Rating: 6/10