As Swindon Town into the 2024/25 season, let’s look back at some of the exciting stories that you can still read with a subscription to the Swindon Advertiser.
With a subscription to The Adver, you have access to so much more exciting content produced by the team of local journalists along with getting rid of adverts. Whilst some of this is cutting-edge breaking stories, there are plenty of timeless pieces about Swindon Town that you can go back and enjoy if you have previously missed out.
Misun Persons Report: The transfer that never happened
Czech defender Milan Misun
One of these was “Misun Persons Report: The transfer that never happened”, a true-crime spoof that looked at Swindon’s January 2010 pursuit to sign Czech defender Milan Misun from Celtic.
It is time to get in the game for the new season!
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Speaking to former chairman Andrew Fitton and goalkeeper Phil Smith, the tale of this mystery of Swindon's past was finally solved.
The story looks through the prism of the disarray that occurred throughout the whole season, with Fitton and Smith reflecting on how the team went from one bobble away from the Championship to relegation to League Two and how that can be seen through the pursuit of the mysterious Misun.
Di Canio's Punishing Preseasons
Another tale like this was unpacking Paolo Di Canio’s legendarily difficult pre-seasons. Many players have spoken about the travails they went through under the mad-cap Italian manager, especially with how he looked to get them fit before the season kicked off.
The Adver spoke to midfielder Jonathan Smith to try and get the players' side of this story but also spoke to current Saudi Arabia fitness coach and Di Canio’s former Head of Fitness and Performance Claudio Donatelli about what informed those decisions and the method behind the madness.
The story behind the worst season in Swindon Town's history
In the entire history of Swindon Town Football Club, at the time, had ever finished lower than 17th place in the fourth tier, which they managed in 1983/84, the season now known as “The Beamish Line”.
Much like Sheffield United doing their best to take Town’s Premier League record of goals conceded, more pages of the club's history books could need updating this summer as the current crop look to make this season a historical one for all the wrong reasons.
But why in the early 1980s, did Swindon reach rock bottom?
Swindon Town Museum historian Dick Mattick provided insight about Swindon’s decline in the decade prior, as well as Alan Mayes and Dave Hockaday giving a players’ perspective as to what went on at the club during that season.
The story reveals a lot of parallels with the current state of the club before Lou Macari was able to come in and galvanise the whole club and take them on a journey that would lead them to the Premier League.
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