Ian Holloway expects to have a large say in Swindon Town’s January recruitment following the departure of Head of Football Jamie Russell this week.

Russell left his role at Swindon this week and is believed to be on his way to Salford City; with just over a month until the start of the January transfer window, this has created a hole within the club’s recruitment strategy.

It has not yet been confirmed whether Swindon plan on directly replacing Russell or intend on handing even more control of transfers to Holloway, with Clem Morfuni not mentioning potential succession in his statement on Russell’s departure.

Speaking about his departure, Holloway said that he believed it was crucial for the manager to have a big role in the acquisition of new players.

He said: “[Do you expect to be in charge of transfers?] I think that is down to Anthony [Hall, CEO] to talk with you about, that is not my brief.

“I have always been used to having a massive say in who comes and who goes in football clubs and I don’t anticipate that being any different even if Jamie was still here.

“If that is a change then it is a change that I did not know was happening, I am only here to try and make things better and I have to roll my sleeves up and make sure that I do.

“Anthony will talk to me about that a bit further down the line but I would have had a big say in that anyway.

“I think that it is absolutely vital that a manager has a say in who comes and who goes and their characters and can guarantee that we have got certain elements and positions to cope with where you are. For me, it is absolutely vital.”

Holloway added that he believes that there is plenty of talent within the squad and that has been shown during the better performances of the campaign, but there are other elements required to have success at this level.

With the position that Swindon find themselves in at present, he believes that the squad needs to be equipped to handle different challenges.

He said: “We have got a fantastic ability to play football and our fans will have seen that when we beat Newport [County] and in the way that we took on Cheltenham [Town].

“Some of the performances have been very good, moving the ball and maybe not in the last third enough but there were some wonderful things.

“The talent that we have got to move and pass the ball is great on a lovely sunny day when you are doing alright and not bottom of the league.

“In reality, we are in the fourth division, which is a horrible, vile, brutal place where the referees will allow you to bully someone and throw them left, right, and centre.

“We have got a footballing team! And it is coming into the middle so winter, so I have got some work to do and it is all about the lads themselves.”