Swindon Town Head of Football Jamie Russell explained the approach that he had put in place for signing new players.

The summer transfer window is already in full swing with more than 30 moves in League Two already, and Swindon have added two new faces in Ollie Clarke and Tunmise Sobowale.

Speaking to The Adver, Russell explained the vast amount of work that goes on in Town’s recruitment team as they evaluate potential new signings.

He said: “It has been like starting with a blank canvas and it has been exciting as from January everything has been about this window.

“I think that that has allowed us to be really aggressive within this window, already having targets lined up, knowing where players were in terms of contracts, and building relationships with their agents which has allowed us to get some deals done straight away.

“We have got a watchlist and a shortlist, the watchlist is everyone brain-dumping players and ideas of what could happen, that is the first part.

“It then gets chopped down into a shortlist and that gets put into shapes and formations, so we have three shapes and we will see which players can adapt and play across those and how easily can they do that.

“From that, we will go and get references, we will speak to previous clubs, coaching staffs, managers, and teammates to find out about them as a person and we all help with that, so it wouldn’t be my player or Mark’s [Kennedy] player, it is very much a club player.

“Then after that, we will speak to the agent and see where we can get the best deal and get the player in.”

Russell added that with the difficulties that can come from the transfer window, he was sure to be armed with multiple targets in each position.

He said: “Unfortunately you can’t get every single one of your targets, but for every position, we have three players and then also a possible loan, so if we don’t get A, B, or C then we can always look at the loan.

“Like I said when Mark came here, we want to look at more permanent signings, it is always important to have that, so they know they are our player, and we are developing our player.

“With Mark’s philosophy, he is a developer, so he will be making our players better instead of someone else’s.”