THE countdown to Christmas is well and truly on, the party season is up and running, the airwaves are packed with Christmas songs and shopping centres are jam-packed on a daily basis.

But for Swindon Town fans, it’s another day around the festive period that can’t come soon enough, with just 17 days until the January transfer window opens for business.

Once again Town’s frailties at the back made the headlines last weekend as Sheffield United eased to a 4-0 victory after a goalless first half at Bramall Lane.

It’s now clear, after the appointment of Tim Sherwood, that it isn’t the standard of coaching that’s the issue - it’s a lack of quality in playing personnel.

Some fans have questioned Luke Williams’ ability as a coach since taking over in a more managerial capacity, after previously focusing solely on coaching Town under Mark Cooper.

It seems some have forgotten how much he was hailed as the genius behind the scenes under Cooper, playing a huge role in taking Swindon to the play-off final in 2015.

Now we have a new set of eyes at training in Sherwood, who has been coaching the players alongside Williams and Ross Embleton and still we make the same mistakes, proving our backline and our covering midfielders need a more experienced head at the back.

The sooner Sherwood gets a hold of Lee Power’s chequebook in January, the more chance we can salvage something positive from this season.

It seems Sherwood’s role at Swindon is still confusing many people.

Judging from his comments at his unveiling, Sherwood is in charge, the man with the final say.

Yet you wouldn’t have thought he was in control, judging by the amount of times we’ve heard from our ‘director of football.’ It’s strange that supporters haven’t heard a single word from Sherwood since his appointment.

I’s an odd situation for any fan to have to say that he wants to hear more from the guy who, in all but name, is the manager and has the final say on all team affairs at the club.

Follow me on Twitter @danwjonson

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Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here