Dan the Fan: What a season - but the next will be even tougher

At the start of the season promotion was the target and that was achieved with style over the past year.

Like every season there have been some highs and some lows but when people look back on the 2011/12 season it will be remembered for a certain man’s first year in football management.

Everyone involved at Swindon and who supports the club understood that appointing Paolo Di Canio was a risk a year ago.

Looking back to earlier in the season it didn’t look to good, but the club and the fans stayed behind Paolo and what he was trying to achieve and eventually it did pay off.

The squad went from strength to strength playing some of the best football I’ve seen at the County Ground.

The stats speak for themselves over the season, 93 points earned, only conceding 8 league goals at the County Ground, in-between October 8th and March 3rd the club only lost one game out of 21 played in the league, which included beating Premier League side Wigan in the F.A Cup.

Whatever happens with Paolo Di Canio in the future, he’ll always be a cult hero at the County Ground after just one season, and that tells you everything about the man, but I still think this is just the start of the Di Canio era at Swindon.

When it came to choosing my player of the season it was like thinking about Oxford finishing 9th this season and not laughing, nearly impossible.

There are at least 5 or 6 players that I could of chosen from, but eventually I went for Paul Caddis, closely followed by Alan McCormack and Matt Ritchie.

I’ve gone for Paul because in every area of the pitch he’s involved in weather its defending, bringing the ball forward or captaining the side, he’s been outstanding in every department this season.

The playing relationship developed with Matt Ritchie and Simon Ferry over this season has been key to a lot of the goals scored, and when Caddis was absent from that triangle of play it was painfully obvious.

The club knows interest in Paul over the summer from League One and Championship clubs will be relentless, and other key players, but if we want to have any success next season keeping players like Paul Caddis will be vital.

Looking forward to next season, Paolo Di Canio will find a much better league in every area of the pitch in League One compared to his first year in League Two.

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As Swindon Town fans, we’ve been watching League One football for the majority of the past decade of the clubs history, and after watching League Two football this season the gap is a lot bigger than I initially thought.

If you need any evidence of that look at the top of League One this season, Sheffield Utd finished with 90 points and still didn’t make it into the top two places in the division.

And when you add Coventry, Portsmouth, Doncaster, Preston and possibly Sheffield Utd, Huddersfield or MK Dons you know trying to earn a playoff spot or automatic promotion for next season will be a tough job for Di Canio and his team.

You get the sense from Paolo already that he knows how big the job is going to be next season already, in any recent interview he has mentioned the fact that the board will have to back him 100% in the transfer market if they want the club to succeed.

And it’s encouraging for a Swindon fan to see Chairman Jeremy Wray coming out in the press and fully backing Di Canio with his transfers this summer.

If I were Paolo this summer I would look to sign Jay McEveley and Lee Holmes on permanent deals after successful loan deals this season.

The squad still needs another centre back to make sure there is top quality competition for Aden Flint, Alan McCormack and Joe Devera.

Simon Ferry will need a ball winning, tough tackling midfield partner going into League One to partner him, Jonathan Smith did a good job this season but I’m not sure he’s the man going forward.

Also extra competition will be needed on the wings to support Matt Richie, Luke Rooney and Lee Holmes.

But the area that will need the most attention is our the front men, Paul Benson was never given a proper chance when he was at Charlton, and I hope Swindon will give him that chance next season.

Alan Connell is a good striker but I don’t think he’s a 20 goals a season man in League One, that’s where I think most of Di Canio’s transfer budget will be spent over the summer.

Lewis Grabban, Marc Richards, Izale McLeod are just a few of the strikers that Town could go for over the summer with them possibly looking for a way out of League Two.

I’d also have a look at the young side Crewe Alexandra have built up this season all over the pitch, players like Nick Powell, AJ Leitch-Smith, Luke Murphy, Shaun Miller and Adam Dugdale could all add quality to our side for next season.

I could also see Di Canio looking back into the Blue Square Premier again like last summer, and possibly trying to sign Jamie Vardy or Liam Hearn.

With some stories already in the media about Town being interested in certain players, we know it’s going to be a busy summer at the County Ground.

And for us to repeat the success of this past season again in League One, it’ll need to be.

And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @danjohnson_stfc

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