Swindon Town boss Ben Garner admits that the club's transfer window "is not easy" as the club still find themselves under a transfer embargo.
Garner is looking to add to a squad which have lost loan players Kaine Kesler-Hayden, Romoney Crichlow and Alex Gilbert in the past week, with them being recalled by Aston Villa, Huddersfield and Brentford respectively. The Robins face another promotion chasing outfit in Port Vale on Saturday after a 3-2 defeat at Mansfield in midweek, but transfer activity is still ongoing and might not be concluded in time for Saturday's game according to the 41-year old
“I’m not sure if we’ll get anything in by the weekend, it’s all still ongoing,”
“It will just be a case of seeing how that goes as the week progresses.”
Whilst other clubs are free of any restrictions when signing players, the same can't be said for Swindon as they were placed under a transfer embargo in the summer following a breach of five EFL regulations. This means players brought in must be on a free transfer, unregistered to a club or on loan.
“We’re looking at several positions that we want to strengthen, we’re looking to get that done as soon as possible,
“But it’s not an easy window, It’s not an easy window when you’re under an embargo as well so we’ll just keep working away at that and as soon as we can get the players in that we want, we will do.”
Despite the restrictions, Town have added two to the squad in the form of goalkeeper Emmanuel Idem on a free transfer from Derby County and centre-half Jake O'Brien on loan from Crystal Palace.
The Verdict
The window so far has been a struggle for Garner. Losing three loan players and two of them having such impressive seasons in defence, it would always be hard for them to find replacements but then to not have full access to players in the transfer market makes it even tougher. He has at least softened the blow by bringing in O'Brien to fill one of the voids left in defence. As for the rest of the transfer window, the manager has done the right thing and admitted that things will take time, and that they will hopefully bring in some more fresh faces in order to continue challenging at the top end of the League Two table.