The end is nigh…Austin set to leave Swindon Town
from swindontownfc.co.uk
Is news today that Charlie Austin has allegedly handed in a written transfer request a shock to the Town faithful?
With Town hovering just above the League One relegation zone and finally resigned to not challenging for promotion, the downturn in the on the field fortunes of the club has been dramatic to say the least. As a result, Austin has lost the only reason to stay at Swindon Town until the end of the season.
We hear so often from many former professional footballers that a footballer’s career is so short and you’ve got to grasp the opportunity.
Well, 18 months ago Austin was dreaming, not living the dream. Working as a brickie and scoring goals for fun at Wessex League Poole Town at level 9 in the English National League System.
His journey to The County Ground started after being rejected as a youngster at Reading, leaving Austin outcast and playing in the lower echelons of non-league football at Thatcham Town, Kintbury Rangers, Hungerford Town and finally Poole Town from 2004 to October 2009.
After seizing a first team place, exceeding all expectations with a series of impressive performances culminating in 31 goals in 52 appearances in all competitions for Town, Austin has become one of the hottest properties outside of the Championship.
Given his early rejection and grounding in the non-league, he knows better than any footballer to seize the moment to grasp the chance to ply his trade at a higher level. He isn’t going to miss this opportunity and I wouldn’t expect anything different of him.
Again, like Morrison I don’t want to see our most promising youngsters leave the club, but I can’t deny the inevitable with Austin, he’s made a fantastic contribution to the club and fully deserves his shot at the big time as we can’t offer him this career progression. I hope he goes onto prove what a great goal scorer he is and makes a real impact in the Championship and hopefully fulfils the dream of Premier League football.
It’s now up to Fitton to ensure we get the best deal. A deal I hope will include the arrival of quality players on loan until the end of the season to ensure we don’t drop into League Two.
As I’ve probably seen you for the last time against Yeovil on Saturday…thanks for the goals Charlie and all the best for the future….although you could’ve scored against Millwall at Wembley 😉
The Washbag 
Whilst I am not naive enough to think that a talent like Charlie Austin is going to remain with us forever, I don’t think that I am out of order for feeling disappointed that he seemingly thinks it beneath him to stay until the end of this season and help us out of a rather big hole that we are currently in.
If he did so, surely virtually everyone is a winner? Swindon retain the services of their star player just long enough to stay up, Charlie advertises his pedigree to teams rather better than those that are currently interested in him and importantly, the clubs he might potentially end up at see him as someone who conducts himself with a touch of class, rather than as a mercenary who jumps ship at the first opportunity.
The summer transfer window is the one where genuinely big fish will come in for him and he would go with the genuine blessing of the majority of Swindon fans – like Simon Cox did when he went to West Brom.
The way Charlie currently seems to be going about things is grubby, ungrateful and rather underhand in my view and I honestly think we deserve better.
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I agree with both above! I can see both points of veiw, it is a shame we could’nt hold on to him and i honestly think he would have stayed if we were the other end of the table. However its not happen the club and the fans must move on quickly. We needed strengthening before this news and now even more. We now face a relegation battle for the second half of the season, Fitton and Wilson need to get players in now. Our others stikers are not good enough, despite their best efforts.
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A while ago there was much talk about an agreement between Austin and the Town hierarchy that he would be allowed to leave STFC in the Summer if we were still in with a shout of a promotion. Whether this is true or not I don’t know, but given the strong likelihood he would leave, I’d be shocked if plans were not progressed for a replacement(s).
I’m still very confident we can avoid relegation as this squad still has the quality. I still have trust in Wilson, and Douglas on the pitch, to inspire the players to put in some great performances and get us out of this potential mess.
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