WILL Yaser Kasim be the latest key player from last season’s Swindon Town squad to be exiting from the County Ground?

I wouldn’t begrudge the Iraqi international any move to a higher level; he has been a terrific player for Swindon over two seasons and brought grace and class to what was arguably the best midfield in League One last season.

He admitted in the close season that he was ready for a new challenge and when he saw the side being dismantled around him and lesser players securing good deals at other clubs, he must have been wondering what was going on.

The long-standing rumour that he is off to Brentford won’t go away. Before playing the last half-hour in the 2-0 friendly home defeat to Aston Villa on Tuesday night he was seen deep in conversation with chairman Lee Power in the directors’ box. The caption could have read: ‘I’m a celebrity, get me out of here’.

Historically, pre-season results are not indicative of what is about to happen when the real thing starts on August 8, with the visit of Bradford – which is just as well.

Power has done wonders for fans to attract four Premiership clubs to the County Ground for warm-up games, but so far no goals have been scored against Everton or a Villa side reeling from the recent losses of captain Fabian Delph and Christian Benteke. Visits from West Brom and Liverpool are on the horizon.

Against non-league opposition Town have lost twice (Supermarine and Solihull) and only scrambled past another (Petersfield) with a last-minute winner.

The sort of team reconstruction that sees only Nathan Thompson, Nathan Byrne and Michael Smith of last season’s best XI involved would normally be seen as a two-year project.

When we previously last in the play-offs at Wembley, we were relegated the following season having lost our best striker (Charlie Austin) and best midfielder (Danny Ward).

This time around the exodus has been far more comprehensive.

Anton Rodgers, Drissa Traore, Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill, along with Liverpool loanees Jordan Williams and Kevin Stewart have signed. Are any of them better than the players they are replacing?

The most eyecatching player of the pre-season schedule, Fabian (brother of Laurent) Robert has not so far signed. Perhaps he has to wait until the Kasim wages are freed up.

Mr Power has to find a serious senior goalie (probably on loan) but most of all get a proper striker – even if it blows his budget.

A limited strike force stopped us from getting over the line and into the Championship last season – and we have lost the most prolific of them.

Of course, the sort of difficult questions that fans want asked are off the agenda now that a part-media ban is in place.

BBC Wiltshire’s Shaun Hodgetts breaks the majority of the exclusives around the club by the simple expedient of having developed genuine contacts in the club who are not part of the PR machine.

He is not reliant on search engines for his news.

But the BBC’s relationship at the County Ground is a cosy, some might say toothless one.

Sometimes the boat has to be rocked to get to the bottom of a real story. And excluding other local media outlets like this organ’s sister paper the Swindon Advertiser just gets fans musing: What have Swindon Town got to hide?