Aiden Flint moving from Bristol City to Middlesbrough means a windfall of at least £1m for Swindon Town. That and the appointment of Matt Taylor as player/coach for next season are the only bright spots so far in a very quiet close season, writes Peter Mitchell.

There is disappointment with Matt Preston siding with David Flitcroft at Mansfield Town - we should have had a deal tied up with him long before last season’s end - and also the departures of Paul Mullin and Luke Norris, albeit for fees, leaves us very light up front.

Town’s priority now must be to get good replacement strikers and 2-3 central defenders. However, once again, it looks like they will be picking from the players that have nowhere else to go.

With youngster Joe Romanski taking a long time before signing up, and both McGivern and Moore declining their offers, one has the impression that Town won’t be one of the exceptional payers in League Two next season.

The sole permanent signing to date is wide man Jermaine McGlashan, taken on after being released by Southend. I recall seeing him several times when he turned out for Cheltenham. He had the pace without doubt. Swindon have signed promising youngster Steve Alzate from Brighton on a season-long loan – but he only has limited experience with Leyton Orient The appointment of coach Neil McDonald is interesting, and Town will now have a glut of qualified tacticians to keep them on track.

Phil Brown talks a good game, but he’ll need to really step up and do some serious persuading if he’s going to assemble a decent challenging squad in the next four weeks. One wonders if they have their priorities right in that they are off to Spain for some “warm weather training” – I should have thought they could have got plenty of that around here at the moment - and saved a bit of money! I expect it will be for what everyone is so fond of calling “bonding” – which might be needed with the number of new faces that hopefully will be arriving soon.

Town’s opening pre-season game will be at the Corinium Stadium on Wednesday (4th July), but it will be a very make shift side judging by the squad assembled to date. If you’re going along, take your boots as they may be glad of you! Subsequent friendlies against both WBA and Portsmouth will be the ones where a more considered assessment can be made.

Looking down next season’s fixture list there’s not a lot to whet the appetite – however who really cares provided the Town have a good season and romp into League One. Two early games against local rivals Forest Green Rovers are ones that catch the eye.

Sad news that former star Ernie Hunt has passed away aged 75 years. I remember our Walking Football team chatting to Mike Summerbee in Manchester last season and he informed us then of Ernie’s very poor state of health. Wonderful player who rarely came out of a tackle without the ball and whose passing was phenomenal. My most bizarre memory of Ernie was watching a League Cup match in torrential rain against Shrewsbury when he, aged just 17, took a spot kick at the Town End that didn’t even reach the goal line because of the puddles around the six-yard box – they wouldn’t have even started that game these days.