THE departure of youngsters Tom Smith and Jake Evans on loan to League of Ireland side Waterford this week would, under normal circumstances, have been the most innocuous of football transactions.

A couple of young players, on the fringe of first team action at the County Ground, broadening their career wings with the opportunity to play at least half-a-season in a competitive national division was, on the face of it, a positive move for all concerned.

It should at least have been little surprise, given Town chairman Lee Power’s acquiring of the Blues last year, with his prior comments on mutually beneficial co-operation between the two clubs being explored, or indeed the visit of Waterford director of football Pat Fenlon to cast his eye over a Town development game last month.

It was similarly unsurprising that the duo’s excursion across the Irish Sea was met by some with disappointment, frustration and a degree of suspicion, what with the young pair being out-of-contract come the end of the current English domestic campaign, the current travails of the team in League One and the some-might-say opaque nature of Power’s future plans for both Waterford and, more pertinently, Swindon Town.

Such is the febrile atmosphere that has largely enveloped the club in recent times, even the professional development of two promising 18-year-old footballers could get sucked into the conflicting vortex of emotions and wider arguments created by the club’s current plight.

True, many of Swindon’s more heralded performers haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory in recent weeks and months, and urgently need to step it up a level.

Yet in reality, the likelihood of Smith supplanting either Rohan Ince – on whose shoulders the survival hopes of a sizeable section of Town’s fanbase have been placed – or 18-times capped Yaser Kasim, notwithstanding his less-than-stellar displays this season, in the key defensive midfield position must realistically have been remote.

Evans, in an area of the pitch in which Luke Williams possesses a plethora of options, would likely have found it similarly tough going.

And the idea that two teenagers, possessing just 12 club appearances between them, could have delivered the magic answers to Town’s woes, amid an increasingly desperate battle against the drop, is surely wishful thinking at best.

One was reminded of Miles Storey, the promising young striker many felt was not given enough of a run at the County Ground, whose reputation and abilities seemed to grow in some quarters with each passing day, even after it was clear his Wiltshire stay was drawing to a close.

Yes, the longer-term County Ground futures of Smith and Evans remain unclear. They could yet prove to be home-produced gems, pressed into regular Town service in the future, or join the ranks of those promising starlets who have previously departed the club.

And we are yet to discover whether the ‘link’ with Waterford forged by the chairman is a two-way street, potentially opening the door to a new stream of talent from which Town could benefit.

But, from a developmental point of view at least, the Irish adventure of Smith and Evans surely makes some sort of sense.