SWINDON Town Supporters’ Club chairman Roger Bunce hopes that his club can find the right balance between youth and experience to ensure that they suffer a less turbulent campaign next season.

Following this week’s retained list, 16 players remain contracted with Town until at least 2017, although some of those could move on this summer whilst the likes of Miles Storey and youth product Tom Smith are currently in negotiations over potential new deals.

During the 2015-2016 campaign, Swindon made 12 permanent signings and brought in 10 men on loan, and another summer of comings and goings at the County Ground looks inevitable.

But as Luke Williams assembles his squad for next season under the supervision of chairman Lee Power, Bunce hopes that Town plump for the experience necessary to give themselves a foothold in the higher echelons of League One but without neglecting the youngsters flowering on their own doorstep.

“The chairman calls the shots, so he’ll do things his way, but I hope that we do go for a little bit of experience in the squad,” said Bunce.

“I think that we saw last year the difference someone like Adam El-Abd made – he knew what he was doing, even if his legs didn’t always get him there.

“If you have that experience, then I think it helps to bring the younger lads through.

“The chairman says that he has contacts and we’ve been able to bring in some good players through those contacts.

“Michael Doughty came in and he was a big plus with the way that he scored a few goals and things like that.

“I remember hearing Liam Brady, who was in charge of the youth at Arsenal, saying that they produce players and they’re not all going to be good enough for the first-team and a lot of them will come down to smaller clubs.

“Seton Wills (former Town owner) once said to me that Manchester City’s number five may not be good enough to play for them but that doesn’t mean he can’t be a Swindon player.

“It’s great to be able to sign these players but at the same time, you don’t want to forget about the kids that we’ve got.

“You saw a few of them playing against Shrewsbury in the last game of the season and one of them (Jordan Young) scored a good goal – Shrewsbury weren’t up to it on the day but you sort of think ‘where have they been all season?’.

“Sometimes, some of these kids are gone before we really get to see them, so it would be nice if we could try and bring a few more into the first team.

“It’s also important for the Supporters’ Club because we put in a lot of money to sponsor the youth teams.”