A SENSE of déjà vu has surrounded the County Ground in 2017 as both home games have left many feeling apathy for the four months left of this campaign.

It’s sad to hear many Town fans saying that this season is the most passionless, uncreative, sleep-inducing football they’ve ever come across at the club, and it’s hard to disagree.

If the style of football on show was producing results, then fans would be more welcoming, but with Town sitting down in 19th in the League One table and the season now beyond the halfway point, something has to change, starting with at least half a dozen new signings arriving this month.

On Tuesday, it was great to see a familiar face back as Ben Gladwin returned to start his third spell under a third different manager.

After signing with Town from non-league football in November 2013, Gladwin looked a big prospect and so it turned out as in his first full professional season as part of a great Town team, he looked a different class to his opponents, which lead to a big move to Championship side Queens Park Rangers.

But after failing to break into the Rangers first team, Gladwin returned last season on loan under Martin Ling and showed glimpses of his talent but never looked the same player who had won games almost single-handedly just six months previously.

The big question is, which player has returned to Swindon on this occasion?

He has big shoes to fill in replacing Michael Doughty’s talent in midfield. Hopefully the challenge of lifting this failing side will see him return to the player we all know he can be.

If chairman Lee Power is aiming for players he knows he can trust to play his brand of football, he should try and re-sign Jack Stephens from Southampton, as the centre back would be the perfect addition to help fix Town’s creaky defence.

But it seems Town fans will have to be patience over the next few weeks as news of new transfers is painfully slow, but supporters won’t mind the wait as long as Power and Tim Sherwood can come up with some names to give the entire club the lift it most desperately needs after a lifeless start to 2017.

Follow me on Twitter @danwjonson

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