Town have confirmed that defender Luke Woolfenden has joined Swindon on a season-long loan, as TWTD revealed earlier this evening.

The 19-year-old says manager Phil Brown was a big reason for him making the switch to the Robins.

“When Phil Brown first rang me I said, 'I know who he is, he’s worked in the Premier League', so that was a huge draw for me,” he told the Swindon official site.

“I was comfortable at that level, in the National League, so I think I’m more than ready to make the step up to League Two.”

Brown added: "I’ve been chasing him for six weeks now. He was recommended to me by Mick McCarthy.

"He said in a heartbeat that we should take the lad, Luke. That’s a great recommendation.

“As well as that, Ben Chorley played alongside him last season at Bromley and swears by his character. He can play centre-half and other positions which is exactly what we’ve wanted.

“I’m absolutely delighted to get hold of a top player but it shows just what a crazy transfer window this has been that I’ve been chasing him for six weeks and only got him five minutes before the deadline.”

Let’s go! 🤪 #STFC🔴 @Official_STFC– Luke Woolfenden (@lukewoolfenden) August 31, 2018

As with the Emmanuel and Morris loan moves, Town are able to cut the spell short in January.

In addition to those three and Tristan Nydam, who joined St Johnstone earlier in the week, Town have three further youngsters out on loan at Vanarama National League clubs, Aaron Drinan at Sutton United, Pat Webber at Braintree and Chris Smith at Aldershot.

“We have got some good young players here who I rate highly but at the moment they are not getting the games they need,” manager Paul Hurst told the club site.

“I have to look at what is best for the development of their careers and they are far better off playing first-team games on loan than they are sitting on the bench or in the stands here or playing for the U23s.

“They need to be playing games with three points at stake week in, week out and they have the opportunity to do that on loan and keep developing. Then we will look at it again in January.”

Photo: TWTD

tomitfc added 18:42 - Aug 31 FFS WHAT
6

muccletonjoe added 18:45 - Aug 31 Remains to be seen if this guy from Everton is any better than Luke Wolfenden. I think we may well find out on Sunday. Whatever the outcome, we are hardly overunning with centre halves
3

essextractorboy93 added 18:46 - Aug 31 Good move for Luke! We have Chambers, Nsiala, Pennington, Donacien, Spence and Knudsen who can all play in central defence. He wouldn't have got many minutes this season really so a season in a league 2 is a wise move for his career and help his development rather than playing in the U23s. Hope he rips it up! Good luck! COYB!
10

cornishnick added 18:49 - Aug 31 Pennington has PL and championship experience and is 4 years older. Wolfie will get much more game time at Swindon. The last 2 days dealings have been good in my book.
12

Monkey_Blue added 18:53 - Aug 31 If MM had sent Emanuel, Nydam, Morris, Drinan Webber, Smith and Woolfenden out on loan this season and blanked Dozzell there would have been hell to pay about him not playing the youths especially as 5 of this lot had played In the first team las season: Kenlock isn't playing either. Currently Downes is the only ex town youth player getting any game time.
23

rickw added 19:04 - Aug 31 If he gains some experience there he'll come back a very good player for us
1

truckerblue added 19:05 - Aug 31 Should be starting for us. More championship experience than the majority of players that have been brought in this season. Looked good every time he's played.
11

blueplumber added 19:10 - Aug 31 I won't be surprised if klug is pushed now can't see any point of him at this club. Think of the wages it will save. If I was klug I would be out of the door saying f..k this
5

dirtydingusmagee added 19:24 - Aug 31 totally agree blueplumber, i think Klug has had a good kick in the teeth,Couldnt blame him if he stuck his middle finger up and f###ed off.'
0

lightingblue added 19:35 - Aug 31 For the love of god why, just why? We have been sold the dream with these kids, that they are the Ipswich version of beckham, scholes and co at Utd. But please please don't try and sell us that they will be regulars when clearly they are not. The club need to get some billy big ones and come out with the truth. I am struggling my hardest to believe anybody there.We've a bunch of young players from lower league teams. Does this tell me that they are better than what young players are bringing through? For the love of mary why not just play them. I don't mind losing or a bad performance if they walk of the pitch and we can all turn to each other and say they had a go and they are young and learning. To be a championship player you have to play in the championship. To be a premier league player you need to play at that level. Ferguson said, if there good enough they will play. (Or something like that). Utd did ok out of it. If it's good enough for them them it's good enough for use. To be the best you have to learn from the best.Surly we can use that model for Ipswich. But then again I'm not a football coach or manager. Rant over.

12

blueboy1981 added 19:42 - Aug 31 ........ PH continues to make some strange decisions - I have to say I am beginning to lose some faith, along with, may I suggest, a few others. Beginning to seriously question if he knows what he is doing ? - is Bryan Klug, and his opinion / views being completely locked out of the equation ??? If so, shame on you PH, and ITFC in general. Beginning to look like a PH ego trip - let's hope he proves his strange moves bare results - and very soon.

10

marco007 added 19:46 - Aug 31 Ridiculous as Luke should start for us not Swindon! A more cultured player than Chambers and Knudsen...what a joke !
4

WoodfordTim added 19:54 - Aug 31 I had to read it twice to believe it! Hope we don't get any injuries. Bit thin for CB's. Don't like this at all
6

midastouch added 20:25 - Aug 31 scratching my head a bit at this one! looked decent pre-season. hopefully he'll come back even better for the experience but we haven't got a great record of loaning players out and seeing them come back and subsequently doing the business for us. and would of also liked us to have kept ben morris for impact from the bench. a win against norwich and obviously such details will soon be forgotten, at least for the time being. but i've found it frustrating for some time seeing so many of our youngsters getting very limited opportunities. i can deal with a top quality loan signing like lawrence or fraster (both match winners on their day) keeping one of our youngsters out, but run of the mill loans, which are arguably no better than what we've already got, do frustrate me. i feel george burley would of worked very closely with klug (and i was all for that) and established some of our best youngsters as first team regulars, i thought hurst would be looking to do similar but so far it seems he wants to buy or loan off the shelf rather than promoting and developing from within. still have to give paul time as appreciate there's rarely a quick fix in football but if we lose on sunday and norwich are happily chanting bottom of the league songs as i exit the stadium, then i'm really going to be feeling like a bear with a sore head! COYB, please do it on sunday, we're crying out for a win, anything less and the league table (even though early still) is going to look very ugly. nothing would settle the jitters better than a win over Naaaaaaaaaardige!!!!

4

midastouch added 20:26 - Aug 31 and obviously meant ryan fraser above, not fraster!
0

FredFlinstone added 20:28 - Aug 31 Read TWTD regularly. Don't comment very much - last one was about how Jewel needed to go. I cannot believe this. Woolfenden looked to have potential the minutes he was on the pitch vs Blackburn. I am, much like all Town supporters, wanting Hurst to develop our team from defensive hoofball to something more expansive and entertaining. However, having watched the Blackburn game live and the Derby game (and other games highlights) on telly, this change of style has shown some worrying trends. I think we're up to eleven new faces now and our youngsters are being relegated to loans/bench/not included. I am not convinced the new intake are any better than some of our own. (I also think Emmanuel, from what I've seen of him, is a player with some promise - yet seems to be completely off the radar for Hurst.) It would be a boost to beat Norwich, but another defeat and it will a poor start that we may struggle to recover from.

6

midastouch added 20:29 - Aug 31 @ FredFlinstone, the exact point I was trying to make but only you did it a lot more eloquently. Good contribution cheers.
3

planetblue_2011 added 20:31 - Aug 31 Why!!! Thought we need centre halves
2

Westy added 20:37 - Aug 31 So frustrated at this. Plays well for us, recovers from injury then goes out on loan. The same thing happened last season with Flynn Downs. I was also impressed by Josh Emmanual and he is going out on loan for the second season running !
4

BlueArrow added 20:45 - Aug 31 PH you're starting to make the pheasants revolt
2

blueplumber added 20:50 - Aug 31 Has anyone thought to check. P.H COULD be married to Delia smiths daughter 😂😂
0

tractorboybig added 21:13 - Aug 31 what a joke, this club gets worse and worse. close the academy now its a waste of money. these hurst div one donkies are far better ????????????????????????
-3

RobITFC added 21:36 - Aug 31 I wonder how much Waletsr and Penningtons salary is? maybe why so many young players being sent out on loan?
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Taricco_Fan added 22:11 - Aug 31 Of all the young players loaned out, this is the one that I understand the least. I thought Woolfy did well against Blackburn. A rough diamond that needs game time, but he looked ready to play a part in the Championship. Just don't understand why we would let him go given our lack of centre-halves and, in my opinion, the player's readiness to step up.
1

Guthrum added 23:30 - Aug 31 How do you lot know it isn't Klug recommending these lads are sent out on loan? They were only played last season because everyone else was injured (or so you were all saying at the time).
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