Swindon Town approached Mansfield Town about selling Louis Reed for £25,000, according to Stags manager Nigel Clough.
Reed spent 18 months at the County Ground after leaving Peterborough United, joining the night before Town’s season opening against Scunthorpe United, and going on to make 39 league appearances and win the Players Player of the Year award.
The 26-year-old was a vital part of the side that made it to the League Two play-offs during the 2021/22 season, as the string-pulling center midfielder.
After a late winner over Barrow AFC in the season’s penultimate game, Swindon’s fate was in their own hands on the final day at Walsall.
Despite scoring his penalty in the shoot-out, Swindon were eliminated from the play-offs in the semi-finals against Port Vale, which meant that several of the players that got them there, including head coach Ben Garner and director of football Ben Chorley, left that summer.
Reed was one of the players who stayed with the club the following season under Scott Lindsey, but he struggled to reach the same heights and eventually left for Mansfield Town for an undisclosed price in January.
Reed appears to be on track for promotion this season, as Mansfield leads League Two by four points with eight games remaining, while Town struggles at the opposite end of the table.
During a club event called “An Evening with Nigel Clough,” the Stags manager addressed the significance of getting recruitment right, using the circumstances that led to him acquiring Reed as an example.
He said: “Recruitment is huge; honestly, they say the most important job a manager has is picking the team, and it is, but if you don’t have the players to choose from, you’re in trouble.
“So, recruitment is really critical to getting the proper individuals into the building; sometimes you can’t get them when you want.
“We couldn’t obtain Louis Reed 12 months or six months before [January 2022] because Swindon refused to let him go.
“Then we get a call in January saying, ‘Yes, you can have him for 25 grand or something like that,’ and you snap their hands off.
“You just try and improve every time you sign a player, hopefully, and that is one of the things that people don’t see.”
Leave a Reply