Swindon Town letting Harry Smith leave would not just be losing their best player, it would be a betrayal of the entire summer.

The Smith cycle of the last week has been a very familiar one. The early reports of the bid led to some mass panic, multiple assurances that nothing would happen, and even so, things continued to linger.

A second bid has been made and promptly rejected, and as I understand it, Cambridge United are now assessing their options but have in no way abandoned the thought of making a third. Swindon are adamant that they will not be successful. The position is steadfast, and unless Cambridge are willing to do something wild, then that should be that.

But this needs to be the case. Smith was a revelation last season, not only as a goalscorer but in the very way that the team played. The whole thing falls apart without him as a very tall tentpole standing in the middle of it all. His physicality and desire fought Swindon out of a hole dug half of the way to the National League, and then his........

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