Jan Aage Fjortoft 'saddened' by Swindon Town plight

Jan Aage Fjortoft scored 25 goals in 84 Premier League appearances for Swindon, Middlesbrough and Barnsley in the 1990s

Former Swindon Town striker Jan Aage Fjortoft is "saddened" by the situation at the League Two club.

Prospective new owner Clem Morfuni is attempting to take over the managerless Robins from current chairman Lee Power.

The Wiltshire club is also facing legal action over unpaid rent of their ground and is under an English Football League transfer embargo.

"The state of the club is embarrassing, and someone needs to sort it out," Fjortoft, 54, told BBC South Today.

"To go down a division is something that can happen, but what is saddening now is that the club is not well run.

"It is tough in the professional game in England, but you have to give yourself a chance."

Swindon, relegated from League One last season, have just nine contracted senior players with the new campaign less than three weeks away.

Boss John McGreal and his assistant Rene Gilmartin quit the club in June after just a month in charge, chief executive Steve Anderson has departed and director of football Paul Jewell is also understood to have left the County Ground.

Morfuni is waiting to hear if he has passed the EFL's owners' and directors' test as he looks to take over the running of the Robins.

The Australian businessman has been involved in a High Court legal battle with Power over the ownership of the club - with Power ordered to sell the Wiltshire side to Morfuni's Axis company against his wishes.

Last week Swindon players and staff were paid only 60 per cent of their June wages, after the club failed to pay staff on time at the end of last month.

"I don't know all the things that have happened at the club or all the politics, but it is so sad for the fans to have it this way," Fjortoft said.

"There is a proud history, with the 1969 League Cup and all the great players they have had over the years.

"It is disrespectful for the fans, who have made their club the identity of a whole town and region."

Fjortoft joined Swindon in the summer of 1993 from Rapid Vienna, and scored 12 goals in 36 league games as the Wiltshire club were relegated from the Premier League.

"I still remember the feeling when I flew into Heathrow and knew that then-manager John Gorman would be there to meet me," the Norway international said.

"I didn't know a lot about Swindon Town but straight away I saw how important this club was - and is - for the community and the town."

"I was very fortunate to be there at a time when we were playing the best teams in England."

Jan Aage Fjortoft's 'airplane' goal celebration is memorialised in a mural outside Swindon Town's ground

Fjortoft remained at Swindon until March 1995, going on to have spells with Middlesbrough, Sheffield United and Barnsley before a switch to the German Bundesliga.

He now works as a pundit, interviewer and columnist, and is optimistic Swindon's future can be cleared up and supporters can rally around the club.

"There is not a lot of time until the start of the season, but in League Two there are a lot of games, so there is time to adjust," he said.

"But you have to sort out these things.

"Hopefully the takeover will be smooth so they can start building a football club again, and the fans can do whatever they can to help this club to unite."