Q/A with Ray Trew

Question asked by weymouthPIE; Overall how pleased have you been with the progress Notts County FC has made on and off the field since you've been at the helm?

I am one of these guys who is never satisfied. I always want better and I want better for Notts. So to answer your question - no I am not. Yes we have come a long way I believe but we still have some way to go

Question asked by MuddyPatchPie; Do you have any plans to sell the naming rights to the stadium to generate income and if so would you stipulate that "Meadow Lane" is part of the name?

Yes we would sell naming rights to Meadow Lane providing it generated a sum which I considered suitable. We would endeavour to keep Meadow Lane as part of this

Question asked by MuddyPatchPie; When you first purchased Notts County you must have had a long term plan. Are you still on track with that?

Yes overall we are on the course to the targets I set.

Question asked by MuddyPatchPie; Can you reveal one from the past and one for the future Notts related secret to wet our appetites for next season?

There are none really that come to mind from the past. We do have 2 more targets in our sights – 1 being a midfielder who is an International and the other is a striker

Question asked by TonyHateley; I understand if you can't answer this Mr. Trew but my question is when Keith Curle was sacked did you consider approaching Steve Cotterill or Neil Warnock to return to the club in any capacity.

No to both. Firstly, Steve left my employment and whilst I cannot deny he did a good job during his time with us I felt he let me down and for that reason I wouldn’t give him another chance. We could never satisfy Neil demands on salary and for that reason I did not want to insult him and therefore no approach was made.

Question asked by TonyHateley; What has been your happiest moment since taking over and what was the worst moment.

Without a shadow of doubt the best moment was gaining promotion from League 2. The worst was the equaliser Man City scored in the FA Cup to force a replay. I really thought we would hang on for the win

Question asked by TonyHateley; I am sure there have been lots of players that the club have tried to sign in your time and have failed for whatever reason, which player do you most regret slipping through your fingers.

I have saying in that should not not regret the ones you didn’t sign only some of the ones you did

Question asked by Super Ram; Since The Rams were relegated from the Premier League, after one disastrous season, us Derby fans have had to be very patient, with the spending constraints imposed by our owners. We at last seem to have a team capable of making a serious promotion challenge. You have also 'tightened your belt' with Notts. My questions are - How are Notts progressing financially after all the steps you have taken and how long before Notts fans can look forward to their own serious promotion push. I also realise some fans may not like your answers.

I did say on record at the end of the last campaign that I was reducing the playing budget by 30%. However I have not done this and my reason really was I felt I had to give Chris Kiwomya every chance to succeed. I think we are 1 or 2 players away from making a serious bid for promotion.

Question asked by Joe Jones; What plans do you have in place to attract "sleeper" fans, ie those who have an affinity towards Notts but don't attend games, or haven't attended any for a while?

I wish I knew the magic answer to this question. We are always trying to think outside the box to not only attract stay away fans but to seduce new fans both young and old. I think the easiest way would be to give them a team capable of promotion and one that plays attacking attractive football.

Question asked by Joe Jones; How can we ensure that the club has enough home shirts in stock all season for every fan to purchase one if they so wish? Many fans were left empty-handed last season after the home shirts ran out by the end of 2012. For a football club not to have any current season home shirts on sale either in the club shop or official website is frankly unheard of, and this needs to be addressed.

I would rather be in the position of having no stock to sell than a shop full of shirts we have to sell off at huge discounts. Unfortunately with our current provider there is a minimum order of 1000 shirts and one has to take a view if we can sell this quantity or not. Our current agreement expires at the end of this season and we have started negotiations now with our current supplier and 3 other well known brands. It will be a stipulation of ours that we can order in batches of 100. Hopefully this will rectify the situation to everyone's satisfaction

Pride of Nottingham would like to thank Mr Trew for kindly agreeing to do this Q/A and to take the time to answer, it's very much appreciated by our community. I would also like to say a big thank you to the members who put questions forward for this feature, I enjoyed reading the questions as this progressed.