Transfer deadline day. What are we expecting? Any ins or outs? I would be surprised, but stranger things have happened. Maybe we will see some loans to the National League after today.

Please please if any 1 comes in for Roos pay them some money so they can sign him on!!!!!!!

All very quiet so far, I think I would rather it be that way. The big potential issue for us was Jatta and I'll be honest I thought he was on his way out a few days ago. It's looking good right now and if he stays, it's really great for us. We've already turned down a lot of money for him, I think it'll need to be a monumental fee now and no-one is seemingly willing/able to do it!

I had hoped we would see the sense in at least strengthening the striker options we have, more for the sake of injuries and being able to play Alassana Jatta and Matthew Dennis together, but to be honest, I didn't expect any signings.

The vibe given off by the club was very low in terms of expectations, and it's somewhat of a shame, especially when Martin Paterson called for further reinforcements.

If the club ignored the head coach, it could be at risk of hoping for the best. I hardly see how it's a knee-jerk reaction to wish to strengthen such a crucial area. I genuinely hope we begin to give Harry Griffiths the opportunity to start in the cup matches.

The 'outs' I was expecting. Even that didn't happen. What does that say? No takers for Edwards, Robertson etc?

Good news on Jatta. But now it gets interesting.....If he won't sign our extension...then we probably have to sell in January (the Bros let Wootton and Ruben see out their contracts, but we were trying to get back to the EFL). That means we have to showcase him. So we have to play him. We currently have L2"s top scorer, so we will have to play 2 up front. Or drop Dennis (unthinkable for me at the moment and it'd kill his morale).

It could be be a difficult balancing act, and MP's team selection will be influenced. There will be input from the financial, I mean technical board :)

Edited September 2Sep 2 by theAnticlough

We will just have to hope we don’t get a lot of injuries and that the January window is more successful this time around than in previous years. There is still the free agent market, but I’d be surprised if that produces any real gems. I get the feeling financial constraints are at play here.

I wasn’t surprised nothing happened, I’m glad Jatta didn’t go but I would have like to see us strengthened up front and a goalkeeper. It does seem a bit odd that we haven’t strengthened I hope it’s not something we talk about in the months to come and say what a monumental mistake was made.

So I rated it on reddit as a 4/10 window, which was probs a bit harsh.

Obviously we've lost Didzy and Bass which were excellent and the best in the league in their respective positions. Replacing them directly is impossible, but they've as sure as **** botched it up. Roos is liability and I believe we'll lose points mainly down to his errors. I felt marginally more confident in Nelson and Fitzsimons which should indicate where he sits.

Didzy being replaced by one of Jarvis, Jones, Grant, Iorpenda, Hall, Dennis, Kouhyar or Luker strikes of being unable to indentify the right player so they just threw as many at it and hope something sticks.

On the scale of it, Iorpenda, Hall, Aljofree and Luker all look like excellent pospects, I just hope they can settle and make an impact like Abbott did.

Cotter, Kouhyar and Roos all look like terrible business - and the mind boggling thing is that they offer no profit value going forwards.

Keeping Jatta scores a mark up itself, but leaving him and Dennis as the only proven forwards is a risky bet, one that's gonna come right on the technical boards head once one gets an injury/suspension.

I've been wrangling with it and I think other clubs are probably waiting for us to do something because they've seen the cash we've made from sales and if we play it right, Jan might be the time to buy. It gives us half a season to weigh up an up and comer forward and look at getting a keeper who isn't first choice. With that we gain somewhat a wave of momentum for the second part of the season.

This does rely on performing well because, and I don't want to say it, Jatta will definitely garner attention in Jan. If he performs well and we are flying, we'll likely get him until the end of the season or get a contract ext (which I think won't happen as much as i want it to). If we're not, he'll likely ask to move on and we'll really have to do something in tying up that forward role post Jan.

I'm relieved we kept Jatta, but am not impressed with our transfer business. We've got too many wing-backs and midfielders (although one has just left), too few strikers (especially if we're playing two up front) and there's no obvious candidate for the no. 10 slot. In addition, we've worsened in the goalkeeping department. Not what we needed at all and you can only conclude that we missed our main targets.

Not having a coach in place for most of the summer must have really hurt us as our recruitment has been poor at best. Six permanent signings including a young goalkeeper punt, a player playing in the Italian 3rd division and a National league North player, plus five loan signings (mainly kids) shows that we have got this window badly wrong. Only Dennis and possibly Norburn, along with Iorpenda of the loans have looked decent, but have any of the midfielders / wing backs looked better than Sam Austin who we let go? Has the keeper looked better than Sam Slocombe? All I can say is that the playing budget must have been slashed this season (especially with Edward’s now going), but it will end up as false economy because they will lose probably 2000 off the gates as a reward.

Thought there may have been a few “outs” but wasn’t expecting anyone coming in tbh.

Jatta staying put is a bonus, albeit temporary it would seem. The return of players like Robertson, Ness & Hinchy is also a plus for my money.

We do seem light in respect of strikers and gk cover. Traore seems to be struggling to adapt to L2 & now it looks like Jarvis is injured. We’ll need to address that in Jan surely?

The sooner Luker is back in the picture and Robbo & Ness are “up to speed”, the better. The numbers are there, it’s the overall fitness, quality and balance of the team that are under scrutiny at the moment.

A dissapointing end to the transfer window for me. It seems every one including the Head Coach realised we needed strengthening in key areas, but the powers that be either didn't agree or there wasn't any money available that would have been needed to improve the squad.

IT's this Kind of Attitude in the Transfer Window, which makes Fans ask Do The Brothers Have Any Ambition?

On 02/09/2025 at 12:49, piedestrian said:

So I rated it on reddit as a 4/10 window, which was probs a bit harsh.

Obviously we've lost Didzy and Bass which were excellent and the best in the league in their respective positions. Replacing them directly is impossible, but they've as sure as **** botched it up. Roos is liability and I believe we'll lose points mainly down to his errors. I felt marginally more confident in Nelson and Fitzsimons which should indicate where he sits.

Didzy being replaced by one of Jarvis, Jones, Grant, Iorpenda, Hall, Dennis, Kouhyar or Luker strikes of being unable to indentify the right player so they just threw as many at it and hope something sticks.

On the scale of it, Iorpenda, Hall, Aljofree and Luker all look like excellent pospects, I just hope they can settle and make an impact like Abbott did.

Cotter, Kouhyar and Roos all look like terrible business - and the mind boggling thing is that they offer no profit value going forwards.

Keeping Jatta scores a mark up itself, but leaving him and Dennis as the only proven forwards is a risky bet, one that's gonna come right on the technical boards head once one gets an injury/suspension.

I've been wrangling with it and I think other clubs are probably waiting for us to do something because they've seen the cash we've made from sales and if we play it right, Jan might be the time to buy. It gives us half a season to weigh up an up and comer forward and look at getting a keeper who isn't first choice. With that we gain somewhat a wave of momentum for the second part of the season.

This does rely on performing well because, and I don't want to say it, Jatta will definitely garner attention in Jan. If he performs well and we are flying, we'll likely get him until the end of the season or get a contract ext (which I think won't happen as much as i want it to). If we're not, he'll likely ask to move on and we'll really have to do something in tying up that forward role post Jan.

Sadly, I feel you have summed it up rather too well @piedestrian .

However, let's keep the faith until those first 12 games are up 😐

Strange isn't it. That Martin Paterson would be Judged on his First 5-7 games. Then it was the First 10 games. Now It's the First 12 Games. What's Next ? The First 15 Games? Then maybe It Will Be Wait Till the January Transfer Window. The Trouble is by then Notts may be in Such a Hole, that Promotion may be out of the Magpies Reach. After the Poor Summer Transfer Window, what makes Fans think things will get better come January? Will a Large amount of Money suddenly be found and Big Signings will be made? If Notts are in a Poor position come January, what will entice better players to come to the Lane, to play for a Team Midtable or worse? And if Notts fail to gain promotion will the Owners be looking for another Head Coach, for 2025/26 Season?

I've always looked at 12 games as the benchmark. A quarter of the season should see a fair sample of the league's opposition.

On 02/09/2025 at 04:58, theAnticlough said:

Good news on Jatta. But now it gets interesting.....If he won't sign our extension...then we probably have to sell in January (the Bros let Wootton and Ruben see out their contracts, but we were trying to get back to the EFL). That means we have to showcase him. So we have to play him. We currently have L2"s top scorer, so we will have to play 2 up front. Or drop Dennis (unthinkable for me at the moment and it'd kill his morale).

It could be be a difficult balancing act, and MP's team selection will be influenced. There will be input from the financial, I mean technical board :)

Scrub all of the above, or at least modify; who knew the club had a rabbit up their sleeve?

Such contractual clauses aren't so common as in the NBA, for example, where almost every other contract has a 1-year player option or a 1-year team option on top of the guaranteed years. That Notts were holding this 1-year team option was a real game-changer and now we have Jatta signed through to summer 2027.

I think we have to give Jatta credit too, him and his agent could still have made life difficult, but who knows what assurances have been given about the next two transfer windows.

What does it mean for the team? I think we still have to make sure to showcase him, and he'll want to do that too, but it's not as desperate as if his contract was running down.

We'll want to play Jatta and we'll want to play Dennis - but MP doesn't have to force it if he doesn't want to. But 2 up front and a midfield diamond behind it looks the way to go here, if we want to have our strongest players out on the pitch.

Edited September 4Sep 4 by theAnticlough

Just because Jatta has had is contract extended by another 12 months doesn't mean that the Club won't sell the player at the next available transfer window if another club makes an offer the brothers can't refuse.

All this extension is basically doing is keeping Jatta's value a little higher than it might have been. I still think that Jatta will be very marketable if he starts scoring again, & strikes up a good partnership with Dennis.

I think we've already picked up that the money earned from the sale of players goes into the running costs of the club, such as wages & running costs, & we may even see other players sold if the price is right.

Jatta could still leave in January @Robbie, but this means we're under less pressure to sell if the price isn't right. If he were out of contract in the summer, there would have been clubs trying to exploit that and sign him for a reduced fee in January. Now we can name our price (or just keep him).

I'm disappointed another striker hasn't come in for competition though, especially if we're playing two up top. I'm very happy with Dennis but we'll be very thin as soon as injuries and suspensions come into play.

Yeah, that Jatta could still leave in January is a given.

But the year extension is a massive pressure release which will have knock-on effects to MP's team selection, the media focus, and maybe the mood of the squad

Jatta turns 27 in January, his next contract could be the most important of his career/life. We should have a highly motivated player for the rest of the season/half-season.