https://www.nottscountyfc.co.uk/news/2025/september/03/statement--chris---alex/

Owners Chris and Alex Reedtz have issued a statement following the closure of the transfer window.

It’s been a busy summer at Meadow Lane, marked by the appointment of a new coaching team and the assembly of a squad we believe can build on last season’s play-off semi-final finish.

We’ve focused on instilling greater intensity and athleticism — qualities we believe will enhance our competitiveness throughout a demanding League Two campaign. Our 11 new signings will all contribute to this in their own way, while also possessing the technical attributes that are crucial to the club’s playing philosophy.

While some of last season’s high-performing players have moved on, we have confidence in their replacements and have also retained the likes of Alassana Jatta - who is now committed to the club until 2027 after we triggered a clause in his contract. We wish him every success for the season ahead.

In recent years, alongside football projects such as the reconstruction of our stadium pitch and the redevelopment of our training base, we’ve made significant investments in the club’s infrastructure — including the development of padel courts, the Nest and our Learning and Innovation Centre - income from which is, in its entirety, used to support the club’s continued growth on and off the field. These investments are in addition to the significant sums we, as owners, continue to inject into the club every year to cover operating costs.

By successfully developing and delivering such innovative projects our CEO, Joe Palmer, and his team are laying the foundations for the club to become less reliant on owner funding and traditional income streams, in line with our long-term goal to put Notts County in a position of financial sustainability.

Our approach becomes even more important when you consider the recent introduction of the Independent Football Regulator, which will soon increase pressure on clubs to demonstrate sound financial practices for the good of the game and its supporters.

While there’s still plenty of work to do in this area — particularly with projects like the Nest still in their early stages — the club's positive off-field progress, combined with recent player transfer income, has led us to set the strongest playing budget of our tenure so far.

We believe this budget is competitive with most clubs targeting promotion to League One this season and reflects our commitment to delivering excitement, entertainment and, hopefully, success to our loyal supporters.

We look forward to hosting a fans’ forum in the near future, details of which will be announced soon, and will be at Meadow Lane on Saturday to support the team against Fleetwood Town.

Jatta staying till end of June 2027, that's marvellous news. Although he could still be sold if the price is right in the January window. The extension clause invoked in his existing contract helps keep his value on the higher side. It's a win win for the Club.

That just confirms that Jatta will be transferred for a decent fee in January. .....its hard to believe that about the competitive playing budget....it wasn't spent on transfer fees so it must have gone on wages but who to and how much!!!!

@gtownjohnno, Let’s hope it hasn’t been spent yet and is waiting in the coffers for some good signings in the January transfer window for a strong promotion push.

Excellent news re Jatta.

However the statement avoids the burning question of squad balance and depth, especially as the B team was exposed in quality at Lincoln last night

The Jatta position having been clarified is a Welcome Statement, which means he'll be able to put himself in the Shop Window, in the Hope he'll secure himself a Good Move, which means Notts will have until January, to get the Benefit of him Staying. Should Dennis keep on finding the back of the Net, expect him to move as well.

The Worrying Part of the Statement is the Line

LESS RELIANT ON OWNER FUNDING AND TRADITIONAL INCOME STREAMS.

Does this mean that the Owners are Struggling for Funds and why this Summers Transfer Window As Been So Poor? Plus is this the reason why the Club is getting Rid of it's Star Players ? And it wouldn't Surprise me to see the Club Put Up For Sale, Within The Next Two Years. Everything seems to be Pointing In That Direction.

13 minutes ago, Wheelbarrow repair man said:

The Worrying Part of the Statement is the Line

LESS RELIANT ON OWNER FUNDING AND TRADITIONAL INCOME STREAMS.

Does this mean that the Owners are Struggling for Funds and why this Summers Transfer Window As Been So Poor? Plus is this the reason why the Club is getting Rid of it's Star Players ? And it wouldn't Surprise me to see the Club Put Up For Sale, Within The Next Two Years. Everything seems to be Pointing In That Direction.

No, the opposite. It means what they have always said, that they want to prove that it's possible to make a football club sustainable. Owners are actually LESS likely to sell a sustainable club than one that they need to keep feeding their own money into (Ray Trew for example - described Notts as a bottomless pit, and any number of foreign owners who have discovered the same thing and have left their clubs to rot e.g. Sheff Wed).

I do think Notts shouldn't be a test case for proving sustainability. Owners of clubs have always been expected to either lend their money to a club to achieve more lucrative times by getting promotion or asking for third party investment into a club, or alternatively creating more shares & inviting investment that way.

The owners are either trying to make the club sustainable because it makes good business sense or they don't have any spare cash to further fund the club.

Quoting from @Wheelbarrow repair man post when the statement included "LESS RELIANT ON OWNER FUNDING AND TRADITIONAL INCOME STREAMS" it tells me that the transfer money is being used to fund wages, & off the field funding instead of being plowed back directly into buying players..

@Sheffield Pie What is classed as Club Sustainability ? How Long Will It Take? The Owners have been in charge for Six years now. If the Owners can't Sustain the Club What Then? What I have Never understood is why haven't the Board Chased Major Investment? After all Notts County are The World's Oldest Professional Football Club, you would think a Title like that would Carry Some Weight especially in the Evolving Interest from the U.S.A. Example Tom Brady NFL Hall of Fame Quarterback, has bought a small percentage of shares in Birmingham City. Yeah but Birmingham City aren't as Old as the Magpies, you would think that would give some Bragging Rights to any would be Investors and would be an Appealing Boast, because you know what the Yanks are Like, anything to get one over on a Rival. Was it last Season or the Season before that there was a story Taylor Swift wanted to buy the Club? Probably just paper talk, but if it wasn't, wouldn't that have been an Ideal Opportunity for the Owners to say Sorry the Club's Not For Sale, but we're open to Investment. Think of the Media Coverage the Club would have got.

Let's be honest, during my lifetime, the club has been "for sale" for long periods... Pavis tried to sell but there were no buyers! Even more recently, the Trews found "buyers" difficult to find and we ended up with Hardy.

The fact that we are the world's oldest professional club isn't really an economic/financial business selling point. Look at Rotherham, naming their ground New York Stadium, didn't really spark one iota of American interest nor investment?

We currently have the best owners we could wish for, ones where sustainability means funding losses of £1m -£1.5m is not putting the Club at unsustainable economic risk

My one criticism is has the playing budget for this season been misallocated? GK especially.

3 hours ago, Piethagoram said:

We currently have the best owners we could wish for, ones where sustainability means funding losses of £1m -£1.5m is not putting the Club at unsustainable economic risk

Spot on @Piethagoram there is a lot of negativity around at the moment, some people have short memories and should be careful what they wish for.

2 hours ago, Fan of Big Tone said:

Spot on @Piethagoram there is a lot of negativity around at the moment, some people have short memories and should be careful what they wish for.

@Piethagoram and @Fan of Big Tone are right. 110% correct as the football vernacular goes.

It is an indisputable fact that a business (professional football is a business not a sport or a hobby) must be sustainable, maybe not year on year, but certainly over a given time span. So you can over spend one year if you feel the time is right to invest, but you must then work to balance out any debt over subsequent years. Otherwise there is only one outcome - ask our Chancellor of the Exchequer!

Of course there is another approach, believe in fairy tales and Hollywood benefactors 🙃

When has anyone ever invested in Notts? I mean properly invested, not a short lived ego trip or a last minute bail out (Haydn Green bless him and a few others). Dunnett ran it (pretty well) on a shoestring. Pavis bought us because he couldn't be top dog at Forest (and then to quote him "expected a return"). Scardino didn't have any money. The Trust, oh dear. Munto: fraud. Trew, paid £1 then lost money and interest. Hardy, destroyed his business and reputation. Plus some crooks sniffing around and a record spell in admin. Now we have a couple of level headed young entrepreneurs who have bought us some success (promotion, sellable players, bigger crowds, better off the pitch facilities) and people are having a go at them. It's either trolling or some people have an extreme 'glass half empty' mindset.

A very direct statement. Mainly to appease the resentment they unfortunately get from other boards and people on Twitter (I'm guessing) who have labelled them as asset stripping etc.

Jatta thing is worthy of the statement alone, means that we'll have some dollar when he goes (because it's not if but when).

One curious thing peaked my interest; "Our 11 new signings will all contribute to this in their own way, while also possessing the technical attributes that are crucial to the club’s playing philosophy." - from Alex's interview earlier in the window, he said that we're looking at new physical metrics which obviously has taken primary seat in the window, but that the club doesn't dictate a formation or tactic, which is obviously not true given we've now effectively had three coaches play a 3-4-2-1/3-4-1-2 variant.

We've not seen a back 4 (even though some times it does call for that) for a very long time. I was listening to a podcast about Man Utd and Amorim's balance being out of whack. For them it's the imbalance of the attackers above and behind the area of play, and we, albeit don't struggle as much, still perservere with sometimes too many behind the ball that somewhat stunts us going forwards.

Sorry, I didn't mean to turn into Jonathan Wilson and rant about tactics, but was just an observation.

There were a couple of snippets there alongside all the corporate speak.

Firstly, Jatta's contract extension. This is welcome news for obvious reasons, but also because it puts us in a stronger position if another club does come in for him. If his contract were running out in the summer, we'd have been under more pressure to take an offer as it'd have been our last chance to earn a transfer fee. Now we can wait till the summer or beyond.

Then there's the playing budget. It's good that the board is trying to keep us competitive with what must be the biggest budget since 2018-19, but that doesn't necessarily mean we've exhausted it or that we've spent it well. In McGoldrick and Bass we've lost two players who were probably top earners, but my feeling is we've lost two excellent players and signed three average ones to take their place.

To address a couple of the points made above, I think it's essential that the club generates more income off the pitch as this will allow it to support itself financially AND invest more on the pitch. It's the only way to go. Past owners have often talked about doing this too. but the brothers are the ones who have actually done it.

I think they've made some mistakes this summer but overall we're in better hands with our current owners than we would be with overseas investors whose goal would be to extract money from the club.

As I have said before, there are other ways of raising revenue so that the club can compete with other clubs at this level.

The brothers can still remain as majority shareholders, but allow further investment from a third party. This could either be by allocating new shares or by a loan to the club.

I think the message from the club was okay, but it didn’t really say much. It felt like they were trying to keep things open about Jatta and didn’t talk enough about the players we actually need. It sounds like Jatta wanted to leave, and maybe that’s why the club didn’t go ahead with the extension. That could be why they said he had a back problem, even if it wasn’t that serious.

I don’t think the club would have been that bothered unless someone was really trying to sign him. It feels like they only acted because something was going on behind the scenes. It also seems like the message was just to calm down the fans who’ve been causing trouble. It doesn’t really help the rest of us understand what’s going on.

The club’s message was pretty normal, but it shows they’re trying to make Notts strong for the future. Some people might not like the bit about the owners not putting money in, but I think it’s a good thing. It means we won’t have big debts later on if the Reedtz brothers ever leave. We’ve had owners before who spent badly and got us into trouble, even taken to court. That’s why I get annoyed when fans moan about the club having a proper plan. It’s not something that changes every season, it’s meant to help us in the long run.

It's not good business sense for owners to keep pumping money into the club, because that's not sustainable. The Reedtz have done it long enough to see other streams help bring in the revenue needed to continue, which is smart. This doesn't mean our owners won't invest; it just means we are trying to lessen this approach while other areas of the club bring in the money we need to spend.

For me, it's unrealistic to expect Notts to just automatically fly up the divisions and to expect our owners to bankroll the club indefinitely.

Again, this isn't to say our owners won't put money in when it's needed, because that is what business-minded people do. The main thing is that they don't have to constantly put in the money needed, at their cost and eventually at the cost of finding a new owner. The Reedtz look very committed to Notts County; nothing suggests to me that they are looking to sell.

I don't think they would be investing in these areas outside of the club if this were the case, even if it meant they wanted to sell in two-years time.

The Alassana Jatta news is good news, and most likely the cause of the issue with him being ruled out of the Bromley home game. We just need to move on from that and focus on trying to climb the league.

The owners gave a decent statement. I do think they could have gone into more detail, though. It would’ve helped to confirm if any more bids came in for Alassana Jatta, and explain what the club actually did to sort the situation. Triggering his extension seems the most likely reason for the back spasm injury, which came at the worst time when we really needed him.

I imagine this is the club’s way of trying to calm some of the concerns around the rumours and the lack of clear updates. It doesn’t really offer much, though. The message feels quite shallow and full of corporate language. I think they could’ve shared more, especially about what they’re actually working on behind the scenes.

i think the statements always tend to be standard and routine, but that does not mean the club should not release them. i would actually like to hear from jason palmer like we did with jason turner, a regular update gave fans something to be optimistic about. palmer tends to get a lot of credit for things at least by the club, without any communication with us and i am sure hes a busy person but his report with us fans should be of high importance.

i am glad jatta has extended, i do think he will be gone before the end of his deal but provided we get good money for him it will be fine.