I thought this might be interesting if we named one player who retired early that you would have loved to see play for Notts County. It doesn't have to be realistic, but I would prefer you to name players who are either British or have played in English football. Otherwise, we could name any silly player from overseas that doesn't quite land with others in the community.

My pick would be David Bentley.

Long-standing PON members will know that I grew up supporting both Notts and Arsenal.

I used to pay a lot of attention to the academy players, as I would write to Arsenal amongst other clubs (Notts never once wrote back), but I would be sent signatures and updates on Arsenal. When Bentley was breaking into first-team football, I was delighted when he signed for Blackburn Rovers, who at that point kept pushing for regular European football.

For me, it meant being able to see him play more through live games and Match of the Day. His ability was brilliant to watch; he read the game very well, and his style was very much like David Beckham's not an imitation of him, but almost exactly like him. I do think Bentley had his own game mind.

He retired at the age of 29 due to injuries, and if Notts could ever have gotten the most out of someone. As they have with Jodi Jones, for example, it would have been a dream come true to have seen David Bentley wear a Notts shirt.

What a dream this was to see!

I think Jack Wilshere would’ve been amazing at Notts. He was such a good player and even if he got injured a lot, he still had loads of skill. Even if he was a bit fragile, he could still help in the big matches. Just let him rest when it’s not important and bring him out when we really need him.

He’d tear League Two apart with the way he plays. It would’ve been cool to see him in a Notts shirt, showing everyone what he can still do.

Would Gareth Bale count? He was only 33 when he stopped playing, and with his talent, you’d expect him to have a few good years left in him. He was linked with Wrexham at one point, so the idea isn’t completely out of the question. It’s a bit far-fetched, but not impossible.

For a player of his level, even a short spell could have made a big impact. It’s interesting to think about what might have happened if he’d joined a lower league club.

Before his ego took over, Eden Hazard was a joy to watch when he played for Chelsea. Seeing him come to Notts would have been a dream, only matched by the excitement of the Munto season.

I know it is unrealistic, but the point of this topic is to dream about players who lost their love for football or had to retire because of injury. Even at 32, which was the age he retired, Hazard would still have been a world-class player.

Billy Kee was a player I always hoped we would sign, your classic lower league dependable forward. Given the East Midlands is where he is based it feels like we missed out on a really easy signing here!

I’m not that surprised though it felt like a few seasons ago our scouting and recruitment consisted of putting some names in a hat and drawing them out, let’s not forget we went for Tyrell Waite but not Che Adams 🤦‍♂️

It was real shame that he chose to stop playing professional football, but if it wasn’t making him happy and he was struggling in the end it was the right choice for him. Maybe had he played for us, and therefore would've been much closer to home, his career would've panned out slightly differently.

darren huckerby was one of my early football heroes, born in nottingham and had a stint with forest but one hell of a striker that could have stayed playing in england instead of going off to the us. he was not that injury prone to my knowledge, but did retire early. he would have been fantastic at notts.

imagine him signing the munto season and teaming up with lee hughest, luke rodgers, karl hawley etc

Darren Huckerby would have been some signing @liampie