So it's the time when we are seeing movement in & out. Martin will need to work with the players remaining & the the new players & then decide who he will select for his starting eleven in the friendly matches.

We will see many changes during those matches of course, but looking at the squad as it is now which players will you pick for your starting eleven & you could also include the bench too.

As more players are recruited & others leaving, that starting eleven will change, so it will be interesting to see how people change their view as the squad changes up to the end of the transfer window.

I'll take this to be the side on Match Day 1 as it stands so far - so minus the injured and the unsigned (e.g. McDonald)

......................Belshaw

...........Gibbons...Ness..Bedeau

Tsaroulla..Sanders..Robertson...Jones

...........Roberts......Grant

...................Jatta

Can't argue with your first 11 @theAnticlough as it stands with the squad as it stands.

If McDonald signs, he may start in the back three with Gibbons at RWB, & Tsaroulla starting on the bench.

There's certainly a hole in the AM area now that Luker, Iorpenda & Hall have left. Maybe Jodi could be an option in the AM area with Gibbons RWB & Tsaroulla LWB.

I think we are going to see more movement in the AM & Centre Back area over the coming weeks.

We look most frail in the AM roles which I'm sure is priority to this summer. Roberts will be a squad player as I believe Grant will be if he's not moved on.

I can't see Jones play there as it was tried and ultimately classed as a failure early last season.

Optimistic though, strong start so far.

Just based on who's been signed it's looking like we might be going for a loan signing in the AM role again. Maybe there's data that shows good quality AMs are really difficult to sign permanently without paying top fees/wages. And a young Prem loanee is likely to have the skill set and self-belief to come in and do a job. Hoping for a 'big reveal' teaser type announcement in the next few weeks, like Abbot or Iorpenda coming back.

I would expect a couple of attacking midfielders to come in before the window shuts, either permanent or loan signings. I would be surprised to see Grant starting. I think he is a bit like Kouhyar, not a starter, but offers something coming off the bench.

A week has gone by since Lewis Macari and Rod McDonald were offered contract extensions, but as yet there has been no updates. Should we be concerned?

Now this is just based on my gut feeling but I’m expecting Lewis to stay. I think it's harder to sign for a club when you can't likely play for 5/6 months and miss pre-season which is a big part of getting new players onboard with style of play and what's required of you in your position.

I'm sure Rod will have a couple of options, I’m actually 50/50 over whether he re-signs. I think this all comes down to who offers the best deal and location dependent too.

As for my starting 11, right now I think Gibbons, Sanders and Roberts can all make a case to be starting, but I’d suspect by August the squad will look quite different and a guaranteed starting spot might not be so easy to claim.

There seems to be some discussion over whether Gibbons will be part of the back 3 or play at RWB, looking at Transfermarkt last season he started at RB but moved to CB (as part of a 3) so I’d suggest he’ll take over from Macari for now. I like all our 3 current midfielders; you could make a case for all of them to start. And as we a currently only have Grant who covers the attacking midfield role, Roberts is the only other option here. I suspect we’ll have more interest for Jatta this summer too, but right now he’s my preferred starting striker.

We do need some more additions to the squad, a right-footed wingback would be lovely as would some talented attacking midfielders. Belshaw needs some genuine competition and I think Bedeau does too, he’s had the LCB spot sewn-up for ages now!

11 hours ago, Robbie said:

A week has gone by since Lewis Macari and Rod McDonald were offered contract extensions, but as yet there has been no updates. Should we be concerned?

I think so @Robbie, whenever a contract expires the player belongs to all 92 clubs as much as they do Notts.

Personally, I think they'll both sign. But to go straight on holiday, and let the agent see what's on the market seems fair to me.

How would it work from Notts' side? You can't bang the table and say sign now or else. But there has to be some kind of deadline for the sake of planning.

I wouldn't be too concerned about it - they're under contract until the end of June, so from their point of view there's no hurry. If they do intend to sign, the club will probably be aware of this already and will be planning accordingly.

I want them both to stay, but neither is irreplaceable.

21 hours ago, menzinho said:

Now this is just based on my gut feeling but I’m expecting Lewis to stay. I think it's harder to sign for a club when you can't likely play for 5/6 months and miss pre-season which is a big part of getting new players onboard with style of play and what's required of you in your position.

Me too, but I have a slight doubt because there might be another Notts County out there.

By that I mean a club deep into analytics and on the look out for value in young, injured players.

In one of his interviews MP said that Macari was underrated. My hunch is that won't be by the data. I'd expect him to show very highly in the analytics as one of the best players in L2 last year. Number of passes, completed passes, ball control, interceptions etc.

(I just looked at Opta and Bedeau had the most completed passes in L2. I'd be pretty sure that Macari's per game stats were higher)

So there'd be a pull factor from other teams and also a push factor for Macari himself, who now has a top player to dislodge in his position. Gibbons would have the main counting stats for goals/assists, plus intangibles that got him into the team of the year, but I doubt he's a better pure footballer than Macari.

I hope Macari stays but I wouldn't be totally surprised if a club with resources (P'boro, Salford), that could absorb his injury situation, makes him an offer and the player agrees.

At the moment, I do not know who I would personally start in the Notts XI.

I am still a big admirer of what Matt Palmer brings to the team, and I think giving the captaincy to someone else might be a smart move. I don't think Palmer was a bad choice, or that he didn't do well with the armband, but I liked when Rod McDonald had it. I think Rod kept a cool head, and influcenced the form we needed in our final run of games.

Both Lucas Ness and McDonald could claim the middle whilst Matty Platt is out injured.

I would like to see James Belshaw have stronger competition; it would be nice to find a keeper that has EFL experience but is around 22-23 that is happy to grow into the role and understudy Belshaw. The right keeper could even be younger, but Harry Griffiths seems to appear to have too much needed game time. I do like him, but I think a loan to a League Two or National League team would benefit him.

Kelle Roos could do it, but if we struggle I would rather just allow him to leave on a free and make room for someone else to come in.

I would like to see another winger, centre back, attacking central and perhaps a striker but all this depends on who stays, who goes and what movement we make.

I'm expecting our three signings to start. I've seen some people describing Roberts as a squad player but I hope not, he's got the potential to be really exciting for us, a fan faourite, and someone who can take free kicks and corners better than anyone we have currently.

Edited June 10Jun 10 by Sheffield Pie

Little change, but time for an update, with Concrete Rod re-committing? I'll go....

......................Belshaw

.........Ness.....McDonald....Bedeau

Tsaroulla..Sanders..Robertson...Jones

...........Roberts......Grant

...................Jatta

Not easy. But RodMac was our play-off winning Captain and IMO played at the highest level of anyone in his games last season...

So Ness or Gibbons? I'll have to be won over by Gibbons....I know he was Cambridge player of the year and in the L2 team of the year, but is he our kind of player? In Ness, Montague picked up a player with the potential to reach a level much higher than Gibbons could. If it wasn't for the inhuries, he might have moved on from Charlton in the other direction, up, rather than get picked up by us as a restoration project. He's kind of a poor man's John Stones...a Rolls-Royce of a defender who can aim for higher than L1 if all goes well. That's my thinking anyway

Anyway, 7 weeks 1 day to the first league game and we can be sure there'll be at least the same number through the door in that time. The team could still change a lot