This discussion got me thinking 

 

So I want you to unwind to period whereby a rumour of a player signing may have helped the club which did not actually happen. If you dont recall a rumour that you feel may have helped Notts, why not mention a player who you feel would have done at a certain point instead?

 

The obvious one would seem to be the non-signing of Glenn Roeder in 1984. Since I wasn't long out of nappies I couldn't really comment though. And perhaps Louis Laing would have made a difference last season?

But really I think our long-term decline has been a result of letting players go rather than not signing them, from the spine of the 2010 team all the way back to Jackie Sewell.

The reverse to the question would be the sale of Rideout.

Was it 2013/14 when we had the striker dilemma? Ray had said we had been chasing a striker who went on to play in the premier league. I think that situation sums up what could have been, its debatable if a striker would have made all that much of a difference. We did have a good squad then, Bishop, Judge, Sheehan, Campbell-Ryce etc. Notts have always been plagued by losing out on targets, so there could be multiple answers to this question.

@DangerousSausage shares a very good example.

Ruud Gullit springs to mind. I think Jack Dunnett wasn't prepared to pay FC Haarlem the £100k transfer fee on such a young player

Mark Hateley from Rangers, during Pavis's time as chairmen

@DangerousSausage agree with Roeder, ...I am still waiting for Dunnett to give me my £50 back

Colin Foster from West Ham, a centre half that made a hell of a difference

In more recent times, Lloyd Sam on loan from Leeds was so superb for us

3 hours ago, Piethagoram said:

Ruud Gullit springs to mind. I think Jack Dunnett wasn't prepared to pay FC Haarlem the £100k transfer fee on such a young player

Mark Hateley from Rangers, during Pavis's time as chairmen

@DangerousSausage agree with Roeder, ...I am still waiting for Dunnett to give me my £50 back

Colin Foster from West Ham, a centre half that made a hell of a difference

In more recent times, Lloyd Sam on loan from Leeds was so superb for us

Colin Foster was immense! We would have got into the play offs that year if we had been able to keep him, no pace, but such an intelligent centre half.

Brett Angel Possibly in 99/2000, did well on loan, but was a streaky goal scorer. I think he scored a hat trick on debut and then grabbed a couple more, Pavis seemed to think that he wanted too much money.

I'm learning reading this, I had never heard of us trying to sign Rudd Gullit.

I can't really throw anyone into the hat, as Alan Judge and Jimmy Spencer are the only signings which I feel made an impact around the time we signed them. I do recall us spending a good figure as a child on a striker and thinking the player was a diamond just because we had - yet I don't think he overly contributed.

9 hours ago, Piethagoram said:

Ruud Gullit springs to mind. I think Jack Dunnett wasn't prepared to pay FC Haarlem the £100k transfer fee on such a young player

Mark Hateley from Rangers, during Pavis's time as chairmen

@DangerousSausage agree with Roeder, ...I am still waiting for Dunnett to give me my £50 back

Colin Foster from West Ham, a centre half that made a hell of a difference

In more recent times, Lloyd Sam on loan from Leeds was so superb for us

Didn't  we then spend £600,000 on John Chedozie who proved to be a fantastic signing .

@wacky agreed, but wouldnt Gullit and Chedozie have been a fantastic combination  

From reading Colin Slater's book, the attempted signing that made me think 'wow' was that Jimmy Sirrel had almost got the 20 year old Kevin Keegan to sign from Scunthorpe. But at the last moment a Liverpool scout with connections to Notts got wind of it. The rest is history! 

 

@riverleeno

The scout was Andy Beattie

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Beattie

Thanks @Piethagoram   will have a look at that link.