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The Saudis always have a Plan B. I think they'll throw their support behind the Super League in Europe now. Having Real Madrid vs Barcelona in Riyadh is better than what they have now.

The postponed Match against Sutton United has been rearranged for Tues 27th February 7:45pm.

The new head coach must have some select principles, if we are to handle the transition period well Tactical continuity - The new head coach must build on our principles to play possession based, high tempo football. Playing out from the back, but taking risks when needed and knowing when to play and when not to. Not overplaying when you don't need to. Pressing the opposition and winning the ball high up the pitch and when we lose, counter press. Stick to the philosophy that has been successful. We don't need a 4-4-2, two quick wingers and two big lads up front because it feels good and reminds us of "the good old days." To continue the progress made, you need to tweak and not tear up. We need to adapt to situations (like we have done recently without Matty Palmer). It's evolution, not revolution Player development - We saw under LW, that players can adapt the way they play and can thrive in different positions. Aaron Nemane has become a regular part of the starting x1 for 2 seasons. Adam Chicksen became a goalscoring wing-back, Jim and Cammy became more comfortable with the ball at their feet. He even took Macca from a wider position at Gateshead and made him the best striker at the club this century, turning him into a penalty area poacher, pressing machine. This must extend to the academy and the B team. We can start to see the likes of James Sanderson, Madou Cisse, Lucien Mahovo, Luther Munakandafa and Charlie Gill appear more in the first team squad over the next few years. Our model is about sustainability, and if we develop players and then sell them on for more than we bought them for, that's a success. This also makes us an attractive proposition for clubs to send their players to us on loan. Man management - This is a huge aspect. One that is bigger than people think. Luke Williams treated his players like brothers. He conjured up a relentless mentality. It was one of the big reasons we got out the National League. You need a winning mentality and to rise above others who try and dish it out. A group that is committed to the overall goal and our style, will become a successful group. Treat the players like human beings and foster a team spirit and mentality worthy of Notts County. Luke said after the Harrogate game "Playing with sloppiness and mistakes and without courage, you cannot play for Notts County like that."

Seems that players are realising the grass isn't always greener on the other side. It's obvious they were money motivated to move over there but the reasons given for why they wish to leave, as reports suggest, makes it even more obvious that they were blinded by the money being offered. It was never about "helping improve the league" it was always about the big sum of money offered. Now that they've had their share of big paydays they're upping and leaving.

Whenever I check out the gossip column on BBC Sport or there's a transfer rumour on social media, there's multiple players being linked with a move to the Saudi League. Some big names being linked to go there as well. Benzema, Lewandowski, Gundogan, Kante, Messi as well as already having Ronaldo in there, who I believe is the start of big name players heading over there for a nice pay day. I personally don't know much about the league myself but all I can think is players are moving over there for the big fat pay day that they are being offered. It almost feels like when the Chinese Super League started gaining attention and got linked with pretty much every single big name player in the world and offering them hefty wages to sweeten deals.

I may be wrong but my bet is on Stuart Maynard.

Some other names that have featured with the betting sites that haven't been mentioned on here yet are: Ruaidhri Higgins - Current Derry City manager. Scot Lindsey - Current Crawley manager. Daniel Stendel - Former Barnsley manager and current Hannover 96 reserve team manager. Cameron Toshack - Son of John, last job was a first team coach at Leeds. And interestingly he has spent a lot of time coaching at Swansea. Matt Gill - Former player (I don't really remember him, so he clearly wasn't great) current Southampton Assistant Coach. And he took over LW role when he left Swansea for us...

@Dripsey3 I think you're right, I have thought they'd probably do something like that. They seem to be dipping into pretty much everything. Boxing, Golf, WWE, Football (whether it be buying clubs or bringing big names to their domestic league). @Robbie You're bang on. These nations with limitless money looking to invest in clubs in England are the reason why there's becoming such a big divide with the "big" clubs and those looking to establish themselves in the Premier League. Part of me feels surprised that players have lasted this long while another part can't believe it's already starting to crumble. I don't get why these players can't just come out and say they took the paycheck because it was an opportunity to earn big bucks rather than claim things that were already known before they went over. They'd lose less credibility by doing so.

@Robbie I think a UK league would fall foul of different FA jurisdictions. I believe that Cardiff, Swansea, Newport and Wrexham have either special dispensation as they were in the set up before the Welsh League was set up, or they were required to resign from the Welsh FA and join the English FA. When I lived in Newport, AFC Newport were required to play in England as they could neither train or play in Wales unless they joined the Welsh leagues. They used to be called the Nomads for that reason. I could see a UK cup competition being rather fun though. A league without the big 6 or 7 would be a far more interesting competition.

I remember the game, the Bailey incident in real time...Thought it was a straight red

@Robbie That is an interesting approach... and with the limitless amounts of money could be made to survive. Fans would certainly get behind it (they always do) and FOMO would mean the top clubs would jump. I can see ManUre, Man City, Newcastle, Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs going. I think Liverpool would have to jump too, or risk becoming irrelevant. That would be enough for the TV companies to jump on board and the funding for the Premiership will dry up. That could cause a massive problem to he remaining PL clubs and on down the pyramid. At that point the only thing that could stop it would be parliamentary intervention or banning of those clubs and players from FIFA competitions - but LIV golf shows that is largely ineffective.

@Dripsey3 & @Ohh Tommy Johnson If there were to be a Super League they would probably follow the same model as the NFL in the States with no promotion or relegation. Could be two leagues with an end of season playoff system with one overall winner to make more money. Just going a little of topic, As far as today is concerned I would like to see, all those who qualify for European Competition in England ineligible to play in the FA Cup & League Cup the season afterward. This would be positive development for all the other clubs in the Football pyramid. In addition, I would limit team changes to no more than 4 players to the starting 11 in Cup matches, to stop the big clubs devaluing the competitions.

I think you are right. I hope that UEFA can prevent those clubs entering European competitions and players being eligible for national teams. The success of a European Superleague would depend upon if TV got behind it. I am not sure how good long a league like that would remain interesting unless there was a turnover of clubs. Mind you I can imagine the BBC getting behind it as they have been great supporters of top level football since it was invented back in 1992,

Back for pre season training I've been told

Hopefully we will have signed some defenders than can cope with the high ball into the box by then.

Wordle 934 4/6* Drat I could’ve got that in 2 if I made the right choice

That will do me too! Wordle 934 3/6*

Great news.

Wordle 934 4/6

#waffle718 4/5 streak: 28 #wafflesilverteam wafflegame.net

Totally agree @KB1862 The Saudi Nation have an infinite amount of dollars to throw around. They behave like a child with a new toy. The concern for me is not just the Billions being put into paying players to go over there to Saudi, it's what the Oil rich Countries buying of Premier League clubs and the inexhaustible amounts of money these clubs have available is affecting our domestic game. And what's happening in the Premier League affects clubs throughout the football pyramid, which I believe is changing football for the worse. Killing competition and & thus making the elite clubs even richer.

Yes @Ohh Tommy Johnson those mistakes have been very costly. I hope the New Head Coach will sort it.

#deluxewaffle85 0/5 wafflegame.net Just in time!

@DangerousSausage I think Phil would be a good choice too along with other possible contenders. It's refreshing that Notts always tend to keep these things under wraps. I'm sure lots of work is going on, as I write, to find, interview & appoint a new Head Coach, but Notts won't rush it. We will probably be taken by surprise once the Reedtz brothers' choice is presented to us.

Wordle 933 3/6 That'll do me.

We tried to get Altrincham's Phil Parkinson before we appointed Williams, so the board clearly rate him. I wonder if we'll have another go? We're a division higher now, so might be a more tempting proposition. He signed a new two-year contract in the summer, so there would be compensation (which we could pay with the compensation we received from Swansea). But does he want to leave?

I agree @menzinho if we perform as well as we did in our first 26 games, win more than we lose with a few draws in there, we can still make the playoffs. If we can get another 12 wins & 2 draws from the last 22 matches that's doable. On that model we could afford to lose up to 8 matches & still qualify with 80 points.

Certainly we need a coach that knows what is needed in a GK and defence

I’d be worried if it was a coach who’s come straight from an academy. It would be a massive risk, academy football isn't the same as men's competitive football. Simon Rusk was the next big thing but he didn’t work out at Stockport. And this season David Horseman at FGR really struggled. Most coaches have to start there I get that but I’d hope we’d look for someone who’s progressed into the men’s game at some point, be that as a head coach or assistant coach.

@Super_Danny_Allsopp I agree. It will be probably a relatively unknown coach And they won't rush it either. Hope Jim gets a couple of games in charge. It will be good experience for him

If the brothers past 2 appointments are anything to go by, we're unlikely to know who is the running until the appointment. No doubt the usual social media culprits will claim they are 'in the know' but they'll likely know diddly squat. The only way we tend to find out about these movings is if we're after a manager currently employed and the leak will come from the other club, see Altrincham and Swansea.

@Piethagoram i was like who is that at first but i have listened to two interviews from him, one from a tour and this. i think he speaks well but would he come to us for a chance to gain first team managerial experience? i am not so sure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_Binnion An interesting one to view

There are some really good shouts here. Maynard would be interesting as he's had Wealdstone punching well above their weight. We might have beat them comfortably last season, but their budget was a world away from ours. Whoever we get, we can be pretty sure that we won't be getting a celebrity appointment. It may well come from leftfield, as the board does tend to look at their track record as a coach rather than as a manager.

My site manager, who's a Birmingham fan, messaged the group chat earlier with the message directed to me as "Rooney's available mate " Whoever the Reedtz decide to bring in as Luke Williams replacement, I trust that they'll make a good appointment.

I’d like to see us continue to play attractive football but perhaps with emphasis more on defence, I’d like to see defenders kicking it into row z when the need arises rather than play out from the back at all costs.

Key areas will be our goalkeeper and defense. I believe Notts need to start being more cautious on their travels. I would go for a 3,5,1,1 formation, a back three, with 5 across midfield leaving Macaulay up front supported by Didzy. I would drop Stone & Brindley, & bring in Brooks & Macari. I would drop Nemane and replace him with Robertson. My Plan B. Notts need to be more defensive minded away from home, by conceding possession much more and catching opponents on the break, and also employ more direct tactics too. Notts have demonstrated that going long does work when they use it. Notts just need to be less predictable, because the opposition have done their homework on us, in many ways they have found us out. Notts need to counter that and come up with an alternative, to surprise the opposition. I'd like to see a 1:0 victory but I'd settle for a draw.

Agree @Michael D P if a team is leaking goals like no tomorrow one has to have a plan B. Of course look for new players, but even new players will find it difficult by the way we keep exposing ourselves on away trips. Of course we would like to win every away game, but most clubs play not to lose away, & if they get a win, that's a bonus.

Gary Neville says Premier League should stop Saudi Arabia transfers - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65956434 Well worth giving this a watch if you have a spare 5 minutes.

I can’t say anything about the quality, but I am against players taking big paydays just to make more money, and I dislike leagues that resort to these cheap antics. It’s not a serious, competitive league if you are spending £300m on one player while the rest of their teammates most likely don’t get paid 1% of that.

Their league is ranked somewhere around 80th in the world - that says it all really! Most players who go there are taking a shot in the dark, hoping to elevate their status and have some glory days before moving on again. It never lasts and I doubt it ever will reach much higher levels of success or excitement - it’s just not a very interesting league to watch at all! Even when Ronaldo plays there, the overall standard of play is quite poor.

@Ohh Tommy Johnson not sure I've heard that one, might have to look into some of the different rules and way they played the game compared to us back in the day.

@Ohh Tommy Johnson oh yeah absolutely, the MLS back in the day wasn't that great. Although, they did have an interesting way of doing penalty shootouts. Quite liked the way they did them.

The MLS is actually a decent league to watch tbf. Of course there are some games which can be looked at as a poor level of football but with their expansion and more teams becoming involved, it's getting to a decent level. It deserves more credit than it gets. But with the MLS there's more of a level playing field in terms of teams getting players but not able to go above a certain amount of wages due to the MLS franchise owning the rights as opposed to clubs. There is the exception to overseas players though however. As far as I understand it, they can get so many overseas players that are deemed of a certain standard and be able to offer them more than the allowed wages for all others. That's as far as I understand it anyway. Where as in leagues like China and Saudi, they just offer what ever the hell they like and it has little effect. Can't see it becoming any more appealing even with the players coming in. As @Ohh Tommy Johnson said rather than getting aging players they surely can try persuade prime players to come over for that kind of pay day.

the mls can be good to watch but the standard still is not as good as other countires near to them let alone most of the weaker european leagues. i find the saudi league to be worse than chinas, both of which are just sideshow gimmick leagues.

The Saudi League isn’t all that special. I have seen games and it’s amazing how easily the likes of Ronaldo manage to find the net. It’s not a very entertaining league and it will only be ruined by throwing silly money at players at the wrong end of their careers.

@Chris I've not seen too much of it but little bits that I have seen, it's not appealing at all. More than likely there's match fixing involved. I'd be amazed if there wasn't any. https://www.instagram.com/p/CtJdEh1ouFr/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== More players are being rumoured.

It's awful. I wouldn't be surprised if certain games are fixed. The amount of shoddy errors that happen and own goals, it's quite suspicious. I mean, I don't expect their level to be all that high, but I have seen 5-year-old kids play better football, games which involve running and just kicking a ball.