Chris

I hope you are okay, and that it clears up soon. I had one with kidney stones and it's no joy, so please do make sure you are on the road to recovery. You sound very proactive in your retirement, which is great, but have a little time to yourself. Thanks for all your supportive messages, not just to me but to every member who posts in these daily chats.

These are serious charges, and I hope the punishment is fair. You can't just do what they have, and I find it shameful it didn't come to light sooner. There was a lot of talk amongst fans about what was going on, and I don't mean their own supporters. I think they should be transfer santioned personally, however, they will still sign players now and avoid being in a difficult place which barely makes it right after breaking the rules. I wonder how Derby County fans feel, since they had issues and faced strict punishment for how they signed players. Burton Albion for me is far more extreame, Deby's was a grey area and very heavy punished.

He grew with us and became someone I felt disappointed to see leave, now I don't know if he left because he wanted first team football or if Notts made the decision. I wasn't that impressed when he played in the pre-season friendly, and defensively I had concerns, but towards the end of our campaign I would have selected him. Not only was he good on the ball, making himself a constant threat, but he improved massively with defensive work. The issue is, his starting time could be limited and with Jodi Jones and Nick Tsaroulla it's difficult compitition to be against unless he slotted in elsewhere. Personally, I thought he was far more rounded than Jodi who struggles to defend and sometimes doesn't even bother. Tough, his talent to attack is second to none.

Very good fans, I would love to see Notts fans in the KOP do more but I don't think we are organised enough. At the Forest Friendly, there were multiple chants at times, and we really should be on the same page so the atmosphere is spot on. I mean, I did feel impressed but hearing 2 to 3 chants at the same time, with them equally dying off, just made me wish we could be more vocal in the right direction.

I hate the entitlement and negativity of some of our fans, especially those who demanded to see the team sheets or starting XI of both teams. It's a pre-season friendly, take the praise that our players got and turn it into excitement for the start of our League One campaign. West Brom Albion started a decent squad from what I have read, and even if they fielded youngsters some of them will be about our level or near. It's a good run out for the lads.

He gives us options in the middle and out left, so that's a good thing. Blackburn Rovers have a good academy, a lot of their youngsters find success in the ELF. Evans is the type of player that just needed a chance, and I think he did that well last season for Harrogate Town. There's a reason why their fans rated him, and I hope we can see him flourish in a competitive Notts squad. We have to have players firing on all cyniders and performing well, so the options we have will benefit us.

I hope he can find a good National League club that will stick with him, there's a few good choices in there and his record for promotion is strong. I just hope he doesn't end up at a team like Yeovil Town or Forest Green Rovers. There's some good clubs like Hartlepool United that could be a good fit. With his record and what he did for York City, I can imagine a fair amount of interest will be there.

It's nice to see Marc Bola doing well, Watford are a decent team and I had hoped we could have signed him back when he was here on loan, then when he became a free agent. I try to keep tabs on ex players, as I do hope the ones who represent us well have a good career at whatever level they find themselves. Bola will hopefully make it to the Premier League at some stage for whatever period he can, though the Championship is still a good level to be at.

I think it's the club trying to stretch their budget by removing the man that got them back to the EFL, the reasons I believe it's money related is because I can't see why they would get rid of him amongst a time they are losing key players. You would expect them to want to stay grouped and collective, so that they have a stronger chance of fighting to stay up. There's some Notts fans who are massively harsh on Stuart Maynard, but he's good enough to keep York City up. This decision to part ways for me seems like one of those internal decisions where the board or chairman has gone against the grain and thinks of money before football.

A fair amount of MK Dons fans that I know, do not really think Dan Crowley has warranted the fee they paid but have said to me that he improved last season for them but still believe he hasn't done enough to warrant a starting position. I think we ended up doing a smart deal, as he was sulking around Notts and being sloppy on the ball. When he gave the goal away against Salford away, although I do think he was fouled. It was poor play, and he tended to repeat the same mistakes. MK Dons spending is silly for a club at their level, you can match ambition with overspending in such a wreckless way. Their recruitment seems to be to sign good players from other clubs and expect the same result insantly.

This will be the highest level in terms of consistent quality that he has played in, but he has a promising outlook and at 22-years-old he has time to further improve. His time in the Finnish top flight will have given him a good level of experience, no doubt he will have played against some very good players but now is the time to prove that he can be a top striker. My son keeps telling me to watch a video of him on YouTube, but I haven't as of yet. I do know of him, as I recall the interest he had from other English clubs when I wrote on Football Manics. He's the signing that has me the most excited, as he seems to have all the ability that Jatta had but with more refined qualities.

I wish him well, myself. I don't reject ambition or the fact that players will grow and eventually want to test themselves. He might still have international ambitions which he will be running out of at 27, although nobody really can say for sure if he is good enough to break into that scene. He will however want to play at the highest possible level, and earning more will of course help him with his future. Playing time is always quite limited for professional footballers, so I hope he does well. I personally think he might struggle but the move will no doubt open other doors if this is the case. Hope he has good luck. I'm thankful to have seen his talent with us.

I am not really a fan of behind closed doors games, even though I know it is usually related to teams having trialists. Additionally, low turnouts could be a factor, but pre-season is a great point to get fans interested. Pre-season matches mean very little, other than fitness and seeing how the team is adapting. Notts played well, and I have heard we may try to change our formations depending on the opposition.

Notts clearly wanted a replacement, which shows that we won't just sell players without making sure we aren't leaving ourselves short. I wished undisclosed fees weren't a thing, as it does mess up transfer records and activity and I feel we as fans deserve to know what he went for. This said, I think he might struggle. They have a player from Benfica on loan, and aren't really expected to do all that well. I am not saying this to speak down about Jatta because he left, I think at any top flight level he would probably find it more challenging but I do wish him well. If he does well, that's great. Yet he's going to need to be more displined and return to putting effort in even when he struggles with his form. My issues are only with his agent, as I feel he was the reason behind all the antics we experienced and perhaps unsettled Jatta to the extent he wasn't always at his best with us. There were games last season where I wouldn't have had him in the XI due to his effort and form, however, we did need him and his talent could change at a single point in any game. Whilst I do wish Jatta well, I would hope he will learn from allowing some of the negative aspects of his time here to stall his career. He improved during his time here, no doubt that will be important as he moves on.

A lot of the Notts XI seem to be new academy players making their rans through our youth system, as I can only recall a handful of the names and I think the game will be important for them to re-start their focus on pushing for more development time. Certainly they shouldn't feel down about losing a pre-season friendly; it's all a part of learning.