Super_Danny_Allsopp

Have to win really. Not just for points, but to get the fans on side. A boring 0-0 or a 0-x loss won't cut it.

I don't think I've (intentionally at least) taken anything out of context, maybe misinterpreted, but that's something else entirely. As you say, I don't think we will agree, but thanks for sharing your views/insight anyway, much appreciated. Agreed, that's part of football though, if a manager wasn't well received by the fans they will tend to be less patient when things don't work out. Regardless of our opinions at the time, we have to get behind the team and the new manager, 6 points from 9 is not a bad start at all.

I'm not questioning the signing or quality of Mcleod - I thought it was a decent signing. However, if the aim is to be self sustainable, spending 150k on a striker the wrong side of 30 isn't a great way to do it, IMO. Saying that it isn't a loan is neither here nor there - by that logic Man City could be self-sustainable, provided their super rich owners pump enough money in and it's not in the form of loans. I don't think many were criticising JF directly. How could we? On his appointment we knew next to nothing about him. The criticism was aimed at the type of appointment. If at the end of the season, Moniz still wasn't up to the task, it would be then understandable for the club to appoint a 'novice'. However, the reasons given for sacking Moniz was to 'not let the club stagnate' (i.e promotion)... so then the appointment of such 'novice' (and not necessarily JF, ANY novice) seemed ridiculous, hence the backlash. It's all about timing. Furthermore, labeling JF a novice isn't criticism, it's a fact. No first team managerial experience = novice. You stated club loyalty. You didn't state who the loyalty was intended for, hence the clarification. I'm not against 'hiring a novice'. As already stated, it's the timing.... and the reasons given for sacking the previous manager. Again, they don't add up. Whilst I do think that Derry could, and maybe will elsewhere, have come good, the issue again is more the timing. Sacking him at such a stage didn't make sense, unless his replacement was a Martin Allen kind of manager. It wasn't, and it failed. That's easy for me to say with hindsight and knowing the eventual outcome, but I think if Derry was sacked in Jan, it maybe would have been more understandable. Either that, or let him try and survive until the end of the season. Sacking him when we did, if not last gasp, what was it?!

If you are trying to suggest club loyalty to our manager(s), then you will understand why I do not believe that, at all. Whilst I am not privy to the clubs exact wage structure, taking into account the playing personnel at the club and the sheer volume of them, I am led to believe that the wage budget was higher at the start of this season than it was the start of last season. Combined with a drop in divisions, that would be a step away from sustainability rather than towards it. Furthermore, spending 150k on a striker the wrong side of 30 doesn't exactly suggest long-term sustainability, either. Last season, when Ray Trew was in the media promoting this 'self-sustainability', he also mentioned the wage budget was the 18th highest in the league. So a complete novice was given one of the lowest budgets in the league. One would assume that you sacked Derry in a last gasp attempt to preserve League One status (though I think it's a fools errand trying to rationalise your hiring and firing these days), yet again appointed someone with no experience of lower league football. Whilst not against the Moniz appointment, the timing was strange to say the least. So this season we have again fired the manager, this time it's 'refusing to let the club stagnate', so again, guessing that means achieve promotion? Then hire another novice. Baffling.

I didn't follow the game at all yesterday, however it sounds like a decent win and another away from home! YP.

I think we all know that NP used exaggeration and humour to deliver his point. The point however is still valid - we sack managers at an alarming rate. Nit-picking over whether the average is 3 months or 6 months 3 days and 10 minutes is irrelevant. We also do change 'philosophies' depending on (I assume) your moods. Liverpool boot room, promoting from within, attacking football, defensive football, self-sustainability etc.... If you can't see either of these 2 things then we're in a bigger mess than I thought, better pray to god that JF is some-kind of messiah.

Hahahha, this is brilliant.

As much as I'd like us to win, I can't see it happening. 3-0 Luton.

The reaction to this appointment from Notts fans was probably the most negative I can remember. Even Curle and builder Thompson received better reactions this Fullarton has. The initial reaction had very little to do with Jamie himself, apart from his inexperience. It all stemmed from Ray Trew's ridiculous hiring and firing policy, pretty much all Notts fans are sick to the back teeth of Ray's constant ineptitude in this department. So you can imagine that to win Notts fans over, he is going to have to start well with A: Results and B: Entertainment. Jamie Fullarton won't be given any time at all to impress. Most fans made up their minds before a ball was kicked, and since said ball has been kicked, it's only re-enforced their opinions. I had enough of the Trews when they sacked Derry. I was re-motivated to 'the cause' when they hired Moniz and thought he would be given time. Foolish, I know. Now we appoint a complete apprentice who hasn't even got to first team coach level, all based on a good interview. It's a complete piss-take and the sooner the Trews sell up and leave, the better. They can take Jamie Fullarton with him and appoint him CEO of whatever business they run.

Please sell the club Trews

Very strange line-up: Where's Aborah? Swerts? Snijders? He's done away with all Moniz signings pretty much.

I posted a blog on our players from last season: http://prideofnottingham.co.uk/community/blog/7/entry-73-last-seasons-squad-the-right-move/

To take a look back to last season, a lot of the players we had have moved on (or been moved on - depending how you look at it). Was it the right move for them, and more importantly, was it the move right for Notts County? Bartosz Bialkowski - Our No.1 joined Ipswich on a free, with rumoured sell on clauses. After first struggling to displace Ipswich keeper Gerken, Bart has gone on to establish himself as No.1 in an Ipswich side doing very well in the Championship, with a string of impressive performances. An excellent shot stopper at his time with Notts, he would not always give you too much confidence with his command of the area and coming for crosses. Right move for him? Yes. For us? Undecided - Carroll is a great keeper, and if we end up getting a fee, it might have been worth it. Alan Sheehan - Captain, and for the dark days of last season, he was one of the only ones that looked like he gave a monkeys. His ability to play well in CB also helped us a lot. However, Sheehan seems to have a big ego, and every season he wants more money. Sheehan decided that after narrowly avoiding relegation, he deserved a massive wage increase. Notts thought otherwise. Sheehan decided to try and engineer a big wage at Sheffield United, but that failed to materialise. A move to Bradford followed, reportedly on only 100£p/w over what Notts' had offered him. He now warms their bench and is a bit-part player. Right move for him? No. For us? Yes - We don't need his ongoing saga of constant wage demands and throwing his toys out when he doesn't get it. Gary Liddle - Spent a lot of last season injured, and we sorely missed him. When he was back in the side we were a much better force. Departed for pastures new, supposedly to be closer to his family, and is a prominent member of Braford's starting line-up. Right move for him? Yes. For us? No - We could do with him in the centre of the park. Manny Smith - A bit of a strange one. Could have absolute stormers of games, where he would dominate opposing players. However, also spent a lot of time 'star-gazing' or 'day-dreaming', and a lack of concentration and/or positional awareness was always his downfall. Now plays for conference side Wrexham. Right move for him? Yes - Wouldn't get a game. For us? Yes - Same reason. Dean Leacock - Another flop. There was nothing to suggest that Leacock couldn't, or wasn't, a good L1 defender. His attitude was that of a minimum wage, overworked, toilet cleaner at McDonalds. Head constantly down, no fight, no passion. Who thought this bloke was good material for a captain?! Joined Crawley, who have one of the worst defences in L1 this season. Right move for him? Yes - Not wanted. For us? Yes - Same reason. Gareth Roberts - Bit/part player drafted in to plug a gap temporarily. Moved to Chester in the conference. Right move for him? Yes. Us? Yes. Jack Grealish - What a fantastic player this boy is. Seems to glide past opponents with ease, keeps the ball well and draws a lot of fouls. Destined for a big future. Rejoined Aston Villa after his loan spell, and comes off the bench in the Premier League. Right move for him/us? Jack, come back. (Titanic?!) Callum McGregor - Another great loanee from last season. His goals in the first half of the season almost certainly kept us in the league. Without them, we would be playing Accrington Stanley in L2 (No disrespect intended). Rejoined Celtic and similarly to Jack, comes off the bench in the SPL or starts lesser games. Right move for him? Yes. For us? Wouldn't it be great to get him back on loan, again, please?! Jamal Campbell-Ryce - A frustrating, yet at times, brilliant player. Could beat a man with ease, however always had an annoying attribute on wanting to repeatedly skin a man when there was no need. This was especially annoying during the first half of last season. However, was instrumental in our turn of form and played some absolute peach games, where he was almost unstoppable. Joined Sheffield United, sometimes plays, sometimes warms the bench. Right move for him? Undecided. For us? Undecided - We could do with his creativity on the wing. Mark Fotheringham - Where to start? An excellent trial period meant that Mark landed a contract (and a lot of fans agreed with this). That is where it ended for Mark. A string of rubbish performances, and well..... yeah... I don't know what else to say. Moved to Fulham in the Championship (Best agent ever?!). Played one game, not seen since. Right move for him? Yes - thank your agent, Mark. For us? Yes - We just needed rid. Andre Boucaud - Inconsistent, is the exact word to describe Andre. At best, a good eye for a pass and an excellent player. Normally? You didn't know he was on the pitch. Moved to Dagenham and Redbridge in L2. Right move for him? Yes. For us? Yes. Enoch Showunmi - Started off last season brightly with a couple of decent goals. However, as the season went on, it was hard to imagine we once considered paying 100k (!!!) for him. Lucky escape. Went to Wealdstone FC - 'You want 'shum?!', who loaned him out to Canvey Island. Who are they you ask? I don't know either. Right move him? I guess. For us? Yes. I've missed out a couple of loan signings as they didn't really play a big part in the season as a whole.

The new FM14 is released! (I know I'm a few months late) For those who are avid fans of the Football Manager series, we knew roughly what to expect. I never played FM13, I skipped it totally, in-fact, up until a couple of months ago, I was still playing FM12. If you are going to download/buy FM14, shop around. I looked on Steam and it was listed at £35 at the time. After browsing various sites, I managed to find a deal which was 22 Euros, which I guess is pretty much £20. This gave me a code, to download via steam. Perfect, and £15 cheaper! Cracking on with the game itself, I started as Notts, an obvious choice for me. In previous FM games, I would pretty much ship out 90% of the existing squad and bring in who I wanted. I had been warned, however, that this would unsettle my team and I would struggle, at least initially. Also, on previous FM versions I managed to bounce Notts from League 1 on consecutive promotions all the way to the Premier League, practically re-vamping the squad every season. I was told by friends who have played this game before me, that with FM14, I might struggle achieving these standards. So I did... Season 1 Signings To begin with, I decided that the attacking part of my team wasn't really up to scratch. I was pretty happy with the defense. To compromise on my usual tactic of getting rid of everybody, I decided to replace the attacking half, and keep the defending half, give or take a player or so. As you will see in the screenshot below, this didn't quite materialise. As you can see, I off-loaded a lot of the youngsters on loan. Jamal C-R could have been useful, but I wanted to free up his wages and given his age, 100k was enough to see him away from ML. I brought in A.Keita, only slightly better than Bart, but with a lot of potential and on really small wages. Lopez, Bronzi, Zapata and Mambo were youngsters that could maybe be sold for a profit. The initial big signings were Gomis, Giandonato and Jay Bothroyd. All were Championship standard, with maybe the exception of Giandonato, who had excellent potential. I thought Gomis could be paired with Liddle in midfield, Gia to operate at DM instead of Fotheringham, and Bothroyd to be my main striker. Then the big blow. Offers made for Leacock and Liddle. Fairly big offers for this level, and they both wanted to leave, Leacock I thought I could replace, but Liddle was quite important and this was reflected by me trying to sign him back (unsuccessfully) the following season. Sheehan had offers, but due to the lack of any type of quality left backs available, I wasn't going to let him leave. Further signings included Fitz Hall, an ageing but quality CB to replace Leacock, Dudas, an adequate replacement for JCR, Bauben, to replace Liddle, Manuel Ruz, for challenge/cover for both full-back positions, and Craig Gordon, once recovered from injury, as a backup keeper and part-time GK coach to help Pilks. Gace and Bouazza were bigger signings to confirm the 'complete squad', especially as Grealish wouldn't extend his loan until the end of the season. Results As you can see, the first half of the season didn't go well. Mostly bad form was punctuated with brief periods of good form, followed by another run of losses. I did sort of think that this would be the case with pretty much a complete overhaul of the squad, although I didn't expect it to be this bad. There wasn't really much I could do to halt the bad form, changing tactics, players, nothing seemed to work. This form put me only just above the relegated zone! Moving us on to the second half of the season. Polar opposite. Great form punctuated by the odd loss or draw here and there. Loan signings helped me along the way, but the main key players were the ones that started in the first half of the season. Gace, Bothroyd, Gomis and Bouazza were particular stand outs. The form led me into the play-offs, 5th, and secured good wins over both Tranmere and Sheff. Utd in the play-offs. A great second half of the season, just goes to show what effect changing your whole squad has, it takes half a season for them to adjust. It worked out OK in the end I guess! Season 2 to follow...

I was optomistic at the start of the season too. Was I expecting to get promoted? No. I was expecting some good performances and to bring through at least 1 or 2 youth players in to the first team as starters or regular subs. However, we are now in a situation where our first team players, regardless of the youth, are staring at relegation. I know it is a bit early to say that, but 1 point so far is not exactly promising, to say the least. There seems to be no team chemistry, as in, they don't know what the other players in the team will do in certain situations. So instead of knowing that Dumbuya will try and beat his man, they are trying to give an option for the first time pass. It's this that contributes to the second problem. Flair. Or lack of. Especially in midfield, it seems flat. We need a bit more depth in the play, or the ball will keep being played sideways. It wouldn't matter as much if the wide players were beating players and getting to the byline to swing a ball into a box packed with black and white shirts. But they are not doing that either. On the few occassions that happens, 1 player is there against 4 defenders. Not good odds. In terms of the playing squad, I think players like Fotheringham simply aren't good enough. I didn't think we would, but we do miss Bishop, and Jeff Hughes to an extent. The ability of Bish to split up play effectively, and Hughes to have the technical ability to spay the ball about. Fotheringham doesn't have those abilities. We don't have a playmaker, or at least a midfielder who can pick a pass. Fotheringham doesn't have the ability, and McGregor seems more of an attacking midfielder who is better at taking players on than passing. It's definetly not just CK's fault that we have started like we have. However, it seems to me something isn't working. The players we have are no world beaters, but I don't think they are bottom of League One standard either. Unfortunately, something must change. If they can't work it out in the next match or 2, then I'm sorry Chris, but we'll have to find someone who can kick start this season.