menzinho

Wow. Wasn’t expecting everyone to go, equally didn’t think we’d have so many left… 17! 1 GK 4 Defenders 8 Midfielders 4 Strikers I’m still not confident the likes of Enzio, Hemmings & Dennis will stay but if they do we’d only really need to sign defenders, a keeper and a CM assuming (and I really hope) we only want a squad of between 22-25 players.

A letter for something like this does seem a weird way to do it. Maybe it’s just procedure and a slow news week at the Post. Or there’s more to the letters, possible it could relate to the take-over not being complete. Maybe no players can technically be offered new deals because no budget/funds have been set/made available for next season…

I know the BBC has the radio broadcasting rights for the National League, unlike the EFL games they have online streams of all the games which are available from the BBC Sport commentaries page. I’m sure you’ll know whether or not you have access to BBC content, I’m not sure how it works for people abroad… Hopefully the club will release some information for overseas fans before the season kicks off.

At first I thought about a complete gutting to the squad like most but having to rebuild an entire squad in the National League is just unrealistic. If NA thought it was hard to get his first-choice targets to come in January, whoever’s in charge has got a tough job ahead of them. I think if we start the season with something like only 5/6 contracted pros we’ll be in trouble and find it too difficult to fill the squad out with any quality so for that reason… Assuming all the loanee’s are gone, I’d keep: Fitz, purely because I don’t think we’ll be able to sign two keepers better than him. In the defence: I’d be tempted to keep either Duffy or Brisley. Both would be okay in the league below. Bird is contracted which again means only 2 CB’s in rather than 3. I’d keep Tootle and again Milsom would be okay back-up for next season. In Midfield: We're pretty much covered for CM. Did someone say Rose doesn’t want to/won’t play in the National League? I’d keep him if we can. I think Patching and Crawford both deserve a chance. Defo keep O’Brien. As for the attacking/wide players, Kellett is contracted and I’d like him to stay but I don’t think he will. Forwards: There’s no chance we’ll get players better than Dennis and Hemmings, defo keep but I can’t imagine they’ll stay. I worry our forward line will be really weak next season… Undecided: Jones is no for me at left back, but I wonder whether he’d be an option for LM next season. Hewitt under Nolan was fine, at the start of the season he was the only CM that could move and tackle. If we lose Rose I’d be tempted to keep him. Doyle, experienced yes but didn’t have the impact on the field we’d hope. And I don’t know enough about the youngsters like Dunn and Campbell so it would be unfair for me to judge. So, for me definitely to go: Duffy or Brisley, Ward, Evina, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Vaughan, Husin, Alessandra, Stead & Players I think will go: Hemmings, Dennis, Enzio, Kellett, Etete. That would leave us with 10/11 pros (not including youngsters) meaning we’d need another 11/12 signings. That’s still a whole new team. Good luck persuading quality players to join us now we’re non-league!

I don’t pay much attention to rumours on twitter but this guy has been right about lots of transfers before including our signings of Dennis, Hemmings and Enzio last season. He’s posted some news about Notts. Potential incoming? I don’t know anything about Bennett, as for Oliver well his hold play was 6/10, his goal threat 1/10. I guess this is the only kind of calibre we’ll be able to attract now though… Potential outgoing? I’d hazard a guess Enzio will be on a good wage and if we can recoup some of the money we spent on him last season I’m sure the club would be willing to do a deal…

I don't see what AH has to gain from lying about the takeover, he stated on the radio he expects it all to be done within the next 7-10 days. We've seen Terry Pritchard at the games, I've no reason to believe it's not legit. In terms of the new owners wanting AH to stay on, that says to me they've got NO experience in running a football club and want Alan to help! I can't see how Alan can stay on, but novices at the helm is the last thing the club needs right now...

Imagine if Cambridge pull off a win and we don’t. I’ll feel physically sick. But seriously I’ve got a horrible feeling we’re going to go through all the emotions tomorrow, nothing is ever straight-forward with Notts! Over the course of 90 minutes we’ll be going down at one point, have a chance of survival the next, probably even be safe at some stage! I really hope we just go all out for the win. 3 points or nothing. Que será, será and all that...

The whispers going around are about it being connected to Bidvest – A multi-billion company from South Africa, they’re huge. We were sponsored by 3663 the food company a few years back. They are part of Bidvest; Bid Corp and now called Bidfood based in the UK. So there’s a connection there. Interestingly Bidvest also own football team in South Africa; Bidvest Wits (previously know as Wits University before the takeover). I’m sceptical but those are the rumours…

Great post, a really interesting topic. Like you say there’s not a lot that be done to stop the poaching of star players like you’ve mentioned. It’s just frustrating that Notts won’t get the chance to reap the rewards for players they’ve potentially supported for years! However, there’s still plenty of promising players at that club and when you consider over the last 10 years the only youth team players who made the step up and had regular involvement in the first 11 were Hollis & Thompson, it’s shocking! That’s 2 players over 10 seasons worth of football! It makes you wonder why we bother with a youth set-up at all. I think one of the main issues over the last load of seasons has been our aim of; “promotion” at an almost impossible pace. It’s high pressure and only about getting results. That’s meant too many managers and too many players. Every season is the same; loads of players out and loads of new players in. And we try again and again to get promoted. The youth players don’t get a look in because they aren’t an immediate fix to our unyielding aim for promotion (or inevitable battle to avoid relegation when it all goes wrong). Not once have we stopped to think about just taking our time to build a great squad. And this is where you can and should include giving our young players more of an opportunity – because the pressure won’t be there to get promoted every season. We’ve definitely got some good young players at this club, but if you never give them that chance, you’ll never know how good they could be…

I’m dreading this weekend. I expect an OK performance from Notts like usual. The effort will be there but the cohesion and quality won’t. It really is groundhog day, how many times have we said “this weekend’s game is a must win game?”. How many times have Yeovil and Macc slipped up, and then we have as well? Too many. It’s the most excruciating and painful scrap for survival ever. For once I'm more concerned about Macclesfield, they go to Port Vale who are now managed by Mr Macclesfield himself: John Askey. He has nearly 700 appearances for the club and managed them for 5 years as well. He must have spent close to 30 years there. I'm sure he'll have a soft spot for them and I just wonder how seriously he'll take the game. I won't be surprised if Vale try out a few youngsters and give their fringe players a run out too... Hopefully I’m wrong but this could be the weekend we go down.

https://www.nottinghampost.com/sport/football/football-news/south-african-consortium-move-closer-2788490 Looks like we won’t have to wait much longer to find out the identify of our new owners! A statement could be made later on this week, just a couple of minor queries to sort. Hopefully it all goes through. It’s encouraging to see they still want to purchase us even if we drop into the National League (which looks increasingly likely now). Also news about the other bidders; Alex May and Norman Smurthwaite. Not much about May, but Smurthwaite is the Port Vale owner. Port Vale are also in the middle of a takeover which would mean Smurthwaite will soon be the ex-owner. However, you’d be hard pushed to find a Vale fan with a good opinion of the guy… Fingers crossed the South African’s are a good bunch…

Fitting that over this Easter weekend it's now pretty much Notts last chance to resurrect the season. Over the two games 4 points has to be the minimum here. That's a win and a draw, any less and I really think it will take the miracle beyond all miracles to stay up. I'm not feeling confident, simply put MK are good and our home form is bad. I think we'll need at least 2 goals to get something out of it. And I'll take a draw if that can then be converted into a win away at Crawley. Here's to hoping we have new life come Monday, but I'm expecting we might just be nailed on for the conference...

I don’t see why the Fitz illness isn’t genuine. People get ill all the time; chest infection, tonsillitis, sickness bug, it could be anything. CMS was ill only a few weeks ago… It’s just incredibly unfortunate timing. Anyway here’s to hoping Palmer has an absolute blinder tomorrow. Oh and is it just me does he look a little bit like Kevin Pilkington!?

Pretty sure we've only lost Schofield for one game. It was a professional foul wasn't it? It can't have been for dissent or a violent tackle... "If a player is sent off for a professional foul (eg holding an opponent back when they're through on goal) or a second bookable offence they will be handed a one-match ban". Still it's a great opportunity for Ross, I thought he got some unfair stick earlier in the season. I still think he's decent if given the chance and he'll have a better and more organised team in-front of him now.

Absolutely awful result for us as Macclesfield won 3-2 against Exeter tonight, that moves them out of the relegation zone and onto 39 points! We're bottom again with Yeovil, both on 37 points. Macc just have to better or equal our and Yeovil's results for the remaining games and that's them staying up. We have to beat Crewe now, especially as Crawley are playing Yeovil - I really don't see what a good outcome is good here. In a purely selfish way I hope Crawley end up getting sucked into this battle as we still have to play them. However our record against teams in and around the relegation zone has been shocking. Yeovil winning wouldn't be great either though! 5 games left to go. Our GD could be damning so I think we need 3 wins and a draw. That means only one loss from 5. That's a big ask...