menzinho

Maybe he sits in the stands to get an elevated view? ????

It would be funny but it would only ever be a short PR stunt and I think that kind of goes against how Notts do things anyway. It’s mad how close we actually pushed in them in that National League when you think our 5 of our 6 summer signings came from the National League North/South – (Scott, Macca, Baj, Austin, Tobi) and the other, Baldwin had played less than 20 games in 3 years prior to joining! Wrexham were signing players from League 1 and even the Championship…

That would be the dream @Robbie! And then he leaves Millwall at the end of the season by mutual consent and re-signs for us!

Not sure you could technically call them a fan if they weren’t supporting the club and just one player in the first place... I’d find it very strange if that was the reason not to renew a season ticket. The only exception here is Macca’s family - if they live up north they will have to travel even further now to watch him! ????

I get the concerns about not having a starting 11 that would more resemble the starting 11 against Tranmere, I feel like this pre-season we’ve struggled more with injuries than is being revealed. It’s not helped all the games have been away games so fewer fans have seen the team, most fans are relying on the club to bridge the gap and our media coverage is usually top notch but it feels like we’ve been fed scraps this season. The updates on the games have been minimal and highlights non-existent. I’m having to watch other teams highlights and interviews to try and gauge how we got on! I’m still not overly concerned, yet… But I totally understand why fans would be concerned that we couldn’t score, but conceded against a team with 10 men. A post-match reaction from Boston would’ve gone some way to help calm and explain. I’ve heard we’ve been doing double sessions before games, so if that’s true it would explain why we seem to tail off as games wear on.

I don't think the squad is too far away now, I think the fact Morias has departed means another attacker will be signed and then I'm actually struggling to think what other position we need to sign a player for! We don't have the budget to do a Stockport/Wrexham and have a big squad. If we replace Morias that would give us a squad of 23 (excluding the youngsters). I think that's fine to be honest, I’d rather have a slightly smaller squad with quality players that can play more than just the one position - which is what we have done (hopefully!). Yes we are going to get injuries but we’d have to have some sort of voodoo curse if 3 players end up suffering season ending injuries before the winter again!

Some highlights for those that are interested. Oh and the trialist midfielder was apparently Jake Taylor, he came through Forest's academy before playing for Port Vale and Morecambe.

The only let off is that it's pre-season! That's a calamity! We had some bad moments last season but none of our defenders gave a goal away quite as bad as that. The ball didn't even get out of the 6 yard box, talk about gifts, I think that would get recorded with an XG of 100 ????

I’d say we are ticking over quite nicely, we’ve got the bodies in CM now and I’d want to see Robbo, Edwards and Palmer get a bit more game time this coming week as it should be 2 from the 3 starting come Tranmere. Scott perhaps understandably will take a bit of time to get back in the swing of things considering the amount of time he was out injured. The good news is Jatta is looking very sharp and if he carries on like he has when the real matches start I think the worries about Macca’s replacement will disappear. I’m not overly concerned with the result, it’s meaningless and all the players know it – they’ll just be wanting to build up their match sharpness and avoid a potential injury.

Not going to lie but the fact he didn’t play at all last season does worry me and he had injury issues at Bristol City too. If he stays fit I think he’ll be a very good signing but at the same time it would be disappointing if he only managed a handful of games. Given their age and potential I was hopeful one of Kirk or Mnoga would’ve signed but I’ll trust the judgement of those that have seen them all in action. I just hope Cundy doesn’t spend most of the season on a treatment table!

Happy with that, in Palmer and Edwards we’ve got two experienced CMs, so another younger player with potential is perfect. I’d say there’s some very good competition in midfield now and both Crowley and Austin could always be used deeper if needed. Always reassuring to read good comments from fans at his last club, they are usually the harshest critics! And he couldn't have been that far off potentially getting into Brighton's squad if he’d been training with their first team. The premier league was probably a step too far, too early, but hopefully he can thrive with us.

My earliest memories of Notts revolve around us being in League 2 and struggling so it's slim pickings for me and others from the younger generation. The munto season bought in some fantastic players albeit under false pretences, but had it not been we probably wouldn't have seen the likes of Ben Davies and Kasper Schmeichel. Agree Macca is the most recent best player, his goal record was incredible.

I’m going to echo the sentiments of @Fan of Big Tone, it’s very decent that you’re thinking of those who watch the vlogs but I think ultimately your enjoyment is what’s most important. I know the feeling of not feeling skilled or good enough when you’ve invested time and effort into something. And it is hard when you look at other people doing similar things, you do compare yourself against them. But ultimately, it’s not helpful or useful – everyone has a different skillset and everyone will create something different. Focus on you, that is the only person you can compare yourself against. And actually, you don’t give yourself enough credit by saying you don’t feel you’re skilled or talented, because you are. I went back and looked at your first vlog and compared it to the Stockport one – I’ll tell you this now just 15 seconds in I saw a massive improvement, it was that obvious! Even if you don’t think you are, you are constantly learning and getting better. So don’t tell yourself you’re not good at it because you are. In terms of offering some practical advice, whatever your first game is next season maybe just go to it with the sole purpose of watching Notts, then after it see how you feel. You might feel like you missed capturing the game, maybe you'll have enjoyed just watching it and want to take a break from vlogging. Whatever you choose to do is the right decision.

I’m still cautious to predict and top 3 spot, we did finish 14th last season and getting in the top 3 would be quite a jump, I think play-offs is a very realistic goal though and I’d hope we’d finish in them or at worst miss out by just a point our two. And again I could be completely wrong here but the two big spenders in Wrexham and Stockport are gone and Mansfield weren’t exactly on a shoe-string budget either so I’d expect the league to be quite close when it comes to the promotion spots this season. Still think we need a few signings before the season starts, so maybe I'll predict an exact position just before the Tranmere game!

Yeah, very interesting, I will add to your ideas @Wheelbarrow repair man I think you’d need to up a win to 4 points, if you wanted to award 2 points for a score draw. A 1 point gap between a score draw and win doesn’t feel fair to me, a win needs to be properly rewarded. And in your system a score draw and a win on penalty shootout gets you 3 points too! Feels like you're over-rewarding drawing. Also @Robbie part of me thinks if you’re going to add bonus points for scoring would it then makes sense to reward good defending too? Add bonus point for a clean sheet?

I was a bit of fussy eater when I was younger and so vegetables in general were a struggle. I didn’t mind eating them in meals, my parents used to do the old cut it up small and cover it with sauce trick, but the stand-alone carrot or courgette staring up at me from the plate was a no-no. Funny how looking back I can’t really describe why I didn’t like them, I just didn’t. Nowadays I eat pretty much most veg, there’s not much I don’t really like and living with a vegetarian I’ve learnt to cook it in a lot more interesting ways than the standard boil it and serve it with some potatoes and meat! Horse-radish has always been a massive no and still is for me, just something about the flavour being way too strong.

A 15-year-old knows what they are doing but at same time the parents knowingly knew he had access to the guns and were alright with him using it – I know it’s not a view shared by all in America but how can anything be gained from letting a child use gun!? Personally, it might be harsh but if America isn’t going to do anything about gun restriction, these mass-shooting will just keep happening. A ruling like this would at least make parents think twice about letting their child use a gun. I genuinely feel sorry for the kids at schools in America, it's unacceptable that they have do gun drills to prepare for a shooting. Like how tragic can that be teaching a 6 year old to hide under their desk… And the sad thing is, the drills don't really protect them it’s all just down to luck, really bad luck, at the end of the day. It’s bizarre so many Americans can’t see the issue here and all because of some poxy statement written nearly 250 years ago. Society has moved on it’s about time America did too.

I know it's not in the spirit of it but they could've just picked the Spanish starting 11, I know they won but they way they did it and the teams they beat was very impressive indeed! I really liked Füllkrug the German No.9, a bit of a old-school forward, Havertz got picked instead of him a lot but every time he came off the bench he did really well. Ardu Guler, the very young Turkish playmaker added some real quality to their side. And it was strange how the big stars of the tournament like De Bruyne, Mbappé, Lewandowski and Ronaldo all had pretty poor showings.

I've seen a few people already rolling their eyes at Lee Carsley on social media, but I wonder if they've actually seen his England U21 team play? I was really impressed with his England team when I watched them in the last European Championships (we won all our games no-extra time needed). Before that when England were managed by Aidy Boothroyd they got knocked out of the European Championships at the group stage, twice... That said, if Klopp wanted to, it would be daft to not pick him though surely! ????

I’m going to have to completely disagree with you there. Crawley got promoted last season and they play just like us and Stockport aren’t too dissimilar either (but yes they were heavily backed). I can remember lots of fans saying, after losing in the play-offs, that possession based passing out from the back football doesn't work in the National League. Even I was guilty of thinking we needed more changes at times but it never came. We needed a big forward to replace Kyle Wootton, we got Langstaff. We needed two ball winning CM’s, we got Palmer & Bostock. And massive CB to play in the middle of the back 3, we got Baldwin. So pretty much the total opposite, but it worked. Any style of football can work, but what’s important is getting in the right players (and good ones) to play that system and ultimately a coach who can coach it! I think the issue last season wasn't the style of play but the step up being too much for some of our defenders. It was the one area of the pitch where we didn't strengthen and it cost us (as did Palmer getting injured but that's a different story). I thought early(ish) after Stuart came in you could see we'd made tweaks to how we play and looked better set up defensively but there's only so much a coach can do, he can't physically head it/clear it out of our box for them!

Yeah, the fact he was made captain straight away tells you the quality of the players already there clearly isn't great. I'm not trying to be disrespectful to KC here, I hope he does well there, but their manager only saw him play a couple of friendlies, not even fully fit and thought, "yep he's levels above these guys and I'll be starting him every game!" I'll be interested to see how he does once the season starts, it's very likely he'll have a few good games and few terrible ones because the the Scottish Premier League is really odd in sense that that gap between the top and bottom is huge. It's like having a league with 2 Premiership teams, 2 Championship teams, 2 League One teams, 2 League Two teams and 2 National League teams...

Neal Ardley, Ian Burchnall, Luke Williams didn't pick any academy players to regularly start, and it's the same with Stuart Maynard now too. So are they all wrong or is it just simply the players aren't up to standard and therefore not ready to play? Like every other player at Notts, they've got to earn their chance surely? If we just suddenly start all these youngsters and results are affected because of it the fans will just immediately call for them to be out of the team and blame the head coach for chucking them in too early. We have to realistic here with the academy how many a 17/18 year old players will actually be able to go straight into the team and improve it? A very low percentage sadly. I think the issue for a lot of the academy players is that they simply need more time to develop but because we don't have a reserve team they don't always get the chance to prove themselves properly at Notts.

I don’t think Stuart was hired to stick the model, it's more his style of coaching fits our current model… And our model is working at the minute though isn’t it? When we dropped into the National League we always finished in the play-off’s thus giving us a chance of promotion every season, then we did get promoted and last season by not getting relegated we’ve progressed once more. Just from a financial and logistical point too it makes so much sense to have a philosophy. Look at Notts before the Bros, we never had a clear way of playing, just a massive turnover of players to suit each manager who had a different style. Not only did it hamper us but it would've cost a lot too. I don’t see why it needs to be changed right now, that’s not to say it won’t need tweaking in the future but the Bros don’t strike me as stubborn, if their data is telling them we’re lacking in one area we’ll look to improve it. I agree with @Robbie that you only need to look at the recruitment this season with the defenders. We’ve prioritised ability to defend over ability to play out from the back. And in terms of Rich Montague pacing up and down, that just tells me he cares. We’re lucky in that sense, look at all the clubs where fans constantly protest about their board members because they don’t care.

I know it's only pre-season but a result like that is definitely encouraging. Assuming like us they put out a mix of pros and youngsters, the level of the Wycombe team will be a lot better than Alfreton. Love to know who the trialist was that scored, judging by the team-sheet I'd say it was the trialist midfielder (although given our gun-ho attack at times you can't 100% rule out that the trialist defender scored it!) Elliot Thorpe could be the guy given he played against Alfreton... There’s is a picture online that shows Haji Mnoga played in the game, first half as he's playing in defence behind Gordon. He's a player that you would say is in a similar situation to Alex Kirk, in that he needs to join a team and settle down to properly start his career. However, given they both play primarily in the RCB spot you’d think we’d only have a spot for one them... Hard to know who has the better potential. Kirk wouldn’t have stayed at Arsenal for as long as he had if they didn’t think he’d have a chance of making it. Whilst Mnoga is a year old he's played a lot more professional games and even featured internationally for Tanzania. I’m glad I don’t have to be the one who has to decide, if indeed we do eventually sign one of them!

As it's behind closed doors I'm hoping Notts will be recording it and can put some sort of highlights out after the match.