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Congrats to Crawley, I thought once they went 1-0 they managed the game very well. Their fans will be incredibly grateful for VAR though. If that pen had stood and been scored it would've been a massive controversy! However whilst I’d be celebrating, I’d be a tad worried going into next season. They lost 18 times in L2 and only finished 9 points ahead of us! That doesn’t exactly feel like a team that's ready to step-up. The top 3 were quite comfortably ahead of the rest in the end and their massively superior GD tells a story too. Recruitment will have to be almost perfect for them over the summer, even with that I think if they stay up next season they’ll have done very well.

Both Farrend Rawson and Jacob Bedeau will be leaving Morecambe, both offer slightly different things, will be interesting to see the stats for these too. Danny Collinge is an interesting player, featured quite a lot for England youth teams and signed for Stuttgart when he was younger. I think he's very comfortable with the ball at his feet so it wouldn't surprise me if he was player we were looking at. I can’t claim to have seen much of him but by all accounts he had a very good season and was named in the National League Team of the Year.

Joel Senior will be leaving Morecambe now and Gus Scott-Morriss will be out of contract but Southend do have the option to extend this - no news as of yet. Senior seems the obvious choice at the moment he's definitely good enough for this league and won Morecambe's fans and players’ player of the season award. Similarly Scott-Morriss won the fans and sponsors player of the season award this season. He is generally very highly rated by Southend fans, most would say he’s the best right wing-back in the NL.

With O'Brien and Bostock off, there's space to recruit two really good options. I noticed Charlie Lakin had a really good second half of the season at Sutton, seemed to score every week at one point! Callum Maycock from Solihull is out of contract and has been offered a new contract – usually a good sign! He played pretty much every game and scored 8 goals too. Most Solihull fans seem to really rate him and is described as “tireless” and “energetic”, not sure how technically good he is though – he doesn’t stick out in memory when we played them. Interestingly JJ McKiernan is the only player Morecambe have offered a contract to that hasn't turned it down, yet. His defensive stats are surprisingly good, and I know he considers himself more of an attacking midfielder.

Next season is tough to predict for me, we've been so mixed since SM arrived, but the squad should be better so... 24/25: 7th (Lose play-offs) 25/26: 6th (Lose play-offs) 26/27: 2nd Promoted 27/28: 11th League 1 28/29: 13th League 1

Yes, it's never quite the same when Notts aren't playing but I've got a few topics I think I'll post over the summer that'll entice a few replies (or drive them further away as I try to just about connect them to Notts!)

It was a great performance by Oxford, I fancied Bolton before it kicked off but they just never got going. Their performance reminded me of ours in the play-off final against Harrogate. Watching Ruben play again was bittersweet! I know some thought he'd made a strange decision moving to Oxford but he got it spot on and is a Championship player now. It's been quite a dramatic rise for him these last few seasons. I was slightly hopeful if it hadn't worked out at Oxford we'd see him again for us but I think that ship has truly sailed now... Be interesting to see how he gets on the Championship now, I think he'll be fine!

I've just read that article, thanks for posting it @Robbie! The bit about LW leaving really stands out though, he speaks about him like he was some sort of super-human and how he was "heartbroken"! I can only assume he wasn't the only player who felt that way given he says the mood of players was horrible. That clearly affected the form more than we realised. And I know it's harsh, but I'm imagining if I was a player hearing the next gaffer is coming from Wealdstone I wouldn't initially be excited. Now I'm not saying a "big-name" was someone we should've gone for but I'd imagine it would've lifted the spirits quicker, whereas SM probably had to prove himself on the training pitch and needed time to bond with the players to get them back on track - which by the end of the season (FGR excluded) he did. Very interesting though, just hoping we offer him a new contract over the summer or early at the start of next season like we did with Macca!

I know age is just a number, but I'd be amazed if a 17 year old was good enough to come in challenge for the No.1 spot... I've never seem him play (or even heard of him for that matter). He does sounds like a very promising player though, played the back end of last season in the NLN for Darlington and has already played for the England under 19s when he was just 16! I've found a little article about him: https://rokerreport.sbnation.com/2024/3/18/24102459/the-lowdown-on-matty-young-how-is-sunderlands-next-top-keeper-prospect-doing-at-darlo

Given most their work goes unseen I can’t really comment on how well they’ve done but they’ve been part of team that’s been on an upward trajectory over the past few seasons. The team was definitely fit enough to carry out LW rigorous pressing and I know Tom Weal got a lot of credit for the penalty shoot-out that eventually got us promoted. In terms of coaching staff, only Joao Alves remains from the promotion season so you can’t accuse Notts of being too sentimental now… They’d have been on short(ish) contracts just like the players, I guess the club thinks a change would be beneficial. Always sad when people move on though and it's a lovely message that Tom has posted. I hope he and Ian Hutton find new clubs for next season.

If you scrap VAR fans (and managers) will still moan about the decisions the refs get wrong, I'd predict they'd be quite lenient for a few months but once the novelty of no VAR has worn off and big decisions go against them they'll want some sort of way of looking at these scenarios... Every other sport manages to implement some sort of technology without it having a major impact on the flow of the game. I think it just needs to be used a lot more sparingly, some form of VAR-Light! Stop checking goals/fouls for 3 minutes, stop drawing lines for offsides - if you can't tell with the eye just go with the on field decision. Just add a bit of common sense into the whole thing really. You could even have a system where managers/head coaches get a limited number of challenges like in tennis or cricket for example. VAR should be treated as a fall-back system, not something it seems refs are totally reliant on now. I'd totally understand why you'd scrap it in it's current form but I think getting rid of it creates another set of problems.

It’s been a few weeks since the retained list was announced and I guess he will be the first “signing” we will potentially hear about. But as we’ve only offered him a one-year deal, I wonder if he’ll be exploring his options to get a longer contract elsewhere. What do you think, do you expect him to stay?

Now that would be an interesting offer and dilemma! I know his last few seasons haven’t been great since his big injury at Chesterfield. Assuming there are not any lasting effects I’d be very tempted as we'd effectively get a replacement and a lot of money. He just scored 7 goals in 16 games in a struggling Boreham Wood team, I think in our team given the chances we create he would do pretty well. Peterborough sold Mason-Clark to Coventry for £4.25 Mil so they would be one of the few L1 clubs that could realistically afford him…

If hadn’t been for the points deductions it would be a foregone conclusion really. It does feel like gap between the Championship and Prem is getting bigger and I’d be amazed if either Luton or Burnley stay up. I agree I don’t think forest staying up is that bad, their prices will continue rocket and most ordinary people won't be able to watch them, luckily there’s a better value team across the river… It's likely you’ve got the three teams that went up going straight back down, and the potential champions have breached 115 rules. It’s the greatest league in the world, apparently.

He’s a long way from the goal and I think that’s what saved him, I agree there’s still a lot for the attacker to do before he can potentially have a shot on goal, no-one can actually say where the ball would’ve ended up. So, by the current laws I guess the ref is correct. I don’t agree with it though, I think it’s borderline cheating like “tactical fouls” or when players just drag a player back to stop a counter and take the booking. The modern game doesn’t really have the sufficient rules for these situations in my opinion.

I think VAR does have a place in football, I just don’t agree with the way it’s used currently. I thought it was going to be used for clear and obviously mistakes, but it seems they check everything and every goal, even when they don’t need too. When you’re having to look at things for 3/4 minutes it can’t be a clear or oblivious mistake… I don’t want to force them into making more mistakes by applying time constraints or just the one replay but if it’s an obvious mistake you should, in theory, spot it straight away. Another grievance I have is the handball rule, deliberate handball we’re told, but so many times I’ve seen balls smashed at players who are about 5 yards away and it hits their arm that’s slightly away from their body and penalty is given. VAR never overrules it either. ????‍♂️

Some potentially very good options mentioned already. I know people will be dubious of another young player from Norwich, but it seems Accrington got the best one this year. Brad Hills played pretty much every game for them at CB this season and by all accounts was very good.

I think these will be key additions if want to progress, I think having both Jodi and Nemane against the better teams causes us more problems than it solves. Connor Barrett's 11 assists for Fylde stand out, I've never seen him play but if he's equally as good as defending at it seems he is attacking that would seem like a really great option. And think someone like Joel Senior would be the solid, but unspectacular option, he'd definitely be better at defending than Nemane. I think Rydel has been offered a contract by Stockport but if he turns it down I'd be approaching him. I was hoping to see a bit of Tsaroulla in Crawley's play-off game but he didn't start and I'd turned off by the time he came on (for all of about 10 mins!)

Can’t say other than Alex Bass I’m that excited by any of the current offerings at the moment, the young Stoke keeper looks good but we’ve got our own young GK in Tiernan right now and the next keeper we bring in needs to be first choice really. I wonder if Wimbledon will go in for Alex Bass now that they’ve released their previous No.1 Nik Tzanev. They’ve probably got a slight advantage over us if we were to go in for him as I’m assuming he enjoyed his spell there…

The Bradford home game, first half, was great too. I’ll go for the Morecambe 5-0 win at home, completely dominated them. And it's mad that we did the double over Doncaster and they looked like the poorest team in the division. Yet now they are one game away from Wembley. And it might sound it, but I’m genuinely not being bitter here, but I think both them and Crawley (assuming they don’t fall apart in the second leg) will struggle in L1. But good luck to ‘em!

I was always more hopeful he'd stay, because I too think there's a very limited number of clubs who could afford him and realistically want him. In my opinion I think most Championship clubs would view him as a risky signing as he'd be jumping up two levels. And in League 1, a lot of clubs would love him but not many could afford him. I've always thought Macca is very happy here and the interview just confirms that for me, I'm even more hopeful he'll be around next season too!

Yeah it's a real shame that Southwood broke his leg in the last game of the season, think that rules him out. He would've been, potentially a very good option, faced 8 pens and saved 4 of them this season! The only GK that’s been released that has caught my attention (and hasn’t been mentioned) is Matt Macey from Portsmouth, I think I’m purely drawn to him cos he’s 6 ft 7”! Think he’d be a touch out of our budget though. Possibly the same with Bart now too, I’d guess he’d have been on a very good wage playing the championship for the last 10 years.

Yeah what's happened at Birmingham is pretty tragic, a classic case of just going for the big name without doing any proper research. As for us, I don't think we've ever had an American owner, we definitely haven't had one this century (which covers my time following Notts) I've got some vague recollection of some American's mentioning they were interested in purchasing us when Ray Trew was looking to sell the club. I'm sure someone claiming to be part of the consortium was even posting on social media but I can't remember the names of any of them... The Taylor Swift story was bonkers, I can't imagine it was ever serious though!

I’d be so tempted by Aaron Hayden, if it wasn’t for his awful injury record. Is it just bad luck? I’d look into a bit cos he’s scored 19 goals for Wrexham in about 80 games which for a CB is insane. Most of them would’ve been headers too, and that’s an area where we struggle. If we’re looking for a JO'B replacement, Luke Young would be a very good option. Played lots of games, very experienced, although he actually reminds me of Michael Doyle more… Chris Con-Clarke of Altrincham looks ready to step up a level, not sure he’s needed but if Jodi went I’d go straight in for him. And I’ve been watching the Bunch of Amateurs series which follows Dorking, Harrison Male is definitely a terrific shot stopper but I agree his smaller size does mean he’s not that commanding of his area. He's good on the ball too as Dorking always try to play out from the back. If I had to liken him to a well-known keeper I’d say he reminds me of Jordan Pickford.

It’s a tough decision to make, he obviously loves playing but at the same time you must want to finish with a good season performance wise. There’d be nothing worse than finishing with a string of performances where you look past it. Would the club offer him a coaching role? We have Stuart Maynard, Matt Saunders, Craig Saunders, Joao Alves and Tom Weal (set-pieces?). That would give us 6 coaches and for a L2 club that seems like a lot. I think someone would have to leave to free up a space. And I’m still thinking about the recent interview with RM and him talking about the academy and wanting to see the progression there. It’s way more of a gamble but giving someone like James Sanderson a chance, over an experienced pro here has to be way more beneficial in the long-term.