menzinho

I watched a bit of the England U21's as they are in the Euro's this month and I've seen the Club World Cup adverts on Channel 5 that starts soon. And the Women's Euros are at the end of the month too, Notts might not be playing but the football seemingly never ends! I check the Notts social media each day but even in the quiet periods I don't get wound up about the lack of news. Although I am eagerly awaiting the announcement of our new head coach, I really thought we'd hear something this week. Surely that'll be announced sometime next week now. As for filling my empty Saturdays, I do like to get on my bicycle now the weather has improved. Usually I'll plan a bit of route, avoiding the busiest roads and pot-holed lanes and then go off for an hour or two.

Yeah no shortage of great goals there, but my favourite was the little chip against Gillingham. As for team goal, you don’t really see it but the goal against Forest Green was good, it was a really quick and well executed break I think Jodi ran half the length of pitch before picking him out.

Two number 10s would be my absolute top priorities given we’ve lost Didzy, Crowley and Whitaker. Grant is a bit of an enigma and Edwards just really struggled after his injury. It’s such a key position for how we play, unless we are going to set-up slightly differently we need some real quality here. In League 2 I think Jack Payne is probably the next best attacking midfielder, he would be great for us, but I can’t see that transfer happening. I agree we need another centre back, back-up keeper and possibly another wingback too.

I would say the Football League World site is definitely more credible than someone just posting on social media, they had the story about us signing Matthew Dennis and back in January they reported that we were going to sign Whitaker, which we did... They certainly don’t just make things up. Because of this I’d be inclined to think that holding talks Norburn is something the club has done, but I’m sure they’ll be other clubs interested in him too. I would’ve thought he was a little bit out of our league in terms of wages but I guess with Didzy leaving that makes this more of a possibility. He’s a decent League 1 player so he’d be a good/very good League 2 player. As for Jamie Walker, only got 16 starts for Bradford this season I can't say I know much about him but if was really good surely he'd have started a lot more matches (and Bradford would've wanted to keep him).

The longer the wait the more I'd be inclined to think someone who is currently available is less likely, just because it's easier and quicker to get sorted. I get both Plymouth and Cardiff have been looking for new managers but are we really going to attract the managers/coaches they've been talking to? These are clubs that will want to and are capable of going straight back up into the Championship. What we are doing is great and yes it's a project here, but in my eyes we are in very differing scenarios. Obviously hope I'm wrong and I'll be the first to celebrate the arrival of Des Buckingham!

In the last statement about the new head of performance the club stated 'As well as introducing our new coaching team, we’ll be announcing a restructuring of our football department’. Now maybe I'm reading way too much into it/ reading it wrong, but could the club be kind putting a team of coaches together to then work under a new head-coach? Usually you sign a head-coach and he brings his own staff, but we are so much less obvious and predictable in our approach now something like this would not surprise me. Maybe some of these names that have appeared more recently and low in the odds will form a part of the coaching staff but not be the actual head-coach...

I still think this is the eventual end goal, but I seem to remember Joe Palmer saying green space was at a premium so finding somewhere affordable and suitable has been a massive challenge. In the meantime this deal is basically the next best thing, how many other League 2 clubs will have a replica of their home pitch? That is pretty awesome. Although I would argue maybe having a poorer quality pitch as well wouldn't go a miss because in League 2 our pitch is more of a rarity than the norm! Not only is going to be a great training facility, all this adds to the package to how Notts can sell themselves to potential signings too. I can imagine it will really wow players especially if they've just visited one of the less glamorous L1/L2 clubs shall we say!

The 15 League appearances are a tad misleading, because he’s only played 10/20 minutes here and there in most of his appearances. He got more game time in the EFL Trophy, but these matches are somewhat glorified friendlies. I'm not overly concerned though because George Abbott hadn’t played any ‘real’ football before. If you are good enough you are good enough basically. I’ve just done it there but he is going to get compared to Abbott given he’ll play a similar role, which might not be entirely fair as all players are different. Anyway, I hope he does well for us and makes us all feel gutted when he has to leave come next summer!

That is the £1 million question @Robbie , I guess there is only one way of finding out! I get your point though, if you have someone who knows the league you would assume that gives them an advantage. But at the same time experience is no guarantee of success either, Paul Simpson, Mark Bonner, Nigel Adkins, Scott Lindsey and John Coleman all have promotions in the EFL and all of them got sacked last season... Let’s put it this way, I’m glad I don’t have to choose the next head coach!

I think the Reedtz Brothers said after Richard Montague left, they would look into re-structuring the club slightly. I’m guessing they had to wait for Roberto to officially join and get his input as he is our director of football. It would be odd to do it without him. Sounds like a very useful addition to me, if he can increase the player availability it’ll help us massively and being able to add another dimension to the recruitment model is great to. The title ‘Director of Performance’ does make him sound more fitting to a theatrical academy than a football club though!

Getting a team that hasn’t been in the Swedish top division since 1997 and then keeping them there for a few seasons is quite impressive to be fair. Degerfors aren’t exactly a club with a big budget (from what I can find) and average less than 4,000 fans per match. The big clubs in Sweden get around 20,000… Again, no idea how credible or how likely this all is. He has managed in the Swedish top division and if he has a pro-license it would, given the info from @JustLikeJuve, seem like getting a permit might be possible.

He's still 10/1 on the odds list !🤭 I would like to know who put money on him though, chucking money down the drain would've given you the same return!

I don’t think it’s a massive issue anymore, especially if the recruitment team is really good a head coach won’t complain if they keep providing them with top quality players. And as long as the process is collaborative and the head coach does have some input (which I’m 99% sure happens with us) I think it’s a smart way of doing things. You take a load of the head coach as they don’t actively have to spend anytime scouting, it’s all done for them. They can focus solely on coaching the first-team. A big positive is that in theory you'll never miss out on signing a good player. We signed Langstaff with no head coach, if we had to wait until Luke had become our head coach he could’ve been snapped up by some other club... And it does stop managers just signing players who only they like, which sometimes doesn’t always benefit the team. We’ll never end up with players like Jude Stirling or Nicky Hunt who were basically signed because they give a good vibe to the place... I notice Kevin Nolan has signed Fitzsimmons again. If Northampton had a recruitment team I can’t imagine they would’ve signed him because he’s not a League 1 level player.

The reaction from the Bradford fans has been funny, they are seemingly freaking out because of his age. Yes he's probably past his peak, but some players have the ability to keep playing to a high standard regardless of their age. They'd be gutted if they signed McGoldrick then 😬

Yes, all very impressive I am a big fan of the new look and feel. Functions perfectly on my desktop and mobile. The site doesn't load on my tablet but I suspect this is due to the fact it's rather ancient 😂 I can't quite remember what android system it is operating on but the updates stopped years ago, probably best for security reasons anyway!

Really interesting article, comes across as a really decent guy. I think studying for a degree in social work when his playing career ended and volunteering for the Leeds Youth Justice Service gives him something more than just being a football coach, this will definitely help him to really connect with players. I wouldn't say having watched that Wigan team the style of play fits with our foundations shall we say, but who's to say he's not flexible and maybe he only played that way because he thought it suited the players he had at Wigan better. Tobias Solberg, who I can't remember seeing in the odds, is now the favourite and this is more the type of coach I expected us to go for... But who knows? I do think we'll hear something this coming week.

There was a big shift in how we attacked under Stuart when you compare him to Luke Williams. We probably over committed too many players in attack under Luke, but at the same time the actual link up play and general threat was always there. I never felt this way watching us under Stuart most of the time last season. The wingbacks were the biggest difference, they were a lot deeper to the point we looked like we were playing a back 5 at times. We actually lost a lot of width in an attacking sense and when you want to play like we do it's a massive hindrance. Also when they did go forward they were left to basically fend for themselves which is why they were a lot more ineffective this season. I can’t remember us ever playing little one-twos to get them in behind which we used to do to such great effect under Luke. Another little thing I noticed was that generally in midfield and upfront when we were attacking we would take three or four touches more often than one or two, which in turn slows the ball speed down. I get the one and two touch football is a tad riskier but at the same time you need to move the ball as quick as possible to break through stubborn defences. Direct balls also have a big part of play even in possession based sides, I’d like to see quick switches of play and pinging balls into space to turn defences and stretch sides more. You need the movement and well-timed runs but again that was something we lacked last season. We played the ball to feet far to often so again this made us easier to defend against. Losing Jodi and Crowley also had a big effect as they were basically players that you can just give the ball to and their superior ability means they can just do things most can’t in this league. But Jarvis always looked really dangerous to me, he has that ability to glide past players and I think he was used badly last season. Maybe we were a touch predictable, but I would say the issue was more we were too slow and safe when it came to our attacking play last season. Lots of teams know how we are likely to set-up that said if our attacking play is on point and it’s slick and quick there really isn’t a lot you can do to stop it.

Given that Cundy has left I think we'll add one more CB, assuming that we are going to continue with a back 3. I think that would be more than enough and I'm half hoping one of our academy defenders will potentially be in the future squad. Personally I think right now Macari, Platt & Bedeau would be my choice. I'm hoping Ness can stay injury free for more of next season because I think he's more than good enough to play regularly too. If we switched to a back four I think I'd still have the three from above but shift them along one and play Tsaroulla at left-back.

Now been confirmed that Hawkes is leaving Tranmere so he'll have a new club for next season, could it be us?

A very solid first signing for next season. From a Carlisle United fan: "Dennis is a 6ft1, agile, quick, strong, striker, who's technically good and gets into good positions... They aren't common." That’ll do for me!

Yes I have seen on social media that someone claiming to be in the know has suggested Leam Richardson could well be the next head coach. I'm not too sure to be honest, he's got a league 1 title to his name so he's certainly got credentials but his style from what I can gather and remember wouldn't really fit with ours. Now, who knows, maybe we'll start to see a shift in that but I think it will be tweaked rather than changed completely. It is very hard to find out even what stage the club is at, in previous years we had a reporter from the NEP that didn’t give names but knew the time-frame and when the interviews were taking place etc. I’m surprised there’s be nothing from BBCRNS, they probably have the best relationship with the club but they’ve either not got in touch or if they have the club have told them zilch… The longer the search goes I would think it becomes more plausible the delay is due to a compensation fee needing to be agreed or a VISA needing to be approved for someone abroad... That said I am usually well off when I make predictions so cue Leam Richardson being announced later this evening!

Watched the highlights today (on the DAZN SPORT YouTube page if you are interested) a really impressive attendance for what is the 5th level. I think it was something like the 5th time in a row the National League Play-off Final has gone into extra-time. I'd have been happy to see either back, think Southend have had a tougher time with their ownership issues, but nonetheless welcome back Oldham!

Dennis did play for MK Dons before signing for Carlisle, but yes could be a sign of poor journalism! The return of Cal Roberts would be a too much of a risk for me. We know he is susceptible to injuries and whilst he had a very good season and scored 21 goals it was in the National League North. He's very skilful though but it's still hard to tell how he'd do in the EFL. And I would question where he fits in our current system, but that might be slightly tweaked under a new head coach.

If we exclude the names from fantasy land (Priske and Joao) in the current odds Mike Williamson, as of now, is the second favourite. Really hope not, I’d rather have Stuart back.

It’s that time of year again, with no actual football to be discussed something has to fill all the sports websites... But don’t fret you can keep tabs and discuss all the latest Notts rumours (*that are usually wrong) here. So far we’ve had; McGoldrick to MK? Jatta to Bolton? And now Matthew Dennis to Notts? Sources: Notts County set to beat Port Vale and Walsall to Carlisle United striker - medical booked FOOTBALLLEAGUEWORLD.CO.UK Matthew Dennis is on his way to Meadow Lane, with the Magpies fending off competition from League One and Two clubs