DangerousSausage

Notts have announced that the final friendly of our three-game tour will be against Stuttgarter Kickers of the Regionalliga Südwest (fourth division). Apparently this is a special friendly to celebrate the 120th anniversary of their ground. Like Darmstadt, Stuttgarter Kickers (not to be confused with cup holders VfB Stuttgart) have spent a lot of their existance bobbing about Bundesliga 2 and the third level (with a couple of Bundesliga seasons in the 80s and 90s). They dropped into the fourth division in 2016 and even had a few seasons at the fifth level before returning a coiple of seasons back. I've been to their ground but never inside it - it's on top of a hill right next to the TV tower in Stuttgart and is an easy underground ride from the city centre. Kickers draw average gates of around 5,000 and also have a really cool badge. So that's the three friendlies. I'm not usually crazy about friendlies but I'm really looking forward to this! I'll put together some information and tips and post it in an article in the next day or two.

This is a bit of a strange one and I think he should be seen as a joker in the pack rather than someone we should absolutely pin our hopes on. NLN to League Two is a massive jump after all, and it's a bit concerning that National League York sent him out on loan (although he was highly rated by the fans there). However, he's just had a really good season and Kiddy and hopefully he can kick on with us too.

This sounds like a good signing to be - someone wily, experienced and with a bit of aggression sounds like just what we need. After a season in which we always seemed to be down to the bare bones, the talk about injuries doesn't sound great, but Norburn managed 39 and 27 games in the two seasons after his serious knee injury in 22/23. Hopefully we'll get the best out of him. With him, Palmer, Robertson and Hinchy competing for two spots (and let's not forget that Abbott has left), I'm assuming this is our central midfield completed. Nothing wrong with the odd tipple!

So if all else fails we could have a Joao Alves / Joao Alves dream team. No idea if it'd be any good, but we'd be a pub quiz question!

Welcome back to the pleasuredome @LymmPie and feel free to post your thoughts on here in between sending smoke signals to MAD! Steffen Højer is an interesting suggestion, he'll be known to the owners and well versed in what they want. He must be highly rated as a coach to be promoted to the national team setup. And there's even a plausible reason for the lack of an announcement, as the Danish FA wouldn't want any distractions during the U21 tournament. He appears to be out of contract this summer too. Assuming that contract runs until the end of June, it would leave him conveniently free to step in for the start of training in July. On the other hand, he doesn't have any direct experience of English football and the brothers haven't shown any inclination to appoint their countrymen at the club so far. I also think that having a head coach there to speak to prospective signings would help us land our summer targets.

All will be revealed, and it's certainly worth waiting to get our ideal team in place of necessary. However, I'd been expecting an announcement by now. And I can't deny I'm nervous that our lack of a head coach and coaching team is putting off potential signings at a crucial time. As this is a forum, I'll now engage in some pointless speculation. I see three possible reasons: Number one - we've been rejected by our first and maybe also our second choice, throwing back our schedule. Hopefully not, but it happens. Two: we've chosen a head coach, but he's already employed by another club who are trying to squeeze as much compensation out of us as possible. This is a very likely scenario if it turns out to be Adam Hinshelwood, who York were going to sack until suddenly they weren't. Three: our chosen head coach is from abroad and the club is holding back from making an announcement until the visa formalities have been settled. This would affect Tobias Solberg, although I doubt he's a serious candidate.

Darmstadt have released ticket information, apparently we'll be sharing A Block with the home fans. Not sure which stand that is to be honest, but I'm sure Notts will enlighten us in the next couple of hours. Tickets are priced at 9 euros standing, 15 euros seated or 22 euros if you want a fancy business seat.

Was going to leave a comment, but couldn't think of a good angle.

RIP to a true genius - the Beach Boys' cheesy name and public image didn't do justice to the depth of their music, and that was down to Brian Wilson. God Only Knows is one of the best songs ever made.

It sounds very serious, but he's in good hands. Hope he makes a swift and full recovery.

By the looks of it, this bloke has stepped in as caretaker manager a couple of times but has pretty much no experience as the main man apart from that. It doesn't mean he isn't a promising coach, but would it really be worth the effort of recruiting someone like that from abroad when there would be plenty of similar candidates right here? So basically, nobody knows anything. I hope we don't drag our feet much longer though.

I've just commented on this elsewhere - I'll put together a guide once all the games are announced! "Platz 4" doesn't mean "fourth-place", it's the number of the training pitch we'll be playing them on, so this one won't be in the stadium.

Heidelberg is touristy, but most tourists arrive on bus trips and don't actually stay there. I remember the prices being cheaper than I'd expected when my parents used to visit, but that's a few years ago now. My guess would be Viktoria Aschaffenburg (who are also playing Darmstadt) or Kickers Offenbach. Which would make it more sensible to stay in our near Frankfurt. But we're talking hypotheticals still.

I was just going to ask you for them @Piethagoram! Kaiserslautern is a ground I've been to a couple of times. The town itself isn't very large (probably smaller than Mansfield) and doesn't offer much apart from its football club. However, it's in the middle of a great region for wine. Speyer isn't too far away and is well worth a visit. The ground is an uphill march from the rail station, but the match will be held on a training pitch alongside it. If you're looking to attend both, you could do worse than stay in Heidelberg or Mannheim - both matches would then be an hour's direct train ride away. But then there's also a third friendly that hasn't been announced yet. I'll write a travel guide once I get home next week!

For anyone who does go and has some time to kill in Darmstadt beforehand: go to the Ratskeller on the market square. It's a really good microbrewery and a pre-match haunt for Darmstadt fans during the season. Just don't get too drunk and forget to go to the match. The city isn't really all that charismatic but the ground has a lot of character considering all four sides have been rebuilt. It'll be interesting to see who else we'll be playing during the trip - I wouldn't be surprised to see us play a local fourth division side as well. Drop me a line if I can help with travel planning!

This friendly has just been announced for 9 July. Who else is coming? The match will be played at Darmstadt's Böllenfalltor ground which, unlike Duisburg last season, is where the first team play. It holds just under 18,000 so there should be plenty of room for everyone. Darmstadt itself isn't really a tourist destination but it's a very short bus or train ride from Frankfurt. No excuses for me, even if it is a workday 😁

I haven't been online much in the last few days so I'm yet to discover many of the functions, but I like the look and feel of it, it feels much more modern. However, I always navigated the site using the dashboard and I'm struggling with the new one. Previously there was a clean overview of the latest forum posts, but now I have to scroll past some very old status updates, frequent posters etc. before I find the forum posts, which are organised by forum and seemingly not in chronological order. I may well be missing something though. Thanks @Chris for your efforts and I'm looking forward to seeing it bed in!

It's an absolutely tiny market with relatively small bets causing big shifts. The presence of Priske and Alves in the top three tells you all you need to know. Priske is literally only there because he's Danish. Apart from Maynard, every head coach the brothers have appointed has come out of left field. They are good at keeping things quiet and much prefer to appoint a relative unknown on the way up than somebody from the managerial merry-go-round.

While York City have been unlucky this season, they've benefitted from the playoffs twice in recent years. They finished sixth when they were promotedfrom the NLN... But in principle I agree that we need three up, three down between L2 and the Bananarama Conference. Maybe even four. Having fewer promoted teams is a hangover from the days when the FL was a closed shop and can be incredibly cruel for the team finishing second, as we nearly found out ourselves.

I've just had a look at their Facebook page, it doesn't seem to be a happy ship and there's a lot of criticism of their recruitment. Apparently RM found out about his sacking from the Blick newspaper, they didn't even bother to inform him! Wonder where he'll end up next?

I vaguely remember him, he was a full back with the turning circle of an oil tanker. Nicknamed Dangerous Brian by some. Don't tell him that to his face though! Glad he's still in the game.

Great to see Oldham back, what a dramatic way to do it too! I'd had a sinking feeling FGR would come back up, glad I was wrong though.

It goes to show how unrealistic some of our fans are. We've got about as much chance of landing Mourinho. The owners will get murdered pretty much regardless of who we appoint.

That's very interesting @Robbie! Tsaroulla did particularly well when you consider how many games he missed.

Looks like he'll be another addition to the franchise's collection of over-the-hill mercenaries then. For all his talk of ending his career at his boyhood club, it looks like he'd rather see it out playing in front of 30,000 empty seats for a few more quid. Don't let the door hit you on your way out. While those are big boots to fill, we're not going to spend our way to promotion and it would be wrong to break the bank for a player who'll be pushing 40, however good he is. We became dependent on him because our squad had become too thin in attacking areas and now we'll be able to address that rather than using McGoldrick as a sticking plaster again. Hopefully good replacements will do a good honest job for us without any of the kissing the badge crap.