DangerousSausage

Another promising signing, albeit one who needs to deliver a bit more consistently according to some Grimsby fans. But he's still young and has time on his side. Slightly disappointed his parents didn't call him Luke. We've certainly got options in attacking areas now.

As far as I'm aware he didn't play for us during the German tour @Chris. However, I noticed that after his stint at Darmstadt he was signed for SV Wehen Wiesbaden by Paul Mackie, who moved in the other direction soon after and is now DoF at Darmstadt. I wonder if this is how the contact came about? Bennetts played most of his football in Germany at Borussia Mönchengladbach II, who play at the fourth level. However, he's frequently been in and around squads at Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 level so must have some potential. But what he really needs now is regular games. Fingers crossed the move benefits club and player alike!

Sounds like an interesting signing based on what I'm hearing, especially if he's versatile. His career makes for interesting reading. He hasn't played more than 20 games in a season since 2020-21, when he was at Ipswich. He joined our pre-season opponents Darmstadt in October 2022 as a free agent and played 16 times as they won promotion to the Bundesliga, but with just over 200 minutes played in total he was clearly used as a super sub. Nevertheless, their fans seemed to rate him and were disappointed when he left the next summer. He then suffered a long-term injury at his next club. Sounds like a player with pedigree who needs some games and a bit of luck. Welcome!

Good luck to him! I think he has to grow into the role and bit and having to share commentary duties didn't help. Now he can really make his mark.

@Wheelbarrow repair man, there's no need to be confrontational. You quoted him as saying the club is maintainable, which it is with our current owners as they're investing in the club and covering its losses. Being sustainable would mean the club can cover its own costs without the owners having to dip into their pockets, and that's where we're aiming to be financially. I see no contradiction and nobody is telling porkies.

This is what he said when we took over the Nest last year: "as a business we want to aim to be sustainable". That means we are not sustainable YET but are working towards it, and as far as I'm aware he's never said anything to the contrary. Nothing about this is unusual or controversial, the number of professional football clubs that break even can be counted on the fingers of one hand. The best way to become sustainable is to play in a higher division, so targeted investments in the right players are needed.

For all the talk about making the club sustainable, we're clearly not (yet at least). The owners are having to put in a seven-figure sum every year to cover our losses. That, along with the infrastructure investments mentioned above, is where the money has gone. Some of it will no doubt be reinvested in the team. The squad now is undoubtedly significanly more expensive than the one we had in the NL (McGoldrick alone was said to be on 5k a week), we've signed players for fees in the last year or so and there are surely more signings to come in the next month. Whether that money is spent wisely is another question entirely, but it's too early to judge.

The Vikings themselves are romanticised a lot, but people forget that Nottinghamshire was part of the Danelaw. It was widely settled by Scandinavian people (towns with names ending in -by or-thorpe were originally Scandinavian) who enjoyed some autonomy right up to 1066. This leaves a mark. Every time you say "ey up" or "ta" you're probably using language they brought with them. "Ey up me duck" could even be seen as evidence of integration as it combines the Old Norse "ey up" with "duck", probably derived from the Anglo-Saxon "ducas". Tostig Godwinson was a really pivotal figure. He was the landowner of a large part of Nottinghamshire (including the old Roman fort at Bothamsall) and convinced the Norwegian king to invade. If he hadn't, William may well have lost the battle of Hastings.

Fear not @gtownjohnno, I'm dusting down my abacus as you type. I'll post something later on, and the first round will be online on Wednesday.

I'm watching it too. I'd about written us off when the equaliser went in! You can't take your eyes off it for a moment.

This sounds good, he's experienced (including at a higher level) and has been getting plenty of match practice. His age also isn't an issue as many goalkeepers hit their peak after 30. The only thing that worries me are the various comments that he isn't great on crosses, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Welcome!

If you're thinking of exploring the region, I can recommend Lincoln, especially the area up the hill. The cathedral is stunning and very underrated. It's less than an hour's train ride from Nottingham.

The backgrounds they're using on social media look like that, but I haven't seen the actual shirt unless I'm missing something. Maybe I'm getting demanding in my old age, but I'm coming over soon and it would have been nice to have one.

I'll revive this very old thread once again. Where is the home kit? It's less than two weeks before the season starts and we haven't even seen a teaser. The away shirt has grown on me, but I'm not buying it without seeing what the home shirt looks like first. Why does this take so long every season? Even other clubs that are with Puma unveiled theirs a month or so back.

Good result and an interesting lineup for this friendly that reveals some of the manager's thinking. Quite feasible that that's his first 11 as things stand.

Interesting post. Even if we announce the quality signings we need tomorrow, they'll have missed the bulk of pre-season, which can't have been the plan. It's pretty clear that we've missed out on transfer targets, and the longer it takes to fill the gaps, the more difficult (and more expensive) it will become. I'm partially with you on communication. Some updates would have been welcome (vaguely worded if need be). However, the owners have always kept their cards close to their chest when it comes to signings. I take that as evidence that they're working professionally (gone are the days of the owner logging in to a forum and telling us a Championship striker is signing next week), but when we don't land targets or things take longer than expected, what we get is silence. We should qualify this talk a bit though, pre-season is meant as a preparation for the season proper and that's the only way to judge it. I've seen us have seemingly great pre-seasons, winning our friendlies, landing our transfer targets - only for us to then get relegated. What counts is that the team comes out of it as a disciplined, well-organised unit that's ready for the season ahead.

A very interesting and informative kickabout yesterday. I was unsure about the starting lineup, but once they settled into the game they gave a good account of themselves. A draw was a fair result, but both sides will feel like they should have won. I felt the hosts edged the first half an hour and had the better of the chances up to then. Stuttgart looked more composed and settled, while we were misplacing a lot of passes. After that we settled down and had the beating of them in one-on-one situations without really threatening the goal too much. We never looked like scoring until we did. Edwards played a little deeper in the Palmer role and made a decent job of it. Hinchy put in another late tackle, he's a red card waiting to happen at the moment. Iopenda looks like a good footballer, and Kouhjar also had some good moments once he'd settled in. I think Jones definitely has what it takes for the no. 10 spot, but would we miss his crossing? Both sides looked toothless in front of goal, and for that reason neither looked like a genuine promotion contender to me. But two or three astute signings really could make a world of difference. Special kudos to the commentary team on the stream, who commentated in English and had really done their homework.

Not our strongest lineup, I was hoping to see it treated as a dress rehearsal given the standard of the opposition but it's too early for that. Hopefully some of them can impress us. Here's Stuttgart's team for anyone who's interested. Looks like they're putting out a strong team. Dumrath - Borac Danquah Petrovic Blank - Zaiser Kiefer Lockl - Udogu Fass Berisha The stream is up and running, but no sound yet. American football markings on the pitch.

I've just spent my lunch break lurking on the Kickers forum, interesting reading. It's a club that's aiming upwards, but there seems to be little optimism among fans (with a couple even worried about a relegation battle due to their poor form in the friendlies). Others caution that it's only pre-season and you can't read too much into it. So far, so familiar. There are also complaints about a general lack of tempo in their team. Frustrated forum users should be taken with a pinch of salt, but it'll be interesting to see how things unfold. I hope a few of our players who have seen little of the ball so far get their time to shine. I'd like to see us try a 4231 formation as it could suit our squad as it stands. Just go to the payment screen as usual and it'll calculate it for you. Some sites let you pay in EUR or in GBP, in the latter case your card provider converts the currency for you. Just click whichever you feel like, the difference between the two will be pennies.

@TheSkipper, up to the formation of the Bundesliga in the 1960s German football was regionalised right up to the top level, with the champions of each regional league playing off to determine who would be German champions in a knockout tournament. Even today, German football is highly regionalised - the nationwide second division (Bundesliga 2) was only created in the 1970s, and the national third division as recently as 2008. 54 clubs (plus two B teams) play in these three divisions. Below the third division, there are five regional fourth divisions. The one Stuttgarter Kickers play in is probably the strongest. It's an odd league though - you've got fully professional clubs like Kickers Offenbach averaging crowds of over 5000 on the one hand, and on the other there are village teams with money, small town clubs with crowds in the hundreds and B teams of Bundesliga clubs that barely draw three-figure crowds at home and take nobody at all away. Attractive games are few and far between and with one promotion spot it's a difficult league to get out of. But the teams that do make it out tend to do well - Ulm and Elversberg both won consecutive promotions to Bundesliga 2 in the last few years, the latter almost making it to the a Bundesliga. As tomorrow's opponents are one of a few teams looking to go up, I think we can look forward to a close, competitive game tomorrow.

All the club can do is stand by him, give him the support he needs and hope for the best. Hopefully this will be a relatively minor infringement resulting in a slap on the wrist and a three-match ban. In the worst case we won't see him in a Notts shirt again. I've heard similar gossip about a couple of other players, hopefully none of it is true. As @piedestrian says, the relationship between football and betting companies is far too cosy and it's high time something was done. Something for the football regulator to look at.

I noticed our DoF was in Kaiserslautern, so he'll presumably still be with the team. But we did sign Aljofee during the German trip, so maybe something else is in the pipeline. There could even be transfer business to take care of in Germany, stranger things have happened! I think and hope there will be a flurry of activity once they're back. None of the trialists have stood out for me, but the teams we've played have been above our level so that's not really a fair reflection. @Chris , a bit off topic but the next match will be streamed for about a fiver.

Stuttgarter Kickers have been up and down the leagues since their brief foray in the Bundesliga in the late 80s and early 90s, but after a five-year stay in the fifth-level Oberliga Baden-Württemberg they returned to the fourth-level Regionalliga Südwest in 2023. They very nearly sealed a second straight promotion to the third division, but blew it on the final day and VfB Stuttgart's B team went up in their place. Now they'll be hoping to win promotion at the third attempt after finishing fifth last season. As a Waldhof follower I've seen far more Regionalliga Südwest football than is good for me. The larger teams are fully professional and could hold their own in League Two - MSV Duisburg, who won the Regionalliga West least season, beat us 4-1 a year ago. However, the standard is highly variable and differs from one region to the next. Technically, the standard in the Regionalliga SW is relatively high, but many of the teams (especially the part-timers) can't maintain a press for 90 minutes - the league lacks the intensity and athleticism you see in the higher divisions in Germany or the Football League in England. As one of the strongest teams in probably the best of the five Regionalliga divisions, I'm expecting Stuttgarter Kickers to pose a tough test. I'm also familiar with a couple of their players as they used to play for Waldhof. Midfielder Per Lockl, who joined Kickers last year, previously played for SV Waldhof in the third division and Borussia Mönchengladbach II in the Regionalliga West. He played for Germany's youth teams and is a skilful player with lots of potential. He struggled to cope with the physicality of the third division at times, but he's a great player for that level and has his best years ahead of him. Another familiar name from further back is Lukas Kiefer, a bustling defensive midfielder and occasional right back I remember from Waldhof's days in the Regionalliga SW. Another interesting name is their new signing from Würzburg Maximilian Zaiser, a product of Bayern's youth system who played around 30 games for their B team in the third division. Kickers played a pre-season tournament today (Sunday), losing 2-0 to FC Villingen (relegated from the Regionalliga SW last season) and beating SSC Tübingen 11-0. As they're much closer to our level than Darmstadt or Kaiserslautern, I'm hoping we'll see much more of the ball and start to get an idea how Martin Paterson wants us to play. It'll be good to see Jones and a bit more of Aljofee too. If you're going, @BlackPudding has posted a few tips if you're planning on having the odd refreshment before the game (although those sausages don't convince me, sorry!).

I'd go back to the 70s and lock Brian Clough and Peter Taylor in a cupboard until the red lot appointed someone else as manager. We were level pegging with Florist on and off the pitch until that time, but with their success under Clough they pulled far ahead of us and the fans followed them over the bridge. When we finally did reach the top flight, we got smaller crowds than we had been getting in the third division pre-Clough. He transformed the fortunes of both clubs to the extent that they don't even see us as rivals any more. Just imagine being able to change all that through just a bit of kidnapping (and time travel). Promotion into the top flight might even have taken us a division above them, and the bigger crowds we'd have got might have kept us there, possibly into the Premier League era.

Wow, thanks for the tips @BlackPudding! I haven't been to Stuttgart for a long time, so this is a great addition. Are you a Kickers fan?