StarkMallard

Following the money again. He was always going to follow the money, but it's a bit sad after all the talk of us being his boyhood club and wanting to play for us for free. If he'd just been honest and said football was just a job for him I'd have a lot more respect for him now. It's moot now, but I'd have had mixed feelings about him signing for us again. He's still got it and scored 15 goals in L1 last season. But he was rumoured to be on 7k a week at Barnsley - we need to strengthen in a number of positions and I wouldn't feel comfortable splashing so much cash on one player.

Good post! The growth is even more impressive when you look a bit further back. Attendances in general have boomed since 1990, but this development completely passed us by - in the early 90s we often got crowds of 5000 or 6000 (when those were still normal figures in the Championship). Thirty years later, little had changed for us, despite the rest of football overtaking us. In the Munto season, with nationwide publicity, we averaged a little over 7000. In our promotion season under Sam Allardyce it was about 5500. Even our last season in the top flight and the bounce under Alan Hardy were brief aberrations. We haven't been well supported since Showaddywaddy were cool. So our sustained growth in the last few seasons is hugely impressive. It's down to us playing good, successful football, but the brothers have put everything in place to make that possible and completely changed the culture and vibe of the club. It never fails to baffle me when some fans would prefer to go back to the old ways when we lose a couple of matches. I think that's partly because of the big crowds we've been drawing, but also partly because we've been knocking around L2 and the NL for a decade. Nobody would say that if we were in the Championship. I'd love to see us punch above our weight some time soon!

I sympathise with you @Chris, back pain is awful and often the only thing you can do is lose weight, which is not a quick fix. The thing that helped me most was switching to water. I'd developed a habit of drinking apple juice with sparkling water, thinking it was healthy. I was consuming about 200 calories with each glass. Changing to sparkling water (with a squeeze of lemon when I was feeling wild) made a massive difference. Counting calories really helped me. It made me aware of what I was consuming and how much leeway I had.

Stockport have appointed Jimmy McNulty from Rochdale. Was expecting something different to be honest. I hope the rumours about MP continue to fly, as that means he's doing a good job!

I wouldn't be too concerned about it - they're under contract until the end of June, so from their point of view there's no hurry. If they do intend to sign, the club will probably be aware of this already and will be planning accordingly. I want them both to stay, but neither is irreplaceable.

Who's coming next @piedestrian? 😉

I know this is an old debate, but I had a look at Transfermarkt. I was convinced that Ardley had been wedded to four at the back and that it was Burchnall who switched to three. Wrong! The first game in the 20-21 season where we used wing-backs was a 1-0 win at Wealdstone in March, in the last days of the Ardley era. Miller and Kelly-Evans were our wing-backs that day. But our first game of the current era with wing-backs was the home draw with Stockport at our very first home game in the National League the season before, with Bakayogo and Kelly-Evans taking up the positions. All according to Transfermarkt of course. We'd dabbled in it before then too, but March 2021 was our permanent move to playing wing-backs.

I think he's been mentioned here before? He sounds like a ball-player in the Palmer mould but with a physical side to him too. Not sure he's the tough tackler some are expecting. He's also got plenty of League One experience. Sounds very promising, I'm happy with our transfers so far. Here's a picture of him with his wife.

I tend to read PON on my mobile (Android) and often post that way too, but I prefer to post on my laptop. I'm using the laptop now - it's still pretty new; it's almost doubled in price since I bought it in January, so I'm being very careful with it! I use Windows 11. There's a lot of bloat, but it's user-friendly and does what it's supposed to. I've also switched from Chrome back to Firefox, which makes no discernable difference. I did use Ubuntu (Linux) in the past when my old desktop PC was nearing its end, but I constantly encountered bits and bobs that didn't work quite right, and the solution was generally to go to a Linux forum and write something in the command line that had been suggested there. It can be pretty awkward if you don't have a basic understanding of programming.

I saw this on Facebook the other day, Football League World I think. I didn't post anything here because it looked like clickbait - when there's a managerial vacancy, they immediately speculate about other clubs' head coaches to get their fans posting and engaging. Engagement is the name of the game. So I don't think there's anything in it. Stockport have just parted company with a manager who has won two promotions with them, including into League One. Why would they replace him with MP, who has an objectively far inferior CV? Stockport are well-funded and ambitious, I think they're likely to go for someone who has won promotion to the Championship before, who has shown he can take the next step. Challinor was managing in the division above Stockport when they appointed him. Nothing is impossible of course, and they could undoubtedly afford to give him a big pay rise. But stories like this are part and parcel of being successful. And if/when he does move on, life will go on and we'll still do our thing. That's why it's important to have a sound footing and an established way of doing things.

I suppose you could draw a parallel between this and Notts sacking Maynard last year, although Salford have probably given Robinson greater (financial) backing. Still feels harsh after missing out by a whisker.

Last season we travelled to Germany with a newly installed head coach, half a squad, a stack of trialists and minus Jatta. And we played teams levels above us - Darmstadt have just sold two of the players that played against us (Hornby and Lidberg) for 7 million euros. We barely touched the ball. This time, MP will have a better idea what his team will look like from the outset. It would be best to play teams at about L1 level, so hopefully our Danish opponents will fit the bill. SPL opposition might also be suitable, otherwise we'd have to settle for a crap Championship team like Derby. We only know three of the fixtures though, so there'll be more to come.

The head coach put the cherry on the cake by claiming it's normal in Germany. No it isn't. Germany has strict laws against unauthorised filming and he'd be facing a prison sentence of up to two years there. German clubs do hold public training sessions, but he knows very well that this wasn't public. And are we really supposed to believe they only spied on three teams? And got caught every time? Pull the other one. By standing by the head coach despite a clear case of gross misconduct, the club hierarchy are in on it as well. Throw the book at the lot of them.

I was actually thinking about going to Denmark this month, but flights from Germany start at 550 euros. It's much cheaper from the UK. It sounds very interesting and it looks like we'll be playing at the actual stadiums (and not just training grounds). I hope they're good, competitive games and I hope we can take a full squad there this time!

Was this you @Chris?

He's been a virtual ever present the last couple of seasons @Chris , so I don't think we need to wrap him in cotton wool. It's very clear that he's far too good for the National League, so he deserves his chance. However, this is a big step up for him, so I hope we aren't putting all our eggs in the Roberts basket. I think he'll do well. Also, it's great that we're getting the summer signings in early! It would be a big advantage to start pre-season with more or less a full squad.

Sounds like a great signing, a player hitting his peak and in great form last season. The Cambridge fans are gutted he's gone. Will probably compete with Ness and (when he's fit) Macaroni for the RCB spot but according to the report he can play in any position across the back. (Macari's name was autocorrected to macaroni above but I'm not changing it because I'm hungry)

Guess who's back...

A couple of surprises there. Norburn is leaving, but not for football reasons - he's decided to join a club nearer to his home. Kouhyar stays after an option in his contract was activated, which surprises me a bit. Tangen will leave. Bennetts is going, as is Hinchey. I didn't realise Macari was out of contact, hopefully he'll sign his new contract. On the plus side, Tsuroulla's and Platt's contacts have been extended. So pretty much as expected with the exception of Norburn and Kouhyar. Norburn will be a loss, and we'll have some work to do in midfield to replace him and Iorpenda.

At least you're getting rain @Fan of Big Tone. It hasn't rained in ages here, but I think the thunderstorms will arrive here just in time for the weekend... I bought a football magazine for €8.90 yesterday, a World Cup special. Sounds a lot, but there are nearly 200 pages plus a packet of Panini stickers including Dan Burn. But I've realised I'm currently not interested in the World Cup at all, I'm still fully in club mode and will probably spend the entire summer enthusiastically lapping up every bit of news that comes out of Meadow Lane. My back is still a bit uncomfortable at times but quite a bit better. Can still feel it when travelling but other than that I'm fine. How much longer can I get out of doing housework?

Good catch @Fan of Big Tone, this is what you might call a badly kept secret 😂 I can only imagine the club are holding off announcing it because they want to do the retained list first? This is a very intriguing signing and maybe an exciting one too.

Good post! Conversely, you could say that we won games we would have drawn with a more cautious approach - ultimately, you get more points by winning one and losing one than by drawing both. It's swings and roundabouts. All the same, next season we'll be in a different situation where we can't really expect 80+ points, so I expect us to settle for the odd point more. A draw isn't such a bad result when you're not shooting for automatic promotion. But we need to carry on where we left off in the playoffs and be harder to beat, the losses column was a bit too high for my liking.

Even 56 points would mean squeaky bum time for some of the season @Robbie! Ideally we want four other teams to oblige and finish on about 20 points each so we can have a stress-free season for a change. Three of the four promoted teams have survived for about the last five seasons in a row, so history is (mostly) on our side. So who are the candidates? Ideally the franchise, but that won't happen due to their bottomless money pit. Bromley are rather one dimensional and may get found out unless they can continue their home form. Burton have been circling the drain for a few years. Wimbledon are struggling to cope with this division financially and had a narrow escape last season. Many people don't seem to fancy Leyton Orient for some reason and they're probably better informed than me. Doncaster struggled for a lot of last season and were saved by the points they got in August and September. And of course there's always the possibility of someone like Wigan or Barnsley getting dragged in. It's daunting being in a very competitive new division with four relegation spots, but we made it on merit and have no reason to feel inferior. Hopefully we'll have nothing to do with the relegation scrap. But if anyone can come up with more potentially crap teams it might calm my nerves!

There's something akin to a mass outpouring of grief on Scunny's social media. The club has put out a statement confirming he's leaving, including the following (slightly garbled) lines. Doesn't sound like he's heading to Rochdale to me. "With the club tabling an offer for Callum in a bid for him to remain for a fourth season, the Iron understand Roberts turned down a number of offers for his services following the end of the season, despite a number of which being much more lucrative than we could offer, however this latest offer was one too good of an opportunity for the outgoing attacker to turn down, and he departs with our well wishes, an abundance of memories and a fantastic legacy in claret and blue."

I'm a bit in two minds about this. At the time, Roberts felt like a ridiculous player to have in the National League, he's far too good for that level. However, his best days were as part of a 4-2-3-1 formation, where he still had defensive duties but not to the same extent as a wing back. I'd expect him to fill one of the number 10 positions. Another question is how well suited he would be to MP's system in which attacking midfielders are expected to act as a first line of defence. And of course how he'd handle the step up to League One, although the Cal Roberts we'd be signing now is older and hopefully wiser. There are many question marks, but the idea of having him back and firing on all cylinders is exciting.