StarkMallard

It looks like he wasn't in the squad after all @Chris. Should have realised it was a publicity stunt after the walking football comment 😄

Bolton Wanderers 2-1 AFC Wimbledon Doncaster Rovers 1-2 Bradford City Cambridge United 2-0 Oldham Athletic Salford City 1-0 Tranmere Rovers Walsall 2-0 Chesterfield Forest Green Rovers 2-0 Hartlepool United (joker) Tamworth 1-1 Eastleigh Yeovil Town 1-1 York City

Me too @menzinho! Surely they have a youth team player, or failing that a free agent? Maybe this is a publicity stunt, but I'm really not sure. Either way this is tinpottery of the highest order!

Jatta could still leave in January @Robbie, but this means we're under less pressure to sell if the price isn't right. If he were out of contract in the summer, there would have been clubs trying to exploit that and sign him for a reduced fee in January. Now we can name our price (or just keep him). I'm disappointed another striker hasn't come in for competition though, especially if we're playing two up top. I'm very happy with Dennis but we'll be very thin as soon as injuries and suspensions come into play.

Dorking Wanderers, who beat Notts in an actual game of football just three years ago, have signed a 54-year-old fan to play in goal after their only goalkeeper got injured. The former North Holmwood keeper hung up his gloves in 1997. But he still plays walking football, so that's OK. Deal Dunn – Terry Joins The WanderersLong-time Wanderers fan Terry Dunn has joined the side on a short-term contract.I knew I shouldn't have given up hope. Where are my gloves?

There were a couple of snippets there alongside all the corporate speak. Firstly, Jatta's contract extension. This is welcome news for obvious reasons, but also because it puts us in a stronger position if another club does come in for him. If his contract were running out in the summer, we'd have been under more pressure to take an offer as it'd have been our last chance to earn a transfer fee. Now we can wait till the summer or beyond. Then there's the playing budget. It's good that the board is trying to keep us competitive with what must be the biggest budget since 2018-19, but that doesn't necessarily mean we've exhausted it or that we've spent it well. In McGoldrick and Bass we've lost two players who were probably top earners, but my feeling is we've lost two excellent players and signed three average ones to take their place. To address a couple of the points made above, I think it's essential that the club generates more income off the pitch as this will allow it to support itself financially AND invest more on the pitch. It's the only way to go. Past owners have often talked about doing this too. but the brothers are the ones who have actually done it. I think they've made some mistakes this summer but overall we're in better hands with our current owners than we would be with overseas investors whose goal would be to extract money from the club.

We are the champignons!

It's prediction league time again, and another opportunity for you to be a bigger Notts legend than Balint Bajner. Kick-off is 3pm on Saturday, and remember your joker! Bolton Wanderers v AFC Wimbledon Doncaster Rovers v Bradford City Cambridge United v Oldham Athletic Salford City v Tranmere Rovers Walsall v Chesterfield Forest Green Rovers v Hartlepool United Tamworth v Eastleigh Yeovil Town v York City

The results: Blackburn Rovers 0-2 Norwich City Watford 2-2 Southampton Barnsley 3-1 Huddersfield Town Wigan Athletic 1-1 Stockport County Barnet 1-1 Colchester United Bromley 2-0 Harrogate Town Hartlepool United 0-0 Boreham Wood Morecambe 0-2 Woking Congrats to @4everapie and @JustLikeJuve , who top the leaderboard this round! Things are looking a lot tighter this round - @magpiejue is still top, but @Robbie and @super_ram are catching up. But there are still loads of players in touching distance of top spot, so it's all up for grabs still. Despite it being the international break, there's still a round on Saturday so I'll post the fixtures tomorrow. Thanks for playing!

I'm relieved we kept Jatta, but am not impressed with our transfer business. We've got too many wing-backs and midfielders (although one has just left), too few strikers (especially if we're playing two up front) and there's no obvious candidate for the no. 10 slot. In addition, we've worsened in the goalkeeping department. Not what we needed at all and you can only conclude that we missed our main targets.

That's easy for you to say @Fan of Big Tone, what about the crowd of people who converged on Meadow Lane after seeing your comment? 😉 Another one: our former managers Colin Murphy and Steve Thompson, both of them more popular at Sincil Bank.

Shame, hope he goes to a good club (York?) where he can get plenty of games. Last season we saw that there was a proper footballer in there, but he struggled badly after his injury. I thought he had some promise playing the Palmer role, but we've got Palmer for that. Ultimately we've got too many players in that area who are too similar, so something had to give. Good luck to him!

Slightly OT, but I hate the Google AI assistant. It's like having a half-wit providing an unsolicited opinion on all my Google searches. I'm sure our scouts will have watched him (surely we're not signing players on agents' recommendations?), but the new keeper doesn't inspire confidence at all. Maybe @McPie is also thinking about his failed punch late on against Tranmere. There's nothing wrong with punching the ball, Kasper Schmeichel was partial to it too, but when you do it you have to get some proper distance on it. Roos' "clearance" didn't even leave the penalty area and could quite easily have led to a goal.

What a great comeback, I didn't see it coming at all after a first half in which both sides were equally dire. The subs had a positive impact (both Jatta and Gordon were involved in the winner) and McDonald's block when we were under the kosh was as good as a goal. Leaving both Dennis and Jatta on when we were under pressure took real courage when many managers would have replaced Dennis with a defensive player. Am I the only one who thinks the home goalkeeper was an absolute clown? He stayed down after the collision before our winner in the hope of winning a free kick...

He was definitely a big personality and highly driven. When he arrived in 2006 (to the dismay of many having been part of Colin Murphy's regime a few years before) he brought with him a list of mainly Lincolnshire-based players he wanted to sign. He might even have presented it at his interview. Bearing in mind this was only a couple of weeks before pre-season training was set to begin and we barely had any players. A flurry of transfer activity followed. That team probably cost buttons, but what it lacked in quality it made up for in spirit and he achieved our highest finish between relegation to L2 and the Munto takeover.

Agents can't break the rules, but they're employed by players, not clubs. An agent isn't breaking the rules by trying to get a move for his client, and the player will hardly complain either if he gets a glamour move and a big pay rise out of it. It's part of the game unfortunately and there's only so much the club can do. I don't think he'll go in this window now though. Either no bid has come in, or the club would only give a move the green light if a player came in to replace him (and that deal's fallen through).

That's really shoddy @Dan, I've also heard some stories about that now. As the stadium is obviously only accessible from one side, you'd have thought they would have some proper infrastructure in place rather than just muddling through somehow. In general I'm a fan of old grounds because they generally have that sense of history, even if the original stands are long gone. But the point of it all is ultimately to watch the game, and preferably without a restricted view. If we are going to have new grounds, I'd like there to be something unique about them.

I doubt he'd have cost more than McGoldrick. He wasn't exactly in keeping with the model either, but we signed him when we had the chance. Wild speculation mode on: how does anyone know we weren't in for Palmer? Perhaps Jatta had a move lined up that was dependent on us signing Palmer? It's a bit of a coincidence that Jatta is suddenly available for selection again the moment Palmer signs elsewhere, but I'm probably reading too much into it.

This tickled me last weekend. Context: Eintracht Frankfurt had just beaten Werder Bremen 4-1, following which the goalkeepers exchanged shirts. Sky reporter: 4-1! Is that the opening day victory you were expecting? Marco Friedl: I'm a Werder Bremen player, in case you didn't know.

Why do you all leave it till the last minute? Anyway here are my predictions... Blackburn Rovers 2-1 Norwich City Watford 1-1 Southampton Barnsley 1-3 Huddersfield Town Wigan Athletic 0-2 Stockport County Barnet 2-0 Colchester United Bromley 1-0 Harrogate Town (joker) Hartlepool United 2-0 Boreham Wood Morecambe 1-2 Woking

Tragic news from the club today that our former manager has lost his fight with cancer. My thoughts are with his family and everyone who knew him. https://www.nottscountyfc.co.uk/news/2025/august/29/statement--steve-thompson/

Good luck to him! It'll be interesting to see how he does. There was talk about Adam Hinshelwood possibly getting the sack in the summer so he evidently didn't have much support from the board. They might as well have sacked him in the summer and had a clean break. York seem to have been throwing a lot of money at trying to get promotion and underachieved until he arrived.

Saturday is approaching, so we have some fixtures for you to predict. Kick-off is at 3pm and remember your joker! Blackburn Rovers v Norwich City Watford v Southampton Barnsley v Huddersfield Town Wigan Athletic v Stockport County Barnet v Colchester United Bromley v Harrogate Town Hartlepool United v Boreham Wood Morecambe v Woking

I don't think the club are in a position to dispel the rumours @Ash. I can't read AJ's mind, but in his shoes most of us would have our heads turned if a bigger club came in for us and offered to double our wages. But at the same time, he won't want to burn his bridges with Notts in case nothing happens. As for his agent, Notts have no control over what he says and does. He'll want Jatta to be sold for a fee as it would make him money. Ideally there would be a statement that he's going nowhere, but that would mean the player ruling out a big move and the club ruling out a big fee this window. Clearly either the player or the club (or both) wants the move to happen if the conditions are right.

A lot of these points have been discussed at length already. But in addition to the above, we can only spend a certain proportion of our turnover on players in L1 and L2. Investments like the padel courts and the Nest are therefore aimed at increasing our turnover so we can then spend more money on the team. How well we're spending on the squad is another debate entirely. We clearly haven't spent our budget yet, so hopefully we'll have one or two players through the door who genuinely strengthen us in the next week.