StarkMallard

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.

The sunrise is a mythical creature @Piethagoram, I know it exists but never seem to see it. So it's very similar to League One in that respect. Here in the land of the Germs, Monday wasn't a bank holiday but yesterday was. As a result my company was closed yesterday so I get a nice long weekend. It's too hot to go outside so I'm sitting in the living room procrastinating instead. No chippy for me, but I'll put the barbecue on later. Life isn't so bad sometimes.

Seriously though, I doubt it'll happen as he'll be out of our price range financially. We'd have stood a greater chance of getting him in on loan, but transfer listing him makes this less likely.

Also an interesting call @Piethagoram. Last week, the journalist Pete O'Rourke posted that he was facing the sack from York after losing in the playoffs. This isn't just a rumour monger - it's the same man who broke the news about Langstaff leaving and Whitaker joining, so he's clearly well connected. York then posted on Facebook that "Adam Hinshelwood remains the manager of York City FC", which in my eyes falls short of "he's going nowhere". From the outside, I don't think his position looks very secure and he might be open to a move. He's well thought of by the York fans, which isn't surprising after taking over in a relegation battle and leading them to 96 points. This is pure speculation on my part, but I wonder if York rowed back on sacking him when they found that another club was interested (and willing to pay compensation)? That wouldn't necessarily mean the other club is Notts though.

The odds are a bit of a joke right now. Joao Alves leads them, which says it all really. Brian Priske seems to be getting the "Danish bloke" bonus this time. He is a real football manager, but given that every team he's managed so far has been in the Champions League or Europa League he's not a realistic choice. It shows how unrealistic some of our fans are though. Brady sounds like a really good call - someone with proven success at this level who would fit in with our model.

People were constantly saying we couldn't get promoted from the NL playing passing football until we did, with a record points tally to boot. We just have to be fast, accurate and get behind the opposition. Sadly, we often lacked the confidence and quality to do that. That's not to say we shouldn't adapt to the conditions and opposition, but every team should do that. But all too often our options were restricted by the players we had available.

Realistically, any manager who comes in would probably be off again if a Championship club that wasn't in a complete mess came calling. Who here would turn down a 100% pay rise? As @Piethagoram says, if that were to happen, it would mean that the new man had done a good job and possibly won us promotion. I've seen Des Buckingham's name mentioned online, but I'm not sure he would drop down to L2.

No. Why throw out the baby with the bathwater? When Ray Trew was in charge and we were getting through a manager a month, there were a lot of complaints that our philosophy changed with every manager and our squad ended up in a mess. The idea was to define a rough concept of how we would play and then sign players that fit it. The brothers have put it into action and it has paid off. Of course you still have to be pragmatic, go direct at times and assert yourself physically depending on the conditions. We were more direct under Maynard than under Williams.

As far as I know Luke Williams and Ian Burchnall are on the market. I hope we don't go there, but they'll both feature heavily in the betting. I'd be curious to see how LW does with better defenders, but I'm really not sure it would be a good idea. Then there's random Danish blokes. Watch out for middle-aged Danish taxi drivers appearing in the odds for the next manager. I'd bet that it's someone we've never heard of. Roberto Gagliadi will no doubt have contacts and as DoF will have had a say in SM's sacking. I just hope it's someone who's willing to commit to the club for a number of years rather than a journeyman manager or someone who sees us as a stepping stone.

I wasn't expecting this to be honest, and if you look at the naked facts it does seem a bit harsh. We've just made the play-offs. Defensively we've improved massively (an absolute prerequisite for succeeding in L2 IMO), but we've suffered such a talent drain due to departures and long-term injuries it was inevitable we would end up looking toothless up front. I would have done some things differently at Plough Lane but let's be honest, it wouldn't have made any difference with how thin we were. He kept us within touching distance of promotion despite two very mixed transfer windows and it feels like he's been made to carry the can for the decline in quality in some areas. And yet, I saw the run-in too and at no point did we look like a team that was chasing promotion. While it was necessary to adapt to L2, we saw a return of the "respect the point" mentality of Neal Ardley, the only other manager the brothers have sacked. Could another manager have instilled a more positive mentality and got more out of the players at crucial times? Maybe. Either way, what's done is done and some important decisions are looming. We only have a couple of our promotion winners left, the DoF ha been replaced and we have just had a clean sweep of the coaching staff. The continuity is gone and we need to find people who can take us the next step forward and truly get us looking like a team that could cope in L1.