StarkMallard

Well done for counting them all! Mrs Sausage is very amused that the shirts of the British Virgin Islands athletes have "Islands" taped over...

I hope we'll do well, I fear we'll do badly ???? On the negative side, losing Macca is obviously a blow and means one of our other strikers needs to step up. I'm concerned that Platt is a "head it, kick it" centre half who might struggle with our style of play. To complement our wing backs who are great going forwards but poor defensively, we have signed more wing backs who are great going forwards but poor defensively. Palmer will take some time to get match fit. On the plus side, we now have a year of L2 under our belt and have made targeted improvements with players who are proven at this level. New attacking players could break our over reliance on Jones and make us less predictable going forwards, and we're almost certain to be more solid at the back. I'm quietly confident but not euphoric. We should have more than enough in our locker to compete for the top seven at least. If we don't, the atmosphere could turn quickly.

That's a fair number of us already. I'll post the first round tonight! @True Magpie, it's great to see a new name in the mix. And don't worry about being the best, I've decided I'm going to win it this year ???? @Robbie I think everyone has their own method, whether studying the form table, guesswork, octopuses that can see the future or, in my case, surrendering my soul to the devil in exchange for eighth place in the prediction league.

As I no longer live on our fair isle, I treated myself to an iFollow subscription for 150 quid last season and it was the best money I've spent since the hammock I treated myself to during covid. On top of that, it's money for the club. This season all I've heard is that Sky is taking over domestic streaming rights, but not the international rights, which are to remain with iFollow. However, there has been no word on whether the service will be continued (or what it will cost); the Football League links to the streaming services of each club, but the link to ours (and most others) only produces a "Page Not Found" message. Of the sites I checked, only Orient and Swindon were offering something (with a price hike of 25% over last season). Does anybody know anything? If nothing will be offered this season, I'll probably spend it on German third division coverage instead. But I'd rather be watching (and putting money into) Notts...

The season is nearly upon us - in just over a week, our Quest To Return To League One So We Can At Least Play Leyton Orient Again enters its ninth season. More importantly, the PON prediction league starts again! Next week, I'll post the first fixtures and hopefully a good few of you will be gazing into your crystal ball. So, to gauge interest (and remind you that I'm still here): who fancies a go at it this coming season? Everyone is welcome - it's always fun to see some new names giving us experienced campaigners a run for our money. The more the merrier!

They'll be back in the Highland League then. Every time someone swans in who knows nothing about football and promises to revolutionise football we know exactly what's going to happen. It's like a bad soap opera.

I can't imagine it made any difference at all. The very top clubs may sell a small number of tickets based on which superstars are turning out for them, but with Notts (and most other clubs) people know that it's a matter of time until any really outstanding players move on.

You can't have 24 senior players @Wheelbarrow repair man, 22 is the maximum. We'll no doubt leave a couple of slots empty so we can bring in targeted reinforcements in winter, as many other teams do as well. It should also be plenty enough providing we don't have a long injury list. Time will tell on that one.

There's no need to worry about the results of friendlies, I've seen us go through pre-season unbeaten only to get relegated the following season. There was some very casual defending for the goals, which you wouldn't expect once things get started in earnest. It's about building fitness and giving the new players an understanding of playing together, so I'm concerned that we don't seem to have a settled midfield yet. It's looking increasingly likely that Palmer won't be in the starting 11 when the season starts, which is also a bit disappointing. Against Peterborough I'd like him to feature and Scott to score a goal. How did Edwards play yesterday?

I don't think we had any say in the transfer fee. Last summer Macca signed a three-year extension to his contract with us. He would never have signed that without a release clause, otherwise he'd have been sacrificing any prospect of moving to a bigger club. It also wouldn't have been in his interest to sign a contract with a huge minimum fee release clause. So to me it seems likely that he signed a contract including a minimum fee release clause of around 750k. If he hadn't been happy with what we offered last summer, he could have just waited out his original contract and left last winter at the latest, probably for a fraction of what the club has just made. So the deal benefitted both player and club, but it did give him the freedom to move. The 750k may also just have been the initial fee. We just don't know. As for The Nest, I think the club are going to make a packet out of it. With the wage cap, the best way to increase the playing budget is to grow your turnover, and The Nest will contribute to that.

That's a cracking signing for them. Last season might have been meh, but he's far better than the National League. Good luck to them.

Duisburg were playing a short bus ride away in front of their own fans in a stand with a roof, while our fans were literally in a different country and made up 5% of the crowd. What on earth did they expect? Snide comments like that about English football are a tiresome feature of living in Germany. From what I've read, there's been nothing but respect for the way that our club and fanbase presented itself from the Duisburg fans. As for the match, it bears repeating that the opposition are a couple of weeks further along in their preparation, so there will have been a noticeable difference in sharpness. Had that been a league game, we would have approached it differently and had a stronger team out there. It's all about practicing different scenarios and learning about how the team will fit together, and a defeat against decent opposition can also be valuable for that.

"Lacking in the English manner" is an idiom meaning he was a bit rude. As you all know, we are never rude ???? I've found some highlights posted by a YouTuber. There's a lot of talking and buildup, so the actual match footage starts after about 7 minutes. It's quite good footage though, as he's sat quite far up.

I don't see why it should @Robbie, it's just like doing updates on here but on a different platform. I've just been looking at their forum. Dan Crowley seems to have won a couple of admirers, one saying he was the best player on the pitch until he went off, another asking if he's available ????

The result doesn't really matter at this stage. I'm interested in seeing the verdict of those who were there, but with three of our four central midfielders not in the squad, this may have left us a bit light in the middle and allowed the hosts to control the game. It meant we were under a lot of pressure, but that's also a worthwhile thing to practice in a friendly. We only fell behind after we somewhat weakened the team. It's worth mentioning that this was Duisburg's dress rehearsal, their season begins on Friday so they're further in their preparation than us. It is also a blazing hot day, much warmer than in Nottingham. We are not going to play many matches in this heat. I wouldn't worry about the players who were missing, players picking up niggles at training camps is par for the course. @Robbie, live tickers are very popular here, but some have evolved into fan radio services offering live commentary of matches (BBC local radio isn't a thing here). It's a bit of a throwback but I like it.

It takes all sorts @Robbie. Just to sum up some of the comments in the ticker, they seem to have been expecting more attacking scenes from us and don't know whether it's a deliberate tactic or we're struggling with the weather (it's VERY hot today). Slocombe does seem to have been the busier keeper. Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising given that our players are in a training camp. At their end, there's some frustration that they've conceded from a set piece, which was a habit of theirs last season too.

I think it was one of their coaching staff @Robbie. He wasn't in the team anyway. Probably should have kept his mouth shut.

That must be quite a fun read, as it's obviously a fan writing it. It's not one of those automated tickers. According to them, we had quite a rocky start and they've had more on goal, but we've been more effective so far. They're also pressing us high. If the teams are right, we're also a bit thin on the bench, no sign of Jatta or Palmer there. It could just be a mistake though.

Duisburg are doing a live ticker (in German) if anyone is interested. They are also showing short videos in their Facebook reel. https://www.msv-duisburg.de/aktuelles/spielplan/spieltag/spieltag/detail/3390/

If you can speak English and German, you can understand it. It just looks a bit like drunk German ???? I'm learning a bit of Dutch right now as it's a great place and so much of the vocabulary is familiar. Another open day would be great, but given the choice I think most people would rather watch us play a match in Duisburg than train at a training camp.

For anyone who's hanging about for the weekend, the Duisburg city festival is on now until Sunday, and MSV Duisburg are also holding a family event on Sunday. So there'll be no boredom. @Robbie, I think it would be a good idea to field trialists if we're seriously thinking about signing them, this is a good chance to watch them under competitive conditions. But it would be good to see something more like our planned league 11.

I'd like to see us have something resembling a league starting 11 too. Duisburg's season starts on 26 July, so this will be very much a dress rehearsal for them.

They play in blue and white hoops @Fan of Big Tone. German zebras are obviously different ???? Their kit is usually mostly white, so there shouldn't be a clash. They've just been relegated from the third division, so I've seen them in action a few times. They were part of the furniture in the Bundesliga before falling on hard times. A few years ago they came close to returning to Bundesliga 2, sitting in the promotion spots all season before blowing up spectacularly and firing their head coach Torsten Lieberknecht (who went on to take Darmstadt to the Bundesliga). They've struggled ever since and went down following a relegation battle with a number of other big names. As for the standard of football, the fourth-level Regionalliga is home to about 100 clubs over five divisions, so of course it isn't the same level as League Two apart from a few top clubs. However, Duisburg are definitely among those top clubs. They've never played at that level before, have a new manager and squad and are highly fancied to return to the third division at the first time of asking. Those of you who are going shouldn't expect too much Bundesliga flair as the match is being played at a local non-league ground, but I'm expecting a competitive match and a good workout.

He always looked like he was going to go. For all his achievements (and reaching two finals IS an achievement), it's time for some new ideas. Someone who can replicate the togetherness of the Southgate years, but can strike the right balance between caution and boldness and get more out of our creative players. Not you, Wayne Rooney.

Simply change your profile pic to McGoldrick or Rod McDonald and you're done ???? Please don't do what @KingMaynard does, otherwise you'll be having a new user name every season ????