True Magpie

Welcome, and hello @one-two pie. Would you mind telling us a little about yourself? I do hope you enjoy being a part of the Notts community here on PON.

Hello, @Henny. Welcome to the Pride of Nottingham. We are delighted to see that you have joined us, and I wish you well with enjoying the community. Feel free to tell us a little bit about yourself.

I’m not worried about his ability, but I have noticed fans from his former clubs are quite critical. It reminds me of when Port Vale fans warned us about Aidan Stone. I’m confident Kelle Roos will turn out to be a solid signing. I really hope he shows he deserves to be our first-choice keeper. As the season goes on, we’ll see whether the doubts from his past fanbases were fair. But I’d love to see him prove them wrong and become a hero, just like Bartosz Bialkowski did for us.

I’m not sure how much the PON community follows social influencers or even watches YouTube. One thing I’m growing tired of is seeing them show off how much money they’ve got. I’m not talking about the obvious kind of flexing where it’s loud and in your face. I mean the more subtle waste of money, like spending on videos or paying for social media verification just to get more followers and make posts bragging about doing it. I just came across a video by Nottingham-based YouTuber MrWhoseTheBoss called “I bought every iPad EVER!” He didn’t stick with upgrading the same device, he bought every model brand new, and then filmed himself unboxing them and chatting about their changes over the years. I can’t see that as entertaining. It just looks like he’s showing off that he’s got cash to throw away.

Hello, @DublinPie. Welcome to the Pride of Nottingham! Would you kindly tell us a little about yourself, such as how long you have supported the club? Your background. We are very delighted to be welcoming you to our community. If you need any assistance, please do reach out.

Hello, @makesha. Welcome to the Pride of Nottingham. Would you care to tell us a bit about yourself? Such as your background etc. I hope you find yourself at home within the community here.

The bookmark app is back, so members can save content, comments and topics to read later. The link to your bookmarks isn’t very user-friendly yet, but Chris is talking to the developer about it. You can find your saved links under your user menu at the top of the site, where your display picture appears. When you view any content, you’ll see a bookmark button. Click it to save the link for the future.

There isn’t much to the Alassana Jatta story, but it could be important. It might explain why he didn’t move to Germany, though many other reasons could also be at play. I think the club will worry about finding someone to replace him. If the offer is right, we must still handle the transfer very carefully. Letting him go before this season starts would be disastrous. He’s our only proven goal scorer up front.

Hello, @Terry Lyons. Welcome to the Pride of Nottingham. I hope you enjoy and grow to love visiting PON. Please do take a moment to say hello, and to introduce yourself.

Hello, welcome to the Pride of Nottingham @roadsider1862. Would you please introduce yourself to our community? I hope you enjoy the site and settle in well. If you need anything just reach out via my signature.

I’ve only seen bits of the matches. When the Lionesses play well, they look unbeatable and very organised. In the later stages, though, it sometimes felt like luck helped them through. I thought Italy would go through. It wasn’t for a lack of effort, but because Italy seemed to have the win in their grasp. Italy defended strongly, and their keeper has been one of the best I’ve seen in the games and highlights I’ve watched.

Good defenders do not need to be fast if they read the game and organise themselves well. A team-mate could cover the pace alongside him. For a League Two club like Walsall, who narrowly missed out on promotion last season, his experience and attributes would make a strong signing. Would I bring him to Notts? I doubt he would displace Lucas Ness or Rod McDonald, but I have no doubt about his experience and defensive skills. Just because he is in the latter years of his career does not mean he cannot still perform well in League Two.

The Magpie Circle is excellent with its video interviews and vodcast. Martin Paterson speaks well, as we saw in pre-season. He comes across as having ideas and a clear plan for the season. There are good insights when he talks about his vision and what he wants to bring to the club.

I’m sure the money is being invested in the team and the stadium. At a future fans’ forum we might learn more about how the fees have been spent. I agree with others who say the club is taking sustainability more seriously and isn’t spending where it doesn’t need to. It must be tempting to splash cash, but we know big spending doesn’t always work. Relying on a few players doesn’t guarantee a competitive squad.

It looked like a productive game for the B team and James Sanderson. Some might argue it was only against Radford, but scoring two goals and playing well with the B team shows he needs first-team experience. I hope he gets to start some cup matches and also comes on from the bench.

It’s good to see David McGoldrick giving Barnsley fans a taste of what they have in store for the season. He should score a fair few goals, but it’s too early to say how good they will be, just from goals in pre-season. I wish Didzy and his new club all the best. I hope their fans appreciate him as much as ours did.

Derby has some nice spots, but if you're only staying for a few days, it might be better to focus on exploring Nottingham. There's a lot to see, and it could be a more worthwhile use of your time. Of course, it depends on your interests. It's easy enough to travel between Derby and Nottingham, so that gives you options. Since it’s your first time visiting, you might find it useful to write a list of places in Nottingham you want to see. From there, you can build a plan and explore what’s nearby each location.

Hello, @MC 11. It's nice to be taking the time to welcome you to the site and community, I wish you well with finding value for your time from the Pride of Nottingham. We are delighted you have joined, and over the next few days you will see members drop their own welcome messages to you. Would you care to tell us a bit about yourself? A little background about you as a supporter? Until then, sit back and relax.

@Fan of Big Tone, No thanks, I’m not a fan of dark chocolate either. Glad you had such a good time. Your photos looked peaceful and full of charm. A quiet break like that away from the city sounds lovely. It’s great to have you back with us properly though, Tone.

The draw of the San Sirrel can be a bit misleading when it comes to how busy it looks. The Family Stand sometimes seems empty, but when more people sit there, it looks different, probably because fans space themselves out rather than sitting close together. I’ve always liked traditional football grounds. You don’t see many of them now with all these new stadiums being built. A lot of the modern ones feel lifeless or have strange shapes, some even look like soup bowls. The charm of old-style grounds is getting lost.

Pre-season is nearly here and with the only home friendly coming up, the club is bound to be busy. Staff will have plenty to deal with. I don’t think the media team are ignoring fans on purpose, they’re probably trying to ease things a bit. There’s always excitement and nerves as the season gets closer, so a calm approach might help. I don’t think the club’s in any kind of trouble. It’s likely they’ve chosen to put funds into different parts of the setup. Notts might be looking at signing an experienced keeper for a fee, but we’ll have to be patient. As fans, that’s not always easy, but we’ve had six solid years where the club’s felt like it’s been in safe hands. Even if the CEO and other staff have changed, I believe everyone behind the scenes still wants to make Notts a success. We’re a close-knit, family-style club, and we don’t need to follow the path taken by teams like MK Dons or Gillingham last season.

It’s good that we haven’t rushed into signing any trialists, even though Notts could be quite keen on a few of them. The club seems to be weighing up all the choices, and I just hope it helps us find the right level of quality to strengthen the squad. If someone like Jodi Jones was on trial, I suspect they’d already be signed up. That makes me think the club is focused on quality rather than quantity, which is encouraging.

Some people think vanilla means “plain”, but that’s not true. It’s not a boring taste at all. If you try a proper Cornish brand and it’s made well, it can really surprise you. I do think vanilla has been given a reputation as cheap and dull, but when it’s done right, it’s still one of my favourite flavours. I can’t say no to a good choc ice, vanilla and chocolate is a classic combo. Kelly’s is a good brand, but I feel like it’s changed over time. It’s more creamy and milky now. Cornish ice cream still has that rich taste, but it’s not quite how it was ten or fifteen years ago.

Martin Paterson seems to be off to a promising start. He speaks clearly and his training sessions look decent. It’s still early days, and he’ll learn with each match, but I don’t believe we’re far off having a team that can hold its own against the top sides in League Two. The bond and teamwork already built in the squad should help, with just the new lads needing to settle in. If the signings are the right ones, we should have better squad depth than we had last season. That said, we still need a solid keeper and someone who can push forward through the middle, just behind the strikers. I don’t see Notts trying to replace Alassana Jatta up front. It looks like Matthew Dennis might be taking on the role of second striker. We don’t usually go for three up top, unless Dennis is being seen as a straight swap for Junior Morias.

Don’t be tight, share the goodies with the rest of us. You can keep the wine, but those chocolates are fair game. As Forest Gump said, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get.” So what’s up for grabs? Are we talking posh ones, Maltesers, or something more like Cadbury Heroes? My office right now feels like a scene from Shaun of the Dead. If you swapped Shaun’s job selling tellies for a regular desk job, it would be spot on. It’s been so dull that I’ve managed to sneak onto the computer and check what’s going on here. Soon enough I’ll be chasing others to crack on with their work and chuck me a few tasks too. For now though, a bit of downtime doesn’t hurt, especially if someone’s passing round sweets. I’m calling it a break and putting the kettle on.