Up the Maggies

I think Premier League fees tend to distort our views on fees further down the pyramid. For context, Max Dean, who's seven years younger than Langstaff and has a potentially significant sell on value, was sold by Milton Keynes for somewhere in the region of £1mil. We've also got to look at this from a reputational stand point. Would it really have been a good look for Notts to have stood in the way of what might turn out to be Macca's only shot at playing Championship football? We can now say to prospective players "give us a couple of seasons and if all goes well we won't stand in your way. This club can be a great springboard for your career." That's no small thing in my opinion.

Forest are in a different situation to Notts, in that their lease only has about 40 years left to run, whereas the current arrangement at Meadow Lane still has well over 100 years to go. It's difficult for Forest to justify long-term redevelopment of the City Ground when ultimately it could potentially be short- to medium-term for them. The current set up on Meadow Lane saved the club in 2019, when Haydn Green's family effectively forced Hardy out. I trust the Reedtz brothers, but not as much as I trust the Green family. I hope they have a stake in the ground for many years to come.

Yes. Our owner at the time was a guy called Albert Scardino, who gambled huge amounts of money trying to get the club into what's now the Championship on the assumption he would be able to get loans and also television money from ITV Digital. Except ITV Digital went bankrupt and the loans never materialised. We ended up in administration for 18 months and we never really managed to snap out of cycle of financial and other off-field problems until 2019.

I reckon we're looking at over £100k in revenue from these Euros alone. Even when you factor out costs I imagine it's been a nice earner for the club.

This one contract on its own is also probably going to be enough for Macca to buy himself a nice house and have enough in savings to dip into for the rest of his life. It's easy to forget that the vast majority of footballers have to take a significant pay cut once their playing careers are over and they transition into "ordinary" life. They absolutely should do what they can while they're playing to make that transition as smooth as possible.

Millwall have a very good reputation for bringing strikers in from lower leagues who gone on to do well for them. It's a great place for him to go in my opinion.

There are rumours (which could be nothing) that we're looking to a deal with Burnley for Michael Mellon (16 goals in 36 appearances for Morecambe and Dundee last season, 13 in 22 for the former and only 20 years old). If we land someone like him as a replacement I would be very happy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Mellon

This is from the statement released by the club when Roberts was sold in 2022 which I expect will be echoed when the Langstaff deal is announced today or tomorrow. The money will be pumped back into the team. We also have to think strategically about the long-term image of the club to prospective signings. This is presumably a life-changing deal for Macca: he'll earn enough to buy himself a nice house and have enough in savings to make him comfortable for the rest of his life. We shouldn't stand in the way of that, and it's no small thing being able to say to prospective players "this is a great place to play, and if you develop well and we get a good offer, you'll be able to set yourself up for life."

£700,000 upfront (with the possibility of more in the future) is a huge amount for a club at our level. We're 5 weeks out from the start of the season and 8 weeks out from the transfer deadline. Obviously I'm very sad to see Langstaff go, but I'm very confident we can land a replacement with funds like that and still have probably significant money leftover to invest elsewhere.

I think the initial approach from Millwall has been turned down, although I don't know if that'll be the end of their interest. The thing to bear in mind is that Notts are in a win-win situation. Langstaff is either our player at the beginning of September or he's been sold on and the club has a significant amount of money to put back into the squad. A like-for-like replacement would obviously be difficult, but when you think of some of the bargains Notts have landed under the current ownership (Langstaff himself, Scott, Crowley, Roberts, Rodrigues for example) it's pretty exciting to think about what we could do with the money we'd have.

Thanks, all. I've actually only been a fan since the 1990s, but I'm a sucker for old fashioned stuff so own a few things that say "Maggies" rather than "Pies" on them. As I aside I notice you have a Collingwood avatar - I own a few bits of Collingwood merchandise. I was Melbourne only a few weeks ago but unfortunately didn't time my visit well enough to catch a Collingwood game and had to make do with Richmond vs. Sydney (which was still very good).

He was definitely just there to catch up with friends at Notts. He was with other staff members too and not just JP. Like I say if anything it shows that there aren't any talks going on between the clubs at the moment, because if they were the potential appearance of business being done over drinks within earshot of fans isn't a look I think either club would be happy with.

Luke Williams's assistant Ryan Harley was at the new fan zone after the England game on Thursday drinking with a few Notts staff members including the CEO. Which doesn't mean a bid isn't coming but probably does mean that there aren't any talks ongoing at the moment (Harley obviously wouldn't be leading them, but I think both sides would want to avoid any appearance of potential impropriety if we were doing business). I think we can safely say that Notts aren't actively looking to sell (we don't appoint Macca captain if we are) and Macca isn't actively looking to leave (I don't think he gives an interview where he talks about how much he's looking forward to taking on the captaincy otherwise). But we're still going to have a price in mind and if an interested club offers it we'll probably sell.