piedestrian

Well I'd hesitate to say that he's not a top league player. He was only playing in England's 5th tier until recently. I see you've just mentioned that he's been released - I hope he finds a good base for himself, but obviously would love him back here.

A very well curated and meticulously thought about. I'd love a few players off here, the more mysterious, the better. One player mentioned is Rio Clegg at Radcliffe which from one clip I've seen looks raw but a decent prospect.

I don't want to poo-poo your idea but he'll be on nothing short of 5-10k a week, which means we'll be no way near.

People have commented on the fact that Montague has been a little too honest with this and, although it's great transparency for fans as we want to see that from the club, it's gonna hyper inflate new goalkeeper costs and show to clubs that might want to bid on Jatta/Dennis, now is the time if they've got the resource. If those bids come in or never transpire, the players, manager and fans will never really know if they're going or staying.

I've not been impressed with Norburn but fairly open to seeing how Hinchy comes across.

I had a brilliant time. Excellent game for the neutrals, but equally, fun times had by all in the grand scheme of things. Shows we have depth and even in that depth, the players are all singing from the same hymn sheet. Everyone is showing doggedness, guile and grit to get where we need to be. Dennis need to be playing more and I'd consider Hall for Grant and continue 2 up top for the forseeable. Grant and Roos are still the weakest link in the team and yet another game where Grant fails to impress and is the first one hooked, which I think it makes his only full 90 against Swindon... Their peno wouldn't have happened had it been for poor command of his box and flapping. That said, a new keeper and a new AM in Jan and I'm confident of us getting something from this season given the fight in the rest of the team.

So I've done the numbers, albeit roughly and over about 10 minutes, so pinch of salt. I'd say that after a keeper (which I don't think count's to the 22) which is imperitive, we're really struggling with Grant. His numbers are quite bad for a player in the attacking category. For the 18 games he's played this season, he's scored 2, which puts him scoring every 9 games, effectively every 2 months. He's assisted once. He's only played a full 90 once this season which was his best performance against Swindon. You can be assured that the board and analysts are looking at this thinking it's not even a fine margin, it's quite a chasmic one. I might be blinkered in that we've had Ruben, Crowley and Didzy aleviate bad performances with creativity and clinical ability, but I do feel he's the first to go when we are pushing games as no one has faith in him performing on a consistant level. What happens to Cotter and Aljofree in the first week of the transfer window will give us a good indication of how many moves to expect. I'm optimistic about the window because I think the bro's have shown courage and guile with getting Montague back, first and foremost. If they get a new GK, 6/10. If they get a new GK and a new AM, 8/10. If they get anything more than that, 10/10.

Even though Rhodes vanished early doors, we've had terrible luck with injuries. Palmer, Jones, Platt and Luker all been out for periods leaving us without key players at various times.

I think if we notched up the tempo and the quickness of our passing and not press so high up the pitch, we might be able to get some balls behind their defense. Otherwise it's quite tedious build up play that gets to the 25 yard area, no one shoots, we play it out wide, we either cross it or call foul and if we do cross it, Jatta's not getting their first. Rinse and repeat.

There's a couple of things here for me. I thought Colchester was everything I'd expect from a Notts side this season. Remember when we were sold the idea of "dark arts" and being physical and more direct? I didn't see that against Colchester. I thought they were probs the best side I've seen at Meadow Lane and that's including us against Shrewsbury. They were disciplined, drove some good passes behind our high press and the front three bullied us all day long. Also helps when you've got a good keeper who catches and doesn't have a 60% rate of giving the ball to the opposite side. I think that a large majority of people within the club and watching now think that Roos is the biggest hinderence since Alan Smith's days of being a statue. They have to act or watch us lose more money by not achieving promotion and Paterson sacked as he can't navigate a boat with a gaping hole in it. Two tactical issues stand out for me which I think is on Paterson. We are easy to counter and break the lines of. We do have good defenders but some times I think we'd be better with three in midfield with someone screning the back line and Palmer and Robbo abit pushed up. Secondly, we fall off a cliff when it gets to the 25 yard area. The amount of players which get to just outside of the area, all of a sudden are hit with a moment of indecision. Grant is the worst for it but Hall is a very close second. Jarvis has shown that he might be capable but I dunno. This Jan is huge, but I do find comfort in the fact Montague is at the club. I hope/reckon that we'll see signficant changes to our team in Feb to now.

Can't recall where I saw it, but Peterborough's requirements in a striker means that he's too old as much as Williams wants him there. Might be the same for JJ as well. Peterborough are known for their approach to transfers and have to tick a large upsell metric to their purchase in the first instance. Langstaff needs to drop down and then underperform to ever come back to Notts. Given he's 28, he's in his prime years and really needs to hit it running with another club or be at risk of becoming nomadic.

I'm one of the detractors in the everyone vs Grant case. I think with this formation and its iterations over the last couple of years, I've been spoiled in Ruben and more-so Crowley. Ruben was brave and clinical - almost a second striker. Crowley was very technically gifted with decision making and vision alongside being brave. That said I have just re-watched quite a lot of Crowley and Ruben's goals/assists and see closer similarities in Kouhyar than I see in Grant. With the way we play, we put so much stock in this position and when the AM's fail, we fail given that Jatta is not a big brutish bastard and he plays better when stuff is played in front of him.

I think pre-season Cotter is just a good way to assess Cotter in general. For every Cardiff goal, a Kaiserslauten stinker. Personally, if we're rid of the wage which was probs a bit too large in our squad given his playing time, I think it's better attributed elsewhere.

I think that as a CM pairing, they don't come much better than Robertson and Palmer who really compliment each other. It's the AM duo that's gonna cost us. I personally think Grant is the weak link. Sure he's got intelligence and presses well, but it's only good up until he's 20 yards and closer to the goal that he turns to mush. Hall I think deserves more time to really make the position his own. I'd like to see Jarvis and Traore there as they both look intelligent and can drift out, but for the love of god don't put Jones back there. Fwiw, had Luker been here the whole season, we would be smashing the league and probs go up.

Rumour was floating around before the game that he's been sent back to Barnsley