Sheffield Pie

Gone to York. Could have been for personal reasons or money, who knows. Disappointed but I wouldn't expect our owners to get into an irresponsible bidding war.

The playoffs reduced the time available to rebuild the squad. The Jatta and Jodi sagas will have caused uncertainty. Competition for signings is strong (looks like York might have beat us to Boyes). Season ticket sales, although up, aren't spectacular. I think they were as ready as they could be. They did make three good signings very quickly suggesting they had some plans in place. But it would be great to have some announcements asap!

Now being linked with Dean Campbell at Northampton. Is he any good? That's quite a few we seem to be chasing, if we get some of those targets e.g. O'Reilly, Mellon, Boyes we'll be OK.

The owners and RM have said a few times that they regard the loan market as 'good value'. Confident they are trying to get in the best they possibly can. Players or clubs wanting guaranteed game time might be a barrier. Have got the sense once or twice that loan players were being picked or coming off the bench, especially in the second half of the season, even though they'd lost form or interest. Or I might be just imagining that.

Traore released. Sanders injury is a blow, one of the best signings on paper. Still time to bring in a few, maybe there'sa part exchange in the offing, and at least one loan.

Formation will be interesting. Signings so far suggest we might be tweaking it a bit? Quite a lot of talent in central midfield but a bit light elsewhere. In recent years Notts have 'tried to win every game' which has been great, but maybe now's the time to be more pragmatic while we get used to EFL1. Should be able to play an expansive game against Walsall though, who seem to be in a pretty poor state. Edit: Sanders out for three months!

He's 27 so in his prime. Probably sick of EFL defenders and referees. Gets a signing on fee and wage rise presumably - important for any player but especially if your family is from a poor country. Gets to play in a top division. The model has worked well for Notts again. PS didn't mean to have two threads but don't know how to merge.

Tommi O'Reilly? Rumoured loan from Villa. Would that fill an attacking midfield slot nicely? One of our tormentors at Crewe and yet another player of the season!

Confirmed Notts website The Finnish league is ranked 67th on Gllobalfootballrankings so about the same as EFL2.

Crazy. And they've appointed Scott Lindsey. Hardly a serial achiever - fluked a promotion with Crawley and sacked a few times since. I'm sure SM will walk into another job in a couple of months after the early season round of sackings, best of luck to him.

Developing players is so much better. The last time we got promoted to L1 we added 'proven' players from a higher level (as some Notts fans still hanker for) and it wasn't great - Burgess, Chilvers, Smith, Spicer, Harley etc. Waste of wages and no return on investment.

Great stuff. Competition for places in midfield! Some interesting insights from Harrogate's manager on how Notts went about this one: Weaver interview

Peter O'Rourke seems to be in the know but a lot of the rest are just chancers copying each others' tweets. Hope so in this case!

Luker scored in a friendly on Saturday and seems to be closer to their first team so that door might have shut which would be a shame, you never know though. In contrast I see Aljofree was released and is on trial at Rotherham. Just shows you can never judge loan signings based on pedigree. Expecting some loans confirmed soon, we must be a very attractive proposition to young pros looking for game time. Digressing slightly but as usual a small minority of Notts fans online (not here) are spending the summer wallowing in rumour fuelled negativity, extraordinary after two promotions in four years, season ticket sales up again, signing other clubs' players of the season, in the same division as Leicester and Wednesday etc. Trying my best to ignore it, as I'm sure the club do, but it's just bizarre.

Haven't Newport signed Kyle Cameron? Hopefully we're the ones getting an upgrade. Baker was at Stoke, becoming quite a common pedigree at Notts.

Good post match interview from MP as always. Fair to the players, complimentary to the fans. Made it pretty clear a couple of times there are more signings in the pipeline, ones that will strengthen the side. Hope so. No reason to doubt it.

He's worth more than that. I think Jatta will only leave if his head is turned by big wages. Worrying about something that hasn't happened? Anyway the guy needs to have some faith. The club found Wootton, Langstaff and Jatta, all sensationally good calls.

OK we'll see! Expect the club will be working on his fitness initially. Ndlovu said he struggled at first to meet the fitness level before he got minutes. I don't go on the other forum but I expect they're having a negativity fest! Keep the faith.

Thanks liked the photos at the end as well. As a neutral, any thoughts on Roos and the triallists?

Sorted. He was always going to be the easiest one to shift. Roos and Traore much harder! Hopefully this frees up some of the wage bill for a decent signing, Mellon or someone at least of that calibre. I make it four slots free in the squad now, not including U21s and keepers.

More good news. Though today's statement from the club says Rodders is also out for a bit, so we've not got many fit defenders. Might explain why Aden Flint is training with us. Might be more triallists on show at Alfreton. Personally I think the squad is shaping up fine. I'm happy the club isn't panic buying or offering crazy money, not that our owners ever would.

Surprised to read Langstaff has signed for Salford, reportedly with Millwall getting their money back. He's at peak age but ended up in a division below us at a non-league standard ground. Their new manager has no experience of English football I don't think, has only worked in Japan, so not sure how that will work out. Best of luck to him but can't help feeling he could have shown more ambition. We're rumoured to have bid for Burnley's Michael Mellon. Would mean doing some pruning up front - hopefully takers for Dennis and/or Traore.

Flint is pretty old, not sure why he's training with us unless he lives nearby? Leko makes more sense, was a great prospect as a teenager but had a long term injury - shades of Jodi? Probably a high earner at his previous clubs.

Good luck to him. We've had a little bit of success with young-ish permanent signings (Macari, Ness and Browne might turn out OK) and some flops (Jarvis). I've got a feeling Paterson will be good at bringing them on, because he's so demanding and clearly cares about his players, but also as someone who fought his way into men's football at a young age. Darius's parents are Moldovan apparenrlty, hence the un-Irish sounding name.

The fixtures are triggering memories of seeing Notts against teams we haven't played for a long time. Same for anyone else? Here are three I remember well (I think!), two from the 90s and one from the 80s. Beating Leicester 4-1 at Meadow Lane, Gary McSwegan hat trick was it? Losing 0-3 at Turf Moor, I got there early and bumped into Russell Slade in the town, had a chat about the win over Spurs. My first Notts away game, lost 3-5 to Luton, Chiedozie scored a great goal. ... let's hope this season generates some great memories for our young fans.