theAnticlough

Thanks for the heads up, I'm glad I've always avoided sites like that, plus facebook, X, instagram etc. On the subject itself, to use the words of someone headed for jail soon (hopefully) I'm intensely relaxed about any speculation on our Head Coach. He's obviously done tremendously for us, but I'll be honest, I'm uncomfortable seeing him described as 'manager', the James Gibbons interview included. I want the Bros model, and favoured club structure, to be respected, (it's brought us a double promotion) and I want the Head Coach to stay in his lane. I think the closest thing to 'manager' at the club is the Director of Football. Montague has given us Rodrigues, Roberts, Jones, Crowley, Bostock, Nemane, Jatta, Palmer, Langstaff, Scott, Baldwin, Cameron, Wootton, McDonand, Bedeau, Platt, Robertson etc. etc. That's a hell of a lot of good players, nearly all of which are operating at Level 1 or higher, but recruited at a lower level. It's a bloody tremendous record. On the coaches front he's recruited 4 since we got rid of the inherited Ardley. Two left to jump up 2 divisions. Even the dodgy hire doesn't look so bad now that Maynard proved himself again at York. Coaches come and coaches go, the important thing is that the operating model continues. Pato has had a fantastic first year, I hope he stays years to be the one to push us on, but I won't be fretting about whether he stays or not.

I'll take this to be the side on Match Day 1 as it stands so far - so minus the injured and the unsigned (e.g. McDonald) ......................Belshaw ...........Gibbons...Ness..Bedeau Tsaroulla..Sanders..Robertson...Jones ...........Roberts......Grant ...................Jatta

Agree with the consensus above - a good signing on the face of things. With Norburn 33 Palmer 31, it's good to have a holding CM at 27 and I thought he interviewed very well @menzinho agree on Palmer. The season was a strong bounceback from a poor season playing backwards and sideways in Maynard's scheme. I seem to say this most years, but I hope he passes on the armband now. The masterstroke at the end of the season was going Norburn-Robbo. There's something about Palmer leading us in clutch end-of-season games that seems to set the wrong tone for the team.

Wow, but he definitely earned it. With Falkirk he became one of the best creative players in the SPL

My memories of the time are pretty clear @StarkMallard The players meeting seemed to be about getting 3 CBs into the team....Doyle and O'Brien were clogging away ahead of them and Ruben was shockingly still exiled. Ardley was a dead man walking. If ever a guy deserved to get the sack for not working towards the owners vision it was Ardley I was always against wing-backs up until Williams, probably because most managers used it as a con trick to insert another defender and others weren't brave enough to get it right. I used to argue on the old site, a sign of an effective wing-back is a player you would never pick to play full-back. And I think this is where we eventually landed this season with Tsaroulla and Jones. Burchnall was a disaster not being brave enough to play Nemane over Kelly-Evans Williams had to work with what he had, but he made sure he transformed Chicksen's game to play the position and had no hesitation in bringing Nemane into the team. Anyway, 5 and a half seasons of wing-backs now and 2 promotions to show for it. We got it to work for us! But it still amazes me how many still want 4 defenders and are so quick to call for a back 4 despite all our success with a totally different system.

They must have become big fans then ; )

I don't know, their owners had to watch that 49 times, we only saw it 3 times and the first two were more than enough for me. By 'that' & 'it' I mean the awful cheating, thuggery, gamesmanship...i don't think the class of '92 had to resort to too much of that. It's an embarrassment. Maybe part of the tinking is to change their ways and remake their image

Well, if they don't get it, maybe a relegation would help them understand "Didn't benefit from it'' didn't they beat Middlesboro - what other benefit is there? 'How they benefitted' - irrelevant. By breaking the rules, any small marginal gain will change the course of the tie (butterfly effect and all that)

When it comes to giving credit, I'd like to add our Director of Football I think I saw a podcast recently where the players, HC, coaching staff, owners were thanked and praised but there was no mention of DoF Richard Montague. Of the 16 match day players at Wembley, Montague recruited... Belshaw, Ness, McDonald, Bedeau, Robertson, Palmer, Tsaroulla, Jones, Jatta, Ndlovu, Grant - 11 Maybe some don't like the role or our structure but credit where it's due. Wing-back system & possession-based approach (5th in L2 this year) are 2 other aspects that contributed to 2 promotions in 3 years.

There could be a resource issue and other practical reasons why it's not extended to all 4 leagues. Maybe they do this already, but I'm not aware, but massive improvements could be made with points of emphasis for refereeing - focussed on the so-called 'dark arts', persistent fouling, time-wasting etc. I hope L1 next season gives us fewer referees that side with spoiling teams and enable them to cheat their way to points.

Very good message. Good luck to him - the new team are going to benefit from having him

Seconded on O'Reilly. But with Jones, Cal and Tsaroulla already in the room, I think the 4th player should have Iorpenda-style physical attributes to give L1 teams different things to think about.

Massive chance for him to leave a legacy as an accomplished EFL footballer. He will be highly motivated. (It's interesting how records look. If you see Notts County on profiles post-retirement you see a L1 club not NL) Cal's talents deserve to be showcased at this higher level. I'm sure we all wish him luck. If he stays injury-free his talents will shine through and he'll be a great success for us.

Great to have him back now. He must be buzzing to go up 2 levels, but he earned it. Might boost season tickets even more - most fans want to see skill, and Cal certainly provides that. Hope the next 2 years are as healthy as the last two at Scunny. If so, he'll realise himself as an top EFL player

Well, we already have Lasagna Jatta according to some

@piedestrian's quote says he's been RCB for the last few months, so a shape similar to ours in that case Impressive signing - L2 team of the year, a direct rival's player of the season... Now we're up, I might be able to stomach watching the Cambridge match on Pies Player

It's definitely the player profile of what we need in CM. His loan at Mansfield ends the day after tomorrow. You'd imagine at 21, Spurs would want him to try the Championship, especially now that they're not in it :) btw Spurs had a whopping 18 players out on loan last season

Interesting discussion on yesterday's Magpie Circle on VAR Stall seems a bit conflicted. No worries, a lot of people are. It was interesting to hear him say that he would absolutely behave differently, as a striker, if it was a VAR game - like going down when he knew his shirt was being pulled. Well, VAR was as good as gold in our final, it didn't intrude at all. And fans could still celebrate the goals (look at the vlogs), maybe Stall had to be more tentative as a commentator. But more than that I'm sure that that changed player behaviour due to VAR helped us win. Exhibit A - Ness' header. There's no way they would've let him do that if it was a normal game at the Peninsula or Meadow Lane. He would have been wrestled down to the ground in a way that made it look like a foul on the defender. And that's what the usual bog-standard L2 ref would've given. I was in favour of VAR at the start but turned against it since, mainly because of the delays. But our final makes you think. VAR and the big pitch both played a part in ensuring the better team won.

Yeah, slightly surprising, maybe in a good way. Norburn definitely proved his worth. We needed his fearlessness and aggression for this succesful run in. But I'm happy in a way. It's not the type of midfielder I want to see and there was a problem stylistically as he didn't really want to show for the ball or try to dictate play. I disagree @Sheffield Pie Palmer + Robbo should be better. Palmer is 2 years younger. But at 31, he should enter a new phase of his career - embrace being the midfield general, but think like an old man now and get pissed off with all these youngsters he's playing against. Hopefully, he'll leave the captaincy to others and concentrate on becoming a less tentative and more assertive CM than he has been at times this year. Can we have the attitude of Norburn but the game of Palmer, please? I hope Norburn doesn't end up at Oldham, where he got sent off. If it's the NW, maybe it's Fleetwood or even Salford... The right one of Kouhyar and Bennetts is staying. Maz has been consistently good off the bench this season and that's where he'll be next season. But can a sports psychologist solve the problem of his game falling off a cliff when he starts? Hope we can reach an agreement with Concrete Rod. Won't blame him for bartering on terms after his fantastic season. I think Macarri will sign.

Ndlovu has his contract and I think the club will be happy to have him. He’s elite at the main thing he does - come on and hold the ball up. He’ll always appear whenever we’re winning or drawing away. Maybe we can see a bit more of him as an assister and scorer next year We also need the toughness he brings, just him showing up when it kicks off up is a message to the opposition

Keeping it on this thread, a 2nd promotion in 3 years is vindication of the club's model - including recruitment Pato has rightly won lots of plaudits for his fantastic coaching this season - but what an advantage it is we have over other clubs, that he can concentrate on his coaching job and leave contracts, transfers and recruitment to another team (and just contribute as required). I can see more and more clubs copying our model. What a distraction it must be on the training ground when the players think the coach is deciding on contracts and in and outs. And more than that, what a distraction for the coach who needs to focus on how to make the team and players better, which MP certainly did.

From right side attack in a 4-3-3 to Inside-Right for us won't be a difficult transition His return appeals the more you think about it - entertainment with the skill level (a left foot to rival Jodi's) + loads of goals & assists

Subdued is generous, largely absent would be more accurate. If you look at the line receiving and lifting the trophy, Bennetts and Kouhyar look halfway out and Dennis isn't there at all. Looked like he gave it a miss then had a change of heart, but still didn't really enter into the spirit of it. So, selling for a small fee seems likely to me. He started so well, but doesn't seem to have reacted well when the going got tough. His substitute appearances got worse as the season went on, and there's no excuse for that.

It's semantics really. We have promotion seasons now with Nemane and JJ playing key roles. They're wingers - but remember Nemane's block v Boreham Wood? And JJ does his best to get back and defend under orders from MP. Another example was Calvin Miller, who was on fire for us as winger/wing-back for a short time. Fans can label them what they want. The important thing IMO is that there's cover behind them. The LCB and the whole team is designed to slide over to cover attacks on that side. But if that wing-back/winger doesn't attack down that side? There's nobody to 'cover' that. That's why LW had to transform Chicksen and he got 11 goals in that promotion season. If you look at the video of Cal's best goals for Scunthorpe they mainly seem to come from the No.10 position. In Scunny's system he was r-side attack in a 4-3-3. If he comes back there's no way in the world he'd play left-winger or LWB unless we're chasing games at home. JJ can just about manage the defensive duties but Cal showed us that he really can't. In our system he'd be right side No.10 I think, but that'd mean we need a Iorpenda-type player (with more goals) on the other side. And Cal returning would probably mean we're not keeping Tangan? It'll be interesting to see what happens over the next few days.

If we were still L2 it'd make perfect sense. @menzinho you make good points about the formation. If it was announced I'd be happy, but fear it was a mistake...