Reply With QuoteSuppose that makes the Ardley in/out thread redundant for a little while longer?
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Inside what is now the office of Notts County’s new owners is a large mural that serves as a reminder of the past.
It depicts a celebration from a group of players who have long since departed Meadow Lane, accompanied by the words that after 150 years the club is still "standing tall".
Inherited as part of their deal to buy the club in the summer, Christoffer and Alexander Reedtz will hope that one day they can replace it with something that represents success of their own.
As we sit down to talk about their aspirations in their first major interview since their arrival, you will find no talk of Championship football in five years' time or that Nottingham Forest should start checking their rear view mirrors.
But do not for one moment mistake the lack of headline grabbing soundbytes as a lack of ambition.
“I would hope that in time we are in a higher league and have achieved some good results,” says chairman Christoffer, dressed in a crisp white shirt and club tie.
“It's a really long-term project from our point of view and it also an investment.
"We are well aware of the money clubs tend to lose at this level, but that was something we accounted for.
"Even if we don't achieve promotion in the short-term, we are happy to invest at that level in the future.
"We are going to be around for as long as possible, but will be patient in our pursuit of success.”
Such measured words are likely to bring comfort to a fanbase that has grown increasingly tired of listening to huge promises that have never been delivered.
Instead they have been chained to disappointment by chronic instability of recent years which undoubtedly hastened their descent into the non-league football for the first time in their history last May.
Not only have managers and players come and gone at a ridiculous rate, but the Reedtz brothers are also the club’s third owners in nine years.
To put this hiring and firing into some context, the current manager Neal Ardley is their 23rd since the turn of the century, proving it is one of the hottest seats in English football.
Last year Kevin Nolan was sacked just five games into the season to be replaced by Harry Kewell who was then axed just 12 weeks later.
When Ardley arrived last November, he became the third manager of the season, but for all of the changes that took place there was little bounce in the results.
It will no doubt be of huge interest that as part of studying a business degree in Copenhagen, Alexander wrote a thesis on the effects of sackings and their impact on a considerable amount of clubs.
“Obviously there are some sackings that are good for a club for whatever reason, but in general there are a lot of irrational ones,” he says.
Alexander Reedtz (left), and brother Christoffer Reedtz (right) (Image: Nottingham Post/Neal Hughes)
“You might have a bad run of results, but it could be random in that actually you have performed all right.
“We look beyond the result. If you look at our game against Yeovil earlier in the season for example, we played quite well, created lots of big chances but happened to lose 3-1.
“Then again, there are also games we have won but have been lucky.
“We look at it more in depth than just concentrate on goals scored and conceded because that can be very random.”
Given their company Football Radar studies players and leagues across the world, it is clear that statistics and analysis will play an intrinsic part in the Reedtz brothers’ ambitions.
Players they are attracted to in the transfer market will be accompanied by reams of data and whether they represent good value for money.
Old school managers will maintain that numbers cannot match a pair of eyes when it comes to judging a potential signing.
But Ardley has made no secret of his interest in analytics which makes him a key part of the long-term objective at Meadow Lane.
“We’ve really enjoyed working with Neal,” says Christoffer.
“He seems to be on board with the idea of using the kind of data we have access to.
“Similarly he knows a lot of stuff we don't know about because of his real life football expertise.
“So far it’s been a really good collaboration."
All that remains now is to get it right on the pitch.
While Notts fans have been frustrated with the last three results, the latest being a 2-2 draw against Boreham Wood on Tuesday, the club has made steady progress on the back of a hugely turbulent summer.
As the previous owner Alan Hardy's cash ran out, which saw staff go unpaid for two months, allied with trips to the High Court over unpaid tax, the uncertainty finally ended when the Reedtz brothers completed their takeover at the end of July.
It meant that a transfer embargo was only lifted just days before the start of the season, which resulted in Notts signing 13 players in a fortnight.
Due to the their financial situation, Ardley lost out on some of his first-choice players, but despite that, Notts have had a decent start to the campaign.
"Before the season started, there were two uncertainty factors," says Christoffer.
"One was that we brought in so many new players that you actually don't have anything in the past to look at. You can see how they performed at other clubs, but how does it work when they are all put together?
"The other is thing was that we had not studied the National League in the same level of detail as other leagues.
"Notts County have never been in the league before and it's hard to estimate the differences.
“But if you look at the eight to 10 best teams, they are almost at the same level. There will be small difference when they have better form and so on, but it’s an unusually close league.
“We are one of those teams and we therefore have a good chance to get to the play-offs which should be our target.”
Should Notts achieve that this season and even go on to win them, then Christoffer and Alexander may not have to wait too long to enjoy their own success at Meadow Lane.
https://www.nottinghampost.com/sport...itions-3581634
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Suppose that makes the Ardley in/out thread redundant for a little while longer?
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You have no choice but to 'look beyond the results' with Ardley.Originally Posted by ncfcog
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Sounds that way in the interview and I have a feeling Ardley will be here for the majority of the season regardless of what I or a few others want.
Its a huge gamble to keep him imo as if we slide down the league and finish say 16th it is bound to have a drop in crowds next season.
I like the bit "Ardley is on board with the statistics side" of course he is as if he disagrees he will get the chop.
Anyway we have an FA Cup game to look forward to & the beauty of it is we can't slide down the league when we lose
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On problem is whilst we are in the FA Cup we could drop down with teams playing in the league.
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Have there been any new owners in football history who’ve said ‘we want instant success, and the next run of bad results we have, the manager’s gone’ ?
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I doubt it, BFP, but plenty of supporters have.
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Forgot all about the other teams in the league !
We will drop down the league if 4/5 teams have same points as us as one of them is bound to get a point.
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Lol, so true
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Obviously we fans do. I want promotion this season. We won’t get promoted with the current manager. For all their reasonable noises now, it’s only a matter of time until the owners come to the same conclusion.
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