Retained List Now On O/S

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackal2

I reckon the pressure is more on Nolan than Hardy, unless the Chairman would consider firing himself! XD

There are a lot of difficulties associated with being a football chairman, including more brickbats than praise, but at least if you own the club like Alan Hardy does, your word is the bottom line whether it's right or wrong!

Fair enough, but I think the reality is a bit more complex.

Hardy and Nolan are both newbies when it comes to the transfer market, and January was an important one. Either KN failed to identify attainable targets for January, or AH failed to get him to do so - or failed to attain them. Either way, the performance shouldn't be acceptable to an ambitious owner.

AH has lots of reasons to want his Notts ownership to be a 'success' (whatever that means as a small club in L2 - another conversation), and he's a self-driven man. He's yet to achieve acceptable standards in this regard, so yeah, I think he'll feel some pressure to do better this pre-season. And I think lots of fans will lay the blame at his door if he doesn't.

I also think that by paring the squad down to the bone, he's accepted the challenge. As much as KN's opinion is hugely important, this pre-season is a big test of AH's ability to make good signings happen.