Retained List Now On O/S

[LaxtonLad]

Hopefully, finishing in the top half will be of a significant benefit to us. The decent players out there may actually consider us a viable option for once.

The brightest of these decent players ought to have seen the mockery of refereeing in our games against Coventry and rightly judged it was a travesty that we were pushed out of our day at Wembley by two incompetent referees. Finishing in a play-off place does have some attraction to possible signings, promotion would have had more, but we'll see who Nolan can attract.

[Bohinen]

Football fans always want their Chairmen to dig deeper.

I just want him to spend what he has wisely. It's good to see some deadwood go, because they cost money. I'm sure there's a couple more, like Hawkridge, who would have gone if they didn't have 2 year contracts.

I really think lessons have been learned, because this seems different to last year, more ruthless and more of a plan.

[jackal2]

Firstly Notts County Football Club cannot realistically afford anything. It loses money, and those losses have to come from AH (or as it would appear at the moment, one of his enterprises). So the issue is, does he slowly haemorrhage with a string of poor and half hearted decisions or does he do a "John Wayne" "go for broke " to get to his promised land of the Championship.

We had a poor January window which despite his protestations "squad better after than before" failed to perform to the levels of the first half of the season and League Two (it is the basement you know) beckons again with a supporter base that will start to tire of the enthusiasm of AH unless the club delivers. Or he gives up on HIS Championship dream.

So we'll see if he and KN have learnt their lessons, are a bit more wary of the agents knocking on their door, and have spent a few months looking at players that are an improvement on what we had. And however deep he has to dig to keep the club going he might just have to dig that bit deeper all other FFP factors considered.

I think we can dismiss the "Class of 2018" so that's one route blocked off.

Certainly agree about the "Class of 2018"!

Football is a nonsense business really.

You're in League Two losing money, and the calculation is that by spending increased amounts of money (you don't have) on the off-chance that it might drive you up two leagues, you will reach the Championship and find a land of milk and honey where income suddenly exceeds outgoings and you will make a profit each season.

The reality is that - even in the less than likely event that your additional investment achieves the double promotion - you will end up in a league where you will build up far greater debts trying to survive, and even if you do, it's such a slog that fans get disillusioned and attendances never match financial requirements.

Always makes me laugh at the Championship play-off game each season when they talk about promotion to the Premier League being worth hundreds of millions (or whatever the figure is) to the winner. They forget to mention that the winner will probably have to spend all that and more to stay in the "promised land". If that wasn't the case, how come Premier League clubs getting relegated after years of battling, like Sunderland and Bolton, often come down in virtual financial ruin.

Live beyond your means and it won't be a pot of gold you find at the end of the rainbow, more like a crock of ...

On a brighter note though, I think Alan Hardy is a sensible businessman (certainly by football chairman standards!) and will adopt the steady, sustainable improvement approach, even if the club PR sometimes includes a bit of hype to sell tickets.

[Bohinen]

Always makes me laugh at the Championship play-off game each season when they talk about promotion to the Premier League being worth hundreds of millions (or whatever the figure is) to the winner. They forget to mention that the winner will probably have to spend all that and more to stay in the "promised land". If that wasn't the case, how come Premier League clubs getting relegated after years of battling, like Sunderland and Bolton, always come down in virtual financial ruin..

It's not always like that. Burnley have survived two Premiership relegations and are still going strong because they've spent wisely.

[Old_pie]

Certainly agree about the "Class of 2018"!

Football is a nonsense business really.

You're in League Two losing money, and the calculation is that by spending increased amounts of money (you don't have) on the off-chance that it might drive you up two leagues, you will reach the Championship and find a land of milk and honey where income suddenly exceeds outgoings and you will make a profit each season.

The reality is that - even in the less than likely event that your additional investment achieves the double promotion - you will end up in a league where you will build up far greater debts trying to survive, and even if you do, it's such a slog that fans get disillusioned attendances never match requirements.

Always makes me laugh at the Championship play-off game each season when they talk about promotion to the Premier League being worth hundreds of millions (or whatever the figure is) to the winner. They forget to mention that the winner will probably have to spend all that and more to stay in the "promised land". if that wasn't the case, how come Premier League clubs getting relegated after years of battling, like Sunderland and Bolton, always come down in virtual financial ruin.

Live beyond your means and it won't be a pot of gold you find at the end of the rainbow, more like a crock of ...

I agree with you, but as with RT it is AH's 5 year plan to take us to the Championship whereafter he can, he says, take us no further. Most supporters I think will have been pleased with a year in which some positive excitement and the odd good result with a flirt with promotion and not a hint of relegation with a manager who was there the previous year and is likely to start the next season. But hey, it's not these supporters setting the expectations #faith #trust #promotion and all that.

We were already to have had a signing announcement some Fridays ago deferred to some more recent Friday. He's already tweeted "Sadly we came up short of realizing your dreams and what you deserve. But the building blocks are in place for an incredible future and that, I promise, I will deliver to you" so - he's going to have to dig deep.

PS as has often been stated: How to become a millionaire, start with a billion and then buy a football club.

[jackal2]

It's not always like that. Burnley have survived two Premiership relegations and are still going strong because they've spent wisely.

Burnley without question have been brilliantly managed by Sean Dyche, but I would still make two points.

First, they were/are a much bigger club than Notts County in terms of support base (in the modern era at least).

Second, the test of the Burnley 'story' will be when Dyche eventually leaves and it falls to A N Other manager to pull more rabbits out of hats.

As with Swansea and several others, at some point the magic will wear off and Burnley will return to more of a mean, which for them is probably Championship level. The time to judge whether they have beaten the harsh economics of football is by assessing their financial state when that happens. At present they look like they're on the crest of a wave, but they will have to sustain that for decades (literally!) to grow the club to a size where financial resilience and support base would be semi-permanent.

With Dave Whelan's investment and prolonged relative success, Wigan (for example) have genuinely become a bigger club than they were 30/40 years ago, but only to the point where they are now a legit upper League One / lower Championship side compared to their non-league/Div 4 origins. It has taken years and millions (if not billions) of investment to make moderate progress.

[jackal2]

I just want him to spend what he has wisely. It's good to see some deadwood go, because they cost money. I'm sure there's a couple more, like Hawkridge, who would have gone if they didn't have 2 year contracts.

I really think lessons have been learned, because this seems different to last year, more ruthless and more of a plan.

I agree with that.

I think if you take into account the relative inexperience of Hardy as a football chairman and Nolan as a football manager, they are performing as well as any of us could realistically expect, and they will be learning more all the time.

[MAD_MAGPIE]

It’s certainly a clean sweep and really gives KN a chance to mould his own squad this summer.

Like others I’m surprised Collin has gone as he was a first team regular, but maybe the plan is should Fitzsimmons resign he may become number one.

I’d expected Duffy, O’Connor, Tootle and Jones to be offered new contracts. O’Connor is like a new signing and I’m guessing Hewitt and O’Connor will be our first choice centre pairing.

Likewise no surprises with the releases of Ameobi will probably only be because of his age. Forte stepped up in the final weeks of the season but overall it’s not really happened this season. Hunt was a stocking filler and again is aging. Milsoms not really featured so probably will want first team football.

In terms of Mike Edwards and Alan Smith it’s clear their careers as players are now all but over. Good that Mike Edwards is retained on the coaching staff. If I remember right Alan Smiths wages was low and he was here for his coaching qualifications, so maybe if he has these now he will go and coach or even play somewhere else?

Our longest serving player Curtis Thompson has also been released. He had his best days for us when we were in League One and he’s not really featured in Kevin Nolan’s reign or pulled up any trees at Wycombe. I liked his work rate and effort, and expect him to sign for a lower league club like Haydn Hollis went to Forest Green, or maybe one of the promoted clubs from the National League.

Hodge and Saunders were a waste of a wage as they never kicked a ball in anger as far as I recall so we live and learn on that one.

Who is Pearce Bird? He must be rated as he’s been offered a new contract. Perhaps he will break into the first team next season.

Well it’s certainly going to be an interesting summer and an exciting one. No doubt the board will be in meltdown in a couple of weeks if we’ve not signed anyone regardless of the fact most players are on holiday and many contracts don’t end until the end of June.

[jackal2]

No doubt the board will be in meltdown in a couple of weeks if we’ve not signed anyone regardless of the fact most players are on holiday and many contracts don’t end until the end of June.

Yes I wouldn't expect an immediate influx, BUT I did post on another thread last night that I would be looking for the squad to be virtually completed by the early part of July and the start of pre-season in earnest. For me, this would be a sign that we have carefully identified, pursued and landed our key targets this summer, even if we can't announce some of them until current contract expiry at the start of July.

I'll worry more if there are still big gaps in the squad by the middle and latter part of July and we're messing about with all sorts of triallists, because that would suggest we haven't been successful with the key targets and we're hunting around for scraps off the table.

It felt like a bit of both last season, with some signings made early and some late, which perhaps was a metaphor for our nearly but not quite season. It was similar in the January transfer window where everything ended up being last-minute and the much-vaunted marquee signing never materialised.

This time around let's get our business tidied up professionally and early (as possible) and leave other clubs do the dredging. With the amount of wages we've freed up, we should be capable of competing for the players we really want.

[durhampie]

Adam Collin is the only surprise to me on the released list. It looks like Jonathan Forte's late burst of effort wasn't enough to convince the manager to keep him. It leaves a few gaps to plug, and an interesting close season to look forward to.

They probably offered him a new contract and he said get stuffed.. And Quite rightly so..