Year Founded: 1862
Stadium: Meadow Lane
Capacity: 19,841
Rivals: Nottingham Forest
Training Facilities: Basic
Youth Facilities: Basic
Honours
The FA Cup - 1894
Sky Bet Championship - 1897, 1914, 1923
Sky Bet League 2 - 1971, 1998, 2010
English 3rd division - 1931, 1950
Anglo-Italian Cup - 1994
History
The oldest professional football club in the world where the even predate the football league which they were one of founding members of. The last time the club was in the top league was 1991 after Neil Warnock got them their via the playoffs but they were relegated straight away. With the relegation it meant they missed on on the first season of the Premier League. The club has had its ups and downs over the years. The most notable has to be after the takeover in 2009 by a Middle Eastern consortium where the club appointed Sven-Gran Eriksson as Director of Football and brought Sol Campbell and a young Kasper Schmeichel to the club before it all went horribly wrong and 5 months later the club had been sold again. The club have gone through managers like nobodies business going through 15 managers in the last 10 seasons. The club also dropped out of the Football League last season for the first time in their history.
The Why
So I've settled on Notts County because with them being the oldest professional club in the world success has mainly passed them by and they deserve a much richer history which I am to give them. We will originally aim to become the biggest team in Nottingham before going on to go from Non-League to Champions League. This also takes me out of my comfort zone since I won't be able to attract players that I know well which will make going up the leagues tougher.
We revamp our backroom staff to ensure we have the right people at the club to take it forward
Transfers In
We have only brought in two loan players at the moment as we are evaluating a number of players at the moment who are in on trial at the moment. Sorensen comes in to add some youth to the middle of the park and Adams comes in to make the LW his own.
Preseason
Everything goes well in preseason as the loss to Nottingham Forest was expected so hopefully we carry that form on into the season.
Expectations
The League and FA Cup we should be able to match this season and we still have our full budget left for transfers as we continue to look to improve the squad
We bring in our first permanent transfer in the form of Dannish international Casper Sloth who has previously had a spell in England with Leeds United.
He should run the midfield for us for the next season or two so hopefully we can hang onto him.
August
We have nearly a perfect month to get us off to a great start to the season as we win 4 out of our opening 5 games. Defensively we need to get better though as we manage to only keep 1 clean sheet this month. We don't have any problems at the other end of the prk though as we have people chipping in with goals from all other areas of the pitch. Kyle Wootton has been in good form leading the line with getting 4 goals in the 5 games.
We have a great month where we get a 100% record. We knew this season should be a walk in the park and its certainly seeming that way. Wootton has kept his form going through the month as he has scored 5 goals over the course of the month. We also saw Sloth get his first goal for the club as well. We got very lucky in the games against Barrow and Harrogate Town as we nearly threw away two 2-0 leads to have to win the games in injury time.
Another undeafeted month with only a small blip against Sutton United. The Sutton game was the only game this month we conceded a goal which makes a nice change. Our defence has been working hard in training and it showed with the clean sheets. Wootton has had his worst month yet with only managng the 3 goals but it takes his tally to 10 for the season so far. We also played our first round of the FA Cup which came in the qualifying stages and we nervously managed to beat Chester thanks to a penalty from Tom Crawford which see's us into the 1st Round where we will meet Braintree.
League
November
Under 23's
The board have agreed to my request for starting an U23 team at the club which in the long run will help us match our ambition of brining players through ith giving them that extra step before stepping up to the first team. Now we just need to get the team into a league.
We get of to a great start this month off against Hartlepool United and we get off to a big win against the team sitting in 4th position and boy do we get a big win as Wootton plays out his skin and scores an impressive 4 goals. Next up we manage to score another 5 goals in the FA Cup 1st round as Wootton manages another 3 goals to add to his tally. We then manage two more good wins against Torquay and Yeovil before se get a rare blip on our league form as we throw away a 3 goal lead. We were 3-0 up after 17 minutes but after an injury to our Rb in the 2nd half it rocked us and Woking took advantage to get 4 goals. We bounce back with a massive win though in the FA Cup 2nd round as we manage to shock League 1 side Gillingham. In the 3rd round we will be travelling to play West Brom.
Former Watford Academy graduate signs for Notts County in a move that is seen as a major coup for the club. He last played for Aberdeen after joining on loan from Watford but sadly suffered a second anterior cruciate ligament injury of his career. He was limited to just 5 appearances for the club sadly. He brings a wealth of experience from the championship which can only help steady the clubs defence. Hoban has reportedly said that he is looking forward to putting his injury problems behind him and helping to take the club to the next level.
We have an excellent December as we have an unbeaten month in the league. There are to blips in the month though as we drop points against Barnet and Flyde. We still have a good lead at the top of the table though and thats all that matters. We also played in the first round of the Buildbae FA Trophy where we rotate the squad a bit to give other players a shot and we manage to progress into th 2nd round where we'll face Slough Town which we should be able to progress pass.
League
January
Youth
Not the message you want to see in a youth intake but at least there is a chance of a decent midfielder coming through but as we're advised I don't expect much
In the league we have another strong month and its only a matter of time until the league is wrapped up as we take 10 points out of the 12 on offer. As long as we keep the results coming the we will get the title soon enough since we have a 21 point lead at the top of the table. We have also progressed to the next round of the Buildbase Trophy. Its a meaningless competition but who doesn't love a trophy so we're going after it. The big match of the month though was the FA Cup 3rd round where we travelled to face West Brom. They got two quick goals in the 24th and 26th minute which was enough to win them the tie. We got a consolation through Crawford in the 78th minute but we just couldn't find the second so that puts an end to our FA Cup run.
Former Southend United graduate signs for Notts County in a move that is seen as a goo move for the club to strengthen the Goalkeeper position. Smith was let go at the end of last season and hasn't played a game since 2017 but I feel he can add a fair bit. At 24 he still has a bright future ahead of him and can develop well here and grow with the club. Smith has been heard saying that he is looking forward to pulling on the gloves again and joining a club where he will be able to get some first team football to continue his development.
We continue our unbeaten run in the league as we drop 4 points this month which was disappointing but at least we didn't lose. The match against Torquay was enough to secure us a playoff spot at the least which I doubt we will need but its always nice to have just in case we **** ourselves and throw it all away. The month also saw us ply a further 2 rounds of the Buildbase FA Trophy which saw us brush aside Gloucester City and Yeovil Town so we now make it to the semi final.
On the 17th March 2020 Notts County have been crowned champions of the Vanarama National League and will return to the Football League at the first time of asking. This was made even more special with beating Chorley 4-1 in front of our home fans so they didn't need to wait to see us presented with the Trophy.
At the start of the season the club were the favourites to win the league and they have certainly lived up to expectations with only suffering one loss up until this point. The signings of Casper Sloth and Tommie Hoban have helped strengthen an already strong team. With 7 games still to go this team is expected to break a number of records along the way. This is just the start of the great things this club can go onto achieve and the first step in the club starting to catch up with Nottingham Forest.
With the league wrapped up we now have our budget for next season as well.
Its a generous budget for going up to league 2 especially since we will be focusing on free transfers. I look forward to seeing who we will be able to snap up
What a month as we continue our unbeaten run. We manage to go right until the final game before dropping points. Our key moment of the month was obviously the win over Chorley where we secured the title in front of our own fans. We then continued that form to get our first trip to Wembley in the Buildbase FA Trophy where we will face Maidenhead. Not long to go now until the end of the season and when we are able to start tapping up players being released from premiership clubs.
This month has also seen the start of takeover rumours circling the club but I don't expect anything to happen anytime soon with it as the chairman seems pretty happy at the helm just now.
League
April
Youth
The best time of the season seeing your youth come through. We have one stand out player though in Matt Brown.
Brown looks like he could be a decent player for us and will make his debut before the season is over to give him a run out and to let him know he can make that jump here to hopefully get him to stay in the future.
Its a terrible month to end the league on but we have a lot of contracts ending at the end of the season so we rotated the squad a lot to give players a run out. We only manage one win but since everything was all wrapped up then its alright and we still managed to go the whole season in the league with only 1 loss and of course it was to the team that finished bottom of the league.
Brown has been given his chance in the first team this month a well starting every game and he has copped well with making the step up and hopefully it will aid his development going forward and allow him to take that next step.
League
May
Affiliate
We are happy to announce Leeds United as our Senior Affiliate which will allow us access to loan their players without having to pay wages and that can only help us with climbing the leagues.
And we've gone and secured the double with a dominant performance against Maidenhead. There is nothing quite like leaving it until the final 20 minutes of a cup final to get the win. We dominated throughout though so I was never worried about getting a 2nd goal. With 18 shots on target it was a bit disappointing to only get 3 goals but its still a trophy for the cabinet and a bit of history for the club.
League
End of Season Awards
Season Review
Plans for Next Season
So for next season there are going to be massive changes at the club as we will be looking to bring in a new squad as we are releasing all but 7 first team players as I feel we will be able to pick up better players for free and we will need the wage budget. We will be looking to play the same 4-2-3-1 attacking formation which did us so well this season.
So after contracts expired at the end of the season I was only left with 7 first team players and then I even sold some of them as well as good offers came in or they had already been replaced by better players.
Transfers In
So we had to move quickly to get some of the players in that we wanted and we have brought in 15 players so far and I fully expect more to come in over the next month or two as we still need another goalkeeper and once they player lower their expectations then we might get some more big signings in.
I feel we've done well though and now we have a much stronger team with a lot of players with experience in League 2 if not higher.
Preseason
A very successful preseason with only one red mark against Norwich which was before we had the team from last season as well so I'm pleased with the rest of the results including draws against Leeds and Nottingham Forest
Expectations
The board don't expect much of us at all which is good since after the media predictions came out the media has us finishing 4th after the players we brought in. In the cups hopefully the draws will be in our favour
Recently relegated Middlesbrough have jut signed Tommie Hoban for £3.4 million. Middlesbrough activated the release clause in Hoban's contract to secure the signature of the Irish defender. He is going to be a big loss for Notts County but the money will certainly be put to good use over the coming seasons.
Hoban had resurrected his career at Notts County after some horrific injuries as he managed 19 games last season where he made his presence known in defence. He will certainly be missed but he does deserve to be playing at a much higher level.
The first of the money brought in from selling Tommie Hoban has been spent and its not on a defender to replace him. We splash £700,000 on Willem Geubbels who was transfer listed by Monaco. Geubbels had only made 1 appearance for the club since his £17.75 million move from Lyon. At only 19 he has a very bright future ahead of him and he is a massive coup for a club such as Notts County as he can only grow with the club as it moves up the leagues.
He will go straight into the starting line up and Ryan Cassidy will now play backup to him.
Bernardo Sousa ha signed for Notts County from Sporting CP for the low cost of £5,250. Transfer listed by the club they obviously didn't see a bright future for the talented midfielder. Luckily at County we have high hopes for the 20 year old and hope to help him realise his potential.
The club are still on the lookout for further players to help strengthen the first team as well.
We have added a new backup keeper in Magnus Norman but we are still hoping to bring in a new first choice if our targets with expired contracts reduce their wage expectations. E also bring in Jake Vokins for cover in the LB position. Zech Medley joins on loan from Arsenal as cover for Tommie Hoban leaving.
August
We get off to a very busy start to our time in League 2 as we have 9 games with 7 of them coming in the League. Boy to we put the fear through teams in this league with our new squad as we win 6 games out of 7. We show straight off that we will be no pushovers with a great 3-0 against Salford before we came back from 2-0 down to beat Forest Green 3-2 which really gave us a boost going forward. We have also made it through to the 3rd round of the Carabao Cup after we got a great win against Bradford City who won League 2 last season so 6-0 was a great win. We followed that up with a penalty win over another League 1 side to line up a tie against Sheffield United in the 3rd round.
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