Notts County Football Club

A lot has happened at Meadow Lane in the few weeks since I last updated you. We have welcomed our new manager John Sheridan to the club and preparations for the season are progressing well.

It is great to have John at the club and the opportunity to work with him again. He is a successful manager who knows League Two inside out and I have no doubt he’s the man for the job. The chief executive and manager work more closely together than anyone else at any club, so it was hugely important to me that our appointment was right to ensure similar thinking and planning going forward.

I’m also really pleased to have Mark Crossley joining us. His experience from Chesterfield and relationship with John will be a big boost for us, and working alongside Mike Edwards, Kevin Pilkington and Alan Smith, we have a very strong and focused backroom team.

I want to take another opportunity to personally thank Richard Dryden who departed Notts County last week. He has worked hard during his year with the club, stepping up alongside Mick Halsall to lead the first team as joint caretaker manager following Ricardo Moniz’s departure, as well as his day-to-day role with the development squad. On behalf of the club I wish him well for the future.

I’m pleased to inform fans that outstanding payments to football creditors were made by the club last week. This means we are no longer restricted by the temporary transfer embargo imposed upon us and we are once again able to be active in the transfer market.

On the subject of transfers, I’d like to wish the out of contract players, who left us last month, all the best in their future careers. In addition Scot Bennett leaves for Newport County with our best wishes.  We are now working hard to secure the core of the first team squad for next season, with a considerable number of calls being made and meetings held with players and agents. Both Wes Atkinson and Haydn Hollis have agreed to sign the new contracts offered to them and we hope to be in a position to announce our first new signings for the coming season next week.

There have also been changes to our development squad plans for next season. Upon reviewing our programme from previous seasons, we felt that the current league structure did not fit the needs of the club. As such we have taken the decision to withdraw from the Final Third Development League and instead, independently schedule a number of development fixtures that better fit our requirements. I am aware that our season ticket benefits for the 16/17 season include entry into home development fixtures, however rest assured that this will be replaced by a number of alternative fixtures at Meadow Lane that will be free for season ticket holders to attend.

We are now close to finalising our pre-season friendly schedule. As announced earlier today, we look forward to welcoming Nottingham Forest and Walsall to Meadow Lane, with another home game to be confirmed on the final Sunday before the season starts. We will announce ticket prices for these games once the final opponent is confirmed.

Finally, John Sheridan and I are very pleased that current season ticket sales are just shy of 2,000 following our early-bird launch. This is comparable to the same stage last season, so we would like to once again thank you for your tremendous support following a difficult season for the club.

Come on you pies!

Jason Turner