Notts County Football Club

We also thank Ian Burchnall, his staff and players for their efforts so far this campaign, which have put us in a healthy position to compete for our ultimate aim of promotion. Despite it being a very tight league with many strong teams who have strengthened compared with last year, we’re confident we will be firmly in contention come the end of the season.

January brings the opening of the transfer window and, while this of course doesn’t directly affect National League teams, we are aware of speculation that EFL clubs are monitoring a number of our players. This, in our opinion, should be viewed as a positive reflection of the team’s performances and style of play.

We do, however, understand the prospect of losing players at this important stage of the season is concerning to supporters and would therefore like to reaffirm our stance that, for any sale to be approved, the terms of the deal would need to be seen as significantly beneficial for the club and helpful towards our ambition of returning to the EFL as soon as possible.

In the interests of transparency, we have received no formal offers for any of our players and Ian is very much planning for the second half of the season with his current squad intact.

Moving on to incoming transfers, you will no doubt have seen the good news that Anthony Patterson has returned to us on loan until the end of the season, which leaves us with two excellent options in the goalkeeping department. We’re very pleased with the quality we’ve added via the loan market this season and will continue to use it as a tool to supplement the core of what we believe is a strong squad.

We are, as ever, closely monitoring several interesting potential signings. Particularly at this pivotal point of the season, when we are looking to climb further up the table, we will act if we believe the right opportunity presents itself to improve the quality at Ian’s disposal.

As well as closely monitoring the team’s performance, as a board we regularly analyse, discuss and improve our own methods to identify ways we can help the club achieve its targets. We do this in close consultation with Ian and take into consideration the huge amount we have learned since our arrival two and a half years ago. We look forward to assessing the success these improvements bring and making further enhancements in the future.

We have also been continuing our very close dialogue with our CEO Jason Turner to support our administrative team’s excellent efforts to drive the club forward off the field. Jason provided a very informative update last month, which you can read here, and we would now like to make fans aware of another exciting project we have planned for 2022.

As some of you may have seen, we have recently been granted planning permission for a new four-court padel centre on the land behind the Kop.

Padel, which you could describe as a mix between tennis and squash, is really fun, easy to learn and sociable. It’s also the fastest-growing sport in the UK and the world and, with no courts within a 40-mile radius of Meadow Lane, we see this as a very exciting investment opportunity which can drive new revenue for the club and enhance Nottingham’s reputation as an incredible city of sport.

Football’s relationship with padel is already strong, with Liverpool building a court at their training centre, several clubs incorporating padel sessions in their pre-season camps and the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar and Pogba all playing regularly. Ian also developed a love for the sport during his time in Scandanavia and we’re sure he and the players will see this as a fantastic improvement to our facilities at Meadow Lane.

The development will also enhance the look and feel of that area of the stadium, with new tarmac to be laid down complete with allocated parking bays. We’re confident the facility will attract people from across the East Midlands and we’re looking forward to seeing the courts in action.

We’re currently in discussions with various stakeholders to move things to the next phase and the club will keep supporters updated of future developments.

Supporters will be aware that we have had a number of Covid-19 cases in the club recently. We wish those affected a speedy recovery and commend the way Ian, Jason and their teams continue to work tirelessly to provide the safest possible environment at the club.

We also echo Ian’s sentiments regarding doing all we can to play Sunday’s game against Wrexham despite the recent disruption. As a club we have worked hard to build a strong squad for this season and we have utmost faith in all our available players to earn us the victory we all want.

Moving forward, we will await further government updates in the hope that it’s not necessary for any further restrictions to be imposed and we can continue our collective journey back towards normality.

Thank you once again for your tremendous backing and we wish you a very happy new year.