Football Season Guide

Notts County are coming from another season of disappointment, as they once again rashly fired a well-performing manager and eventually failed to live up to their early season promise. The atmosphere at the club was very negative in the second half of the previous season, and things have not changed much despite the board's decision to offer Chris Kiwomya a three year deal and therefore state their desire to go down the road of stability. Talismanic skipper Neal Bishop was openly critical of the board on several occasions last season, and there was little surprise when the midfielder had his contract severed by mutual consent during the off-season. Bishop is not the only key player that left the club, as Alan Judge, who was easily the Magpies' best player last season, left to join Blackburn, while Jeff Hughes, who was their top scorer two seasons ago but was not as prominent in the previous campaign, joined Fleetwood. To add to the woes of their fans, the summer signings have been rather underwhelming, with neither of the players that joined, apart from Mustapha Dumbuya, expected to become an instant starter for the Magpies. To sum things up, Notts County were one or two players away from realistically pushing for promotion, but have instead lost some of their key players without replacing them, and it is therefore an understatement to say that they seem to be going in the wrong direction.