Kelle Roos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Ezra Mayers falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Francis Leather has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Notts County have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Patrick Ouotro has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Patrick Ouotro. 1‑0 against Swindon Town, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Notts County lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Notts County this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Notts County training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ezra Mayers is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Notts County this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Notts County training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ezra Mayers is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is 18, and nobody at Notts County signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Notts County will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matthieu Puren will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Notts County the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The chase for Reuben Swann ended with $400.0K changing hands and Portsmouth out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Ollie Norburn was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Ollie Norburn was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Kane Hemmings has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Notts County have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Patrick Ouotro has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ezra Mayers is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Kelle Roos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Ezra Mayers falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Beck-Ray Enoru. 1‑0 against Accrington Stanley, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Scott Robertson scored, was marked 7.88, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Notts County they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Notts County this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It needed Scott Robertson to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Harrogate Town, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
65 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Notts County lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Notts County this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Notts County training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ezra Mayers is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Marked 8.17 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Notts County lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Kelle Roos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Kelle Roos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Ezra Mayers falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Notts County have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Notts County this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Kelle Roos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Mackenzie Inman is a Notts County player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Notts County this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Notts County training over how hard people work
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matthieu Puren will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Notts County the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Notts County this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Notts County training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ezra Mayers is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Notts County will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The chase for Pemi Aderoju ended with $520.0K changing hands and Peterborough United out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Kelle Roos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Ezra Mayers falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The words a physio says slowly. 41 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Notts County they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ezra Mayers did not need any: 7.81, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Notts County this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Notts County they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Notts County can pretend not to have heard.
The unbeaten run reaches 11. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Will Merry, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.01
A mark of 8.01 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Ollie Norburn was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Notts County is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Notts County this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
Ollie Norburn falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Notts County can tell you which week it ends in.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Conor Grant will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Notts County the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Kelle Roos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
An average of 7.05 in a first team he is several years too young for. Notts County have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Notts County training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tyrese Hall is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Notts County lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Notts County they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Notts County this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Tyrese Hall falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The words a physio says slowly. 65 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Notts County is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.97 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Notts County have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Kelle Roos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Notts County training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tyrese Hall is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Jodi Jones was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The words a physio says slowly. 79 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jodi Jones will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Notts County the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Conor Grant has agreed terms with Luton Town for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Kelle Roos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Notts County training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tyrese Hall is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Alassana Jatta’s negotiating for him
Jacob Bedeau damages knee ligaments — 109 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 109 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lewis Macari will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Notts County the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Lucas Ness has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Kelle Roos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Notts County training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tyrese Hall is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
117 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Notts County lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 93th minute. Cheltenham Town will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jacob Bedeau will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Notts County the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Notts County this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Tyrese Hall falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Jacob Bedeau damages knee ligaments — 132 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 132 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Notts County can pretend not to have heard.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Notts County this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
An average of 7.00 in a first team he is several years too young for. Notts County have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Ollie Norburn falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Notts County will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Tyrese Hall did not need any: 7.99, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Notts County, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Notts County this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Tyrese Hall falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Notts County have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Kelle Roos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Notts County training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ollie Norburn is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Notts County will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Kelle Roos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Notts County did not have in the autumn.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Notts County training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tyrese Hall is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Notts County will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Notts County lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 105 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Notts County lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Notts County this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Tyrese Hall falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Notts County will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The words a physio says slowly. 45 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Tyrese Hall, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.84
A mark of 7.84 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 142 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Notts County lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Kelle Roos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Notts County training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tyrese Hall is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Notts County lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Kelle Roos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Leandro Wauters has just signed for Notts County, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Notts County training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tyrese Hall is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Will Merry has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Notts County can pretend not to have heard.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Brian Okonkwo is living that version at Notts County, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tyrese Hall falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Kelle Roos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Notts County training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tyrese Hall is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
24 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Notts County, and both men came out saying it was fine.