Williams ‘confident’ Rodrigues is staying Cooper offers no comforts to senior Reds who ‘didn’t play well’
HONEST BOSS ADMITS ‘ONE OR TWO’ MORE EXPERIENCED PLAYERS ‘FELL A BIT SHORT’ IN MAGPIES DRAW
LUKE Williams is “confident” Notts County will be able to keep star man Ruben Rodrigues despite revealing “a number of substantial offers” had been made for the forward.
The 25-year-old Portuguese ace produced a man-of-the-match performance against Nottingham Forest on Tuesday evening. He was simply untouchable during his 80-minute performance at Meadow Lane, grabbing an exquisite assist for Macauley Langstaff for the Magpies’ first equaliser, with soon-to-be Premier League players unable to get near the slaloming runs and close control by the Notts number 20.
His movement across the pitch was also key in Magpies’ second goal, managing to take away a number of Forest midfielders and allowing Kyle Cameron to drive from defence, with his eventual cross falling for Sam Austin to pounce following a mistake from Jordan Smith.
But with that performance, comes interest, with Notts fans knowing that feeling all too well after recently losing winger Cal Roberts to Aberdeen earlier this week, while also losing joint-top scorer Kyle Wootton to Stockport County earlier in the window, and they don’t want a repeat scenario with Rodrigues so close to the start of the season.
Despite rumoured interest surrounding the player, boss Williams was confident the club can keep Rodrigues at the club for the upcoming season and was full of praise following his performance against their Premier League neighbours.
“There was some real moments of quality,
Ruben I thought was excellent at times, I think he could have played for them to be quite honest,” said Williams.
“I’m confident he will stay, but of course there is going to be interest.
“I nearly took him off after around 20 minutes tonight but he was playing too well, but he knows he is at a club where he’s valued very highly, his team-mates think the world of him, the fans adore him, so you have to be careful when you trade that.
“It has to be for something really substantial, there has been lots of interest, but nothing that is worthy of him of leaving this fantastic club, and in a position when he knows his value.”
Rodrigues’ contract expires next summer and the Magpies could end up losing him on a free transfer, but potential promotion back to the Football League could entice the Portuguese midfielder to sign a new deal at Meadow Lane.
But the National League is an extremely tough league to get out of, and the rumoured offers for Rodrigues have been within the Football League, a place where a player of his calibre should be playing his football.
That could be one deciding factor for the player, but Williams has confirmed the club have received a number of substantial offers, but insisted none were able to blow a club like Notts County, “out of the water.”
“Yes, we have had a number of substantial offers for Ruben,” explained Williams after the Forest draw. “But of those offers, it is nothing that can blow this football club out of the water, and be impossible for him to walk away from. “We are, as we know, a very good football club and he is valued here very highly, and he understands that, and you can see by his performance tonight that he is motivated.”
STEVE Cooper admitted some senior Nottingham Forest players “fell a bit short” in Tuesday night’s 2-2 draw at Notts County.
Amid a three-game week before the start of the Premier League campaign, the Reds fielded a match squad largely made up of fringe and younger players at Meadow Lane.
Giulian Biancone was the only one of the summer signings involved, with Cooper having an eye on Saturday’s final friendly, against Valencia.
The match did see striker Sam Surridge and midfielder Ryan Yates make their returns from injury. But the Forest head coach gave an honest assessment of some aspects of the visitors’ performance.
“I’m only really interested in what we got out of it,” he said. “The positives were Yatesy and Sam being back on the grass and getting some match minutes under their belts, because time is a little bit of the essence, in terms of game time. That was a real plus.
“And, the kids; it was great for the kids to get the experience of a crowd, of a nice stadium and playing against a men’s team. The likes of Zach Abbott and Aaron Donnelly, I’m really pleased to have given them that opportunity.
“A couple of the more senior boys didn’t do so well, truth be told. There’s no point shying away from that - they’ve fallen a bit short with individual performance. But some of them didn’t really play for us in the Championship, so it’s going to be difficult for them to play for us this year.
“It was always part of the plan to be a bit of a bounce game. We knew we wanted to play a certain type of game against Union Berlin (a 1-0 defeat last Saturday), and we know we want to play a certain team against Valencia at the weekend. This game in between was for the guys who needed some minutes.
“We’re on course. It was good for Yatesy and Sam, good for the kids, and a little bit of confirmation on some other stuff.
“We were very clear before the game about, as an individual, make sure you play well. Some did and some didn’t.”