Notts County must rue £150k transfer mistake along with these 4 others | OneFootball

FLW takes a look at five signings who flopped at Meadow Lane.

It’s fair to say that Notts County have been impressive in their recruitment over the last few years.

Danish owners Christoffer and Alexander Reedtz have transformed the club’s recruitment strategy over the course of their six-year reign at Meadow Lane and the Magpies’ transfer failures are now few and far between.

The Reedtz brothers’ data-heavy approach to player recruitment has helped them unearth gems from non-league like Macaulay Langstaff, as well as bringing stars like Ruben Rodrigues and Alassana Jatta to England from elsewhere in Europe.

However, in the years prior to the Danes’ takeover, the world’s oldest football league club have had their fair share of flops. Here, Football League World takes a look at five transfers Notts have made over the years that simply never worked out.

Izale McLeod

McLeod joined Notts in the summer of 2015, immediately after the Magpies had been relegated from League One. He made the switch to Meadow Lane after plundering 19 league goals for a Crawley Town side who had also dropped from the third tier.

They paid the Red Devils an undisclosed fee (reported to be in the region of £150,000) for the striker’s services, but it quickly became a textbook example of how lower league clubs can very easily waste money.

The former MK Dons and Portsmouth man scored nine league goals that season as Notts laboured to a 17th placed finish. That goal tally represented a disappointing return for a man who had been such a threat for a struggling team in the division above the year before.

After struggling to ever really get going in Nottingham, McLeod had his three-year deal cancelled by mutual consent at the end of the season, compounding what proved to be a significant waste of money for the Magpies.

David Vaughan

Like many signings from Notts’ relegation season in 2018/19, Vaughan was a huge disappointment at Meadow Lane.

He made the switch across town from city rivals Nottingham Forest, having made 14 appearances in the Championship the season before. The then 35-year-old was expected to come in and bring vital experience and quality on the ball to Kevin Nolan’s side, but the reality proved to be very different.

The Welshman struggled badly with the pacy and physical nature of League Two and arguably looked like a midfielder who was well past his best.

The former Sunderland man made 22 appearances in League Two, but just five of them came after the middle of January, as Neal Ardley’s winter rebuild pushed him a long way down the pecking order.

He returned to the starting XI for the first time in almost two months for Notts’ fateful final day clash at Swindon, that ultimately saw them lose their Football League status for the first time in their 157-year history (at the time).

While it’s fair to say Vaughan stepped into difficult circumstances when he joined the club that season, expectations were high for a man who had experienced an international tournament as recently as two years prior. However, he never came close to meeting those expectations.

Harry Arter

Similarly to Vaughan previously, Arter’s performances in a black and white shirt simply didn’t hit the levels that were expected of him when he joined.

Arter moved to the club on loan from Nottingham Forest in March 2022, in what was arguably one of the biggest transfer coups the National League had ever seen.

At 32, the midfielder had made over 90 top flight appearances during spells with Bournemouth and Cardiff, and had joined Forest for a fee believed to be around £5million less than two years earlier.

Arter’s displays were strong in his first few games, but his form quickly faded as the season neared its close. The former Irish international started just two of the final six games in the league and wasn’t even named in the matchday squad for the final three games of the season, including Notts’ play-off quarter-final defeat to Grimsby Town.

released by the Reds last summer.

A vastly experienced campaigner in the Football League, Lita joined Notts on loan from League One outfit Barnsley in March 2015.

A veteran of eight different EFL clubs by the time he joined the Magpies, the striker simply never hit the heights that were expected of him at Meadow Lane.

He made six appearances in the third tier for Notts, but failed to find the net as Ricardo Moniz's side slipped to relegation to the fourth tier at the end of the season.

Lita’s bizarre later career has continued with spells at clubs as varied as Chelmsford City, Hednesford Town and Thai side Sisaket after leaving Nottingham.

Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain

The brother of former Arsenal and Liverpool midfielder Alex, Oxlade-Chamberlain signed for Notts in July 2018 after his contract expired with Portsmouth.

The defender had made just one senior appearance for boyhood club Pompey, but caught the eye at Meadow Lane for Oxford City in a 2017/18 FA Cup tie.

Oxlade-Chamberlain was part of the heavily inflated squad that ultimately cost the Magpies their treasured status as the world’s oldest football league club.

He made his league debut for Notts in a disastrous 5-1 defeat away at Exeter City in September 2018, a game that also saw him give away a penalty.

Like many from that squad, he was released the following summer, having made just four appearances