Cast your mind back to 2008 and a young Crystal Palace Academy starlet who’d already been offered a contract by Barcelona, joins Tottenham Hotspur aged sixteen for a reported sum over £1m.
A lot was expected of John Bostock, a talented midfielder with teenage England caps, but it never really went the way we expected, a host of clubs would take the youngster on loan he would never even play a league game for Spurs, eventually attempting to rebuild his career in Belgium, France, Turkey, before returning to England briefly on loan with Nottingham Forest.
After leaving Toulouse in 2020 he signed for Doncaster Rovers but couldn’t help save the side from League One relegation last season, and on Wednesday he entered a new chapter in his life, an exciting coup for Notts County Football Club, who take a chance on the now 30-year-old in a bid to bolster their National League promotion push.
County have been working with Bostock who’s been on trial, training with the club and impressing Head Coach Luke Williams in recent weeks who stated “The opportunity for John to come and train with us was a pleasant surprise to say the least and very quickly, you could see he has the physique and quality of a top player.
“He’s powerful, very strong when he needs to protect the ball and can move freely. He doesn’t need back lift. He pushes the ball around very cleanly.
“What you don’t notice until a little later, however, is that he has the mentality of a top player as well. He’s very bright and his attitude is superb.”
On signing for the Magpies, Bostock wrote on his Twitter “Back at it, delighted to be signing for the oldest league club in the world” a devote Christian these days, he continued “Grateful to God for this next step in mine and my family’s journey. Let’s go!”
Whilst Bostock will be in time corrected that the oldest league club are in actual fact no longer, but the oldest professional football club on the planet, he will hope to excite the County fans who’ve been treated to some pretty special stuff so far this season as their club sits top of the league.
The midfielder saying when interviewed for the Notts County website “I’ve been at the club for the last few weeks, getting to grips with the manager and set up and it already feels like home.”
Bostock continued “since the summer I’ve been waiting for my next opportunity, and there’s been some interesting offers over the period, it had to be the right project and the right thing for my family, and County said you can come here and train, I’ve been training at Forest for three and a half months which was brilliant for me, but when County said come and train I thought let’s go and have a look, and honestly I was literally blown away, by the professionalism, the manager, the football knowledge and the direction of the club”.
Bostock will be available for the match at Maidenhead at the weekend as Notts then host Gateshead on Tuesday night in the National League before an FA Trophy toe against Chorley where he’ll almost certainly feature as he looks to get to pace with some much needed game time.
Another player looking to feature in the cup will be Lucien Mahove who signed pro forms with the club this week. The 17 year old defender penning a deal which will keep him at Meadow Lane until at least 2025.
*Main image @Official_NCFC John Bostock signs on an 18 month contract.
