Name: Adam Nowland
Date of Birth: July 6, 1981
Position: Midfielder
Previous Clubs: Blackpool, MK Dons, West Ham, Nottingham Forest, Preston, Gillingham (loan), Stockport County (loan), Lancaster City.
For the perennially critical Notts fan, signing a man who's 26, played 24 games in three years, already appeared on the books of seven clubs and who's most recent football came for Lancaster City would usually have them foaming at the mouth.
The notoriously hard-to-please NCM message board has seen dissenting voices regarding every new signing - with the possible exception of Michael Johnson - that has arrived at the club in the past two years.
Looking beyond his most recent stats though, it's easy to remain positive about McParland's signing of Adam Nowland.
Injury has halted the career of a man who once persuaded our neighbours to part with £250,000 for his services, but his undoubted potential means that he was always a player worth taking a chance on.
Long before they became the fat cats of the lower Leagues, Nowland was an integral part of a talented crop of young players fighting against the odds as cash strapped MK Dons plunged down the Divisions.
Nowland, then playing as a second-striker, was so highly-rated that, along with Nigel Reo-Coker, he was snapped-up by high-flying Championship outfit West Ham in a joint deal.
But while Reo-Coker has since flourished playing regular football in the top flight, Nowland's career has taken a very different turn.
The beginning of his downward spiral undoubtedly started almost a year after he signed for the Hammers when, 17 appearances and a brief loan spell with Gillingham later, he agreed to join Nottingham Forest.
Local rivalry aside, the forward-cum-midfielder was joining a squad burgeoning with overpaid players in a season which the club was overseen by three different managers, all with vastly different ideas of how the club should be run and all with vastly different ideas of the sort of player that was needed for the ultimately unsuccessful fight of getting the Reds away from the Championship relegation zone.
Nowland's brief stint on the other side of the River Trent also signalled the beginning of the injury problems that have dramatically stalled his promising career.
These culminated when - now plying his trade for Preston NE - he broke his
leg in January 2006, an injury which forced him to spend 14 months sat on the sidelines.
Following loan spells with Gillingham and Stockport, Nowland was released by Preston - his hometown club - in January and has since played just a solitary game for non-league Lancaster City.
He is, however, determined that Meadow Lane will be the place to kick-start a career that began with such promise.
"This is a great chance for me to resurrect my career," said Nowland, speaking to the Nottingham Evening Post.
"I appreciate the opportunity that has been given to me and I know I have got a lot of things to prove.
"I am looking forward to doing that and I am very confident I can establish myself here."
Having signed an as-yet unspecified length of contract, the only question mark over Nowland is clearly his fitness, though presumably he has past some sort of routine medical - which should dis-spell some early nagging doubts.
Should he remain fit, Notts, and McParland, clearly have a huge talent on their hands.
Nowland's arrival may also place a question mark over the futures of Jay Smith and Neil MacKenzie.
For an in-depth look at Notts' fourth summer signing, winger Matt Hamshaw, stay tuned to NCM.