The former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson was appointed director of football, and lavish spending began in apparent early efforts to achieve these ambitions.

In reality, Munto Finance was controlled by the convicted fraudster Russell King, and the club had been acquired as part of an elaborate scheme to list a fake mining company on the stock exchange.

Notts County continued to experience off-field problems over the following years, and the team were relegated to non-League football in 2019; coverage of the club's plight and subsequent attempts to recover often refer to the events of 2009.

[13] The Munto Finance takeover of Notts County was orchestrated by Russell King, who had first been convicted of fraud in 1991 after falsely reporting his Aston Martin had been stolen to claim £600,000 in insurance.

[14] Before his involvement in Notts County, King had stolen £671,000 from Belgravia Financial Services Group,[15] and had acquired a 49% stake in the investment bank First London by falsely claiming he was managing billions of dollars for the Bahraini royal family.

[16] The others involved were Nathan Willett and his father Peter, of whom little is known; in 2022, the makers of a BBC podcast series about the takeover were unable to locate even a forwarding address for the pair.

[17]: 0:08:33  Once the takeover was completed, Peter Trembling acted as executive chairman of Notts County; Matt Scott of The Guardian would later describe him as Munto Finance's "mouthpiece".

[3] The identity of those who would be financing the club was shrouded in secrecy,[28] but the journalist and Notts County supporter Simon Goodley was soon tipped off about the involvement of King, and he began to investigate.

[36] In the week after Munto Finance took control of the club, the Magpies announced the signing of two strikers, Lee Hughes and Luke Rodgers, on free transfers from Oldham Athletic and Yeovil Town respectively.

[37][38] On 22 July, Notts announced the appointment of the former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson as director of football in what Stuart James of The Guardian described as "one of the game's most staggering moves of recent times".

[51] Three days later, Notts announced the signing of England international Sol Campbell on a five-year contract: "there were offers from the Premier League but that would have been short-term.

[53] Early in September, Notts County strengthened their squad further, bringing in winger Matt Ritchie on loan from Portsmouth until the end of December.

[54] The month began with two home games, a 1–1 draw with Burton Albion and a 5–2 win over Northampton Town in which Hughes scored his second hat-trick of the season.

[58] He had grown suspicious that the club's supposed wealth was not real;[59] defender Mike Edwards later said that, shortly before leaving, Campbell had warned his teammates of his doubts.

[67] October began with two draws, the first 1–1 at Cheltenham Town,[68] the second 2–2 at home to Torquay United, a result which left the Magpies in fifth place, four points from top spot.

[72][73] In the meantime, on 20 October, the Football League approved the takeover,[74] accepting Notts County's new owners as fit-and proper persons despite still not knowing who they were.

[110] Notts County's first league match following the takeover was a 1–1 draw at Aldershot, a result which left the Magpies in seventh place, fourteen points from top spot.

[112] Cotterill took charge for the first time in the final game of February, a 5–0 home win over Hereford in which Westcarr scored a hat-trick and Rodgers a brace.

[113] March began with consecutive wins over Macclesfield,[114] Accrington,[115] and Chesterfield; the last of these saw Notts County move up to fourth place, three points behind Bournemouth,[116] their next opponents.

[121] That same afternoon, the league leaders Rochdale were beaten 2–0 at Chesterfield; these results meant Notts had reduced the gap between themselves and first place to seven points, having played a game less.

The victory put the Magpies four points clear of second with a game in hand, and was described by Paul Fletcher of the BBC as "a huge step towards sealing the League Two title".

Results Notts County's FA Cup campaign began in the first round with a home match against fellow League Two club Bradford.

Results Before Trew's takeover, Notts County had been penalised for breaking League Two's salary cap, which required wages exceed no more than 60% of revenue.

[151] More than a decade later, the journalist (and Notts County supporter) Ben Robinson, the radio presenter (and Nottingham native) Alice Levine and the producer Nick Southall uncovered further information for a BBC Sounds podcast series.

Munto Finance was a subsidiary of Qadbak Investments, which was in turn closely connected to a third company, Swiss Commodity Holding (SCH), the sole directors of which were Nathan and Peter Willett.

[67] King was preparing a fraudulent stock market floatation of SCH, which presented itself as a mining company with reserves of $1.9 trillion and the rights to extract the mineral wealth of North Korea (despite lacking the means of doing so).

[146] Trew dismissed this in an open letter, claiming the club's FA Cup run and his investment had brought it within the salary cap, though he acknowledged this had not been the case before his arrival.

[170] Nevertheless, Notts were required to release Schmeichel, reportedly earning £15,000 per week, following the season's conclusion, with Trew explaining that retaining and attempting to gain a transfer fee for the goalkeeper would have been a huge risk for a club with such precarious finances.

[174] Trew sold the club to Alan Hardy, a Nottingham-based businessman, in December 2016,[173] but by 2019 the Magpies were not only once again in the midst of a severe financial crisis but also relegated to non-League football for the first time in their history.

[175][176] During the 2022–23 season, some journalists framed the club's efforts to win promotion back to the league as an attempt to recover from the off-field problems of the previous two decades, the 2009 takeover among them.