Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 23 February 2011

23 February 2011

So John Fenty (Topcon) issued one of those motivational speeches, as he always does once or twice a season, about the players having to stand up and be counted and all that sort of thing. And it proved as effective as it always does. The players responded as they always do, by shrugging their shoulders and expecting to win just by walking out onto the pitch.

Because that's the attitude that's nurtured among the playing staff at Blundell Park. As it always has been since Fenty's arrival as the key influence at the club. An attitude of the utmost complacency. Town's players are the fittest players in this league: we heard Neil Woodses say so just a few days ago. And Town's players are among the best-paid players in this league. The supporters have made sure of that by demanding constantly that Fenty get his cheque book out - as they always do. Town's players, then, are quite clearly amazing, and far too good for the tiresome business of trying to win games of football by, I don't know, running about a bit, making an effort, generally working at it.

So when the chairman says they have to stand up and be counted, well, whatever; they'll still get paid. After all, that's what he always says. He says he'll stand by the manager, and then he doesn't. He brings in a new manager, and the current playing staff get their contracts paid up and then immediately sign for another club, so they're getting paid twice. That's what always happens. Fenty has effectively established a system whereby players are rewarded with double pay for playing badly. Under Fenty, players have a vested interest in their own failure.

Now your original/regular Diary is not composing a state of the nation address because Town failed to beat Forest Green Rovers. I believe talk of "a must-win game" is nearly always daft and counterproductive. I loathe the way some supporters talk of the Conference as a "pub league" and lord it over the smaller clubs - as if this isn't an exact cover version of the vile arrogance with which the fans of Wolves and Newcastle and the rest would look down on the Mariners not so many years ago. No: respect the opposition. If they're a pub team, well, it takes one to know one.

But with the play-offs slipping out of view and Neil Woodses running out of ideas, it seems a fitting moment to take stock. And you know what? It's not a rubbish team that will stop me going to support my club. It's not a manager. It's not even the hopeless fumbling of a well-meaning but incompetent chairman. If it was, I'd have walked away long before now. No. It's the fact that my season ticket money is paying the wages of whichever GTFC employee took a look at all these factors in the club's desperate malaise - Fenty's system of rewarding failure, his impossibly bad communication skills, his catastrophic decision-making and his triple relegation - and decided that we'll all forgive and forget the entire shameful list if they play 'Chelsea Dagger' over the PA when Town score a goal.

Fuck off, Grimsby Town Football Club. Fuck off. There's only so much contempt you can treat me with before I draw a line. And I'm drawing it at the fucking Fratellis.