Cod Almighty | Diary
You're gonna need a bigger boat
17 February 2016
Wicklow Diary writes: While gritting teeth, I doff my cap to Cheltenham. They extended their unbeaten run to 20 games with a win over Kiddy last night. The feckers.
Cheltenham are looking like an unstoppable machine while we fumble with the gearstick. I've heard it said that this should be our season, that it was a poor league with no stand-out teams. I think Cheltenham and FGR disprove this theory. They have both put together astonishing runs. With our strong squad, and as well as we've played at times, we have not been able to keep up. As an optimist, this can still be our year – via the gut-twisting, pale-faced horror glory of Wembley or with a mathematical possible yet miraculous title.
Optimism and positivity from the fans is what we need. Just ask Paul Hurst. And we Town fans are obviously an influential lot. The FA has taken on board our suggestions for the FA Trophy and are considering using them. On the FA Cup. Midweek games and no replays. And, "to give it something unique", no extra time. Let's get this football out of the way as quick as possible, shall we. Nobody wants to watch more football.
With the bare-faced cheek of marketing types, politicians and liars, the FA will tell us that it needs to modify the cup because it's not the competition it was back in the day. Without mentioning that the FA itself is the very reason the cup is now about as attractive as Adrian Chiles' toenail clippings.
Some have pointed out that it's outrageous that the FA are considering something just for the benefit of the 20 teams in the top division. It's worse than that: in reality it's just for the two or three still competing in the Champions League each spring. Poor old Chelsea – they might have to recall one of their 35 players on loan to fill out the bench of their second team.
If you want to torture yourself, click on this link for the talkSport interview. Just a NSFW warning: it contains a line about young people cherishing the Champions League and Premier League which caused a torrent of bad language not acceptable even in an Irish workplace.
I look at all this and once again wonder what's the big fuss about modern football and getting back in the League. It's basically a crap poser nightclub with overpriced booze and the worst DJ you've ever heard. The league we all pine to be a part of again is long gone. Not for the first time, Grimsby has been left behind.
If you haven't seen it, I Believe in Miracles is a brilliant documentary – so good, in fact, that it passed the football widow watchability test. It covers the magic of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor taking the journeymen of Nottingham Forest from Division Two and turning them into a team of world-beaters. Other clubs have had their own miracle spells, even if the success wasn't measured in European Cup wins. For us, Alan Buckley preformed miracles on a smaller scale after he arrived at Town in 1988.
The football fairytales of today, like those of Leicester and Bournemouth, won't make for such interesting and romantic stories. They'll have bankruptcy hearings and a Thai or Russian millionaire who makes you want to reread the FA's fit and proper test. Even they've got to dig deep to compete. Stoke paid £18million for a player last month. Stoke! Eighteen million quid! How could this be?
Let's take a brief look, for context, at the bottom of the Premier League. From 2016-17, finishing in last place will be worth around £92million per season in the Premier League, with parachute payments for three years totalling £86million. That means every season we've another three teams with £178million each joining the second flight. They won't be needing an enabling development for a new ground. It's all over for Town. How are we going to compete with that? I tried for years to bury my head in the sand, but it's a fact.
If we go up, I'd love us to be different. A club with a vision amid all the dross and mundanity. That's why the stadium debate is pivotal in the history of the club and the town
What if we do get promoted? Is the limit of our ambition to enjoy mid-table crap in the fourth division? I've said previously that scanning through the teams in the Football League's basement is like looking at the Conference's Greatest Hits. Bristol Rovers have reacted well to the shock of being non-League and are contending for promotion again. They're bucking the trend. Winning their place back in the League proved to be a false dawn for teams like Torquay, Hereford, Halifax and Aldershot. Newport and York have been up in our Conference lifetime and both could be back in April.
If we are looking for positives to come from being in the Conference, one of them should be the opportunity to put the house in order and return stronger. To ensure that once we return we are never relegated from the League again. Ever. It would be easy to suggest that once we are promoted this May (or whenever) we will have learned our lesson and, like a repentant puppy, will never mess up the carpet again.
If we go up, I'd love us to be different. A club with a vision amid all the dross and mundanity. The finances of football make this vision even more vital to address. That's why the stadium debate has the feel of a pivotal moment in the history of the club and the town. This is our moment. When we are smoking big cigars in 10, 15 or 20 years' time, will we be able look back and say that this is when we planted the right seeds?
What seeds? You can take a lot for granted living in GY. Once exiled, depending on your location, getting back for games can require planning months in advance and can fall through at the last minute. I have friends and relatives who've never lived further than five miles from Blundell Park, yet have never set foot in it. Grotesque. Outrageous. They see the club as separate from the town – a private enterprise that they don't need to support or have an interest in. How do we alter this perception? I've tried threats and coercion and they've failed.
We must change this view and enhance the relationship between GTFC and the locals. There are many great examples of the club, the Mariners Trust and the club's education trust doing this already. We need to continue and aggressively expand it where possible. The stadium is obviously vital to this. It needs to be a project that captures the imagination and extends this attitude of the club being integral to the community. Otherwise we'll be looking at a lot of empty seats when we do complete it.
Another seed is one that has been cast and lost on the wind repeatedly on CA. For the past six seasons, the club and of many of us have maintained a 'now or never' outlook on promotion. Since 2010 we've been saying that we can't afford to wait a couple of seasons for the youth team graduates to establish themselves. We need promotion now. Or five years ago, as it stands. This manifests in squads comprising short-term contracts and loan players who can't be expected to move to live in the town. Deep down, does this contribute to the frequent flat atmosphere on and off the pitch at Blundell Park?
Whichever division we kick off in come August, Paul Hurst (or whoever may be in charge) should get the instruction from above. An instruction that says – I'll get my hard hat on for this statement – we are willing to be patient, to wait. A mandate to build a team with an appropriate focus on developing players from the youth team. Being back in the League and with our youth funding from the FA restored would make this easier and more palatable. It's something we should consider doing regardless.
There is an opportunity for an academy that gives young players a genuine chance of development. This season alone we have the examples of Conor Henderson, Jon Nolan, James Alabi and Alex Jones. Players who, you could argue, have had their development stunted by lack of progression at a larger club. It would obviously take time, but be worthwhile, to build a reputation for the GTFC academy as being different from other academies in the UK – in backing its players and giving them the chance to fully develop. With the obvious benefits this would bring to results on the pitch and transfer dealings. The next Bennett, Oster and Croft are out there – we have to put in the framework for them to emerge first. And when they do, make sure that we don't let some moaning ninny in the Pontoon tell us he's rubbish or too lightweight 15 minutes into his debut.
Sorry, this has turned into quite a lot for a midweek diary. You may not agree with it – but what do you want your club to be? I don't think the old way is going to cut it, even if we are promoted by May.
Are there other UK or European models that we can learn from? Clubs like Athletic Bilbao take it to extremes by only fielding players born in the Basque region, but it certainly works in keeping a proud and passionate fanbase. I admire elements of clubs like St Pauli, Clapton and Dulwich Hamlet, who dare to combine footy with the social and political stuff. It may not be everybody's cup of tea, or you may scoff at learning from these hipsters, but let's hear your alternatives and suggestions. Just make sure goal music isn't on the list.