Cod Almighty | Diary
We might only be Fourth Division but our shirts won't ever be that bad
2 June 2017
Devon Diary writes: There has been a lot of speculation amongst Town fans that much of this year's transfer activity has been done and dusted for some time. Dembele was pictured wearing a thick coat and Mitch Rose eating an Easter egg, etc. The thinking behind this is that the club is trickle feeding the news to eager fans – managing the media – in order to build excitement before the new season tickets go on sale.
This theory was blown out of the water yesterday when the club missed a perfect opportunity to soften the blow of Danny Andrew's move to Donny. Maybe Russ is hanging on the telephone still?
#GTFC Thank You ⚫️⚪️ pic.twitter.com/ec5IcgNDE2
— Danny Andrew (@Danny03Andrew) June 1, 2017
Announcing the arrival of another bloody midfielder crack striker at Blundell Park to coinicde with the loss of our player of the season would have been comms genius (yes, I'm typing this with a staight face) but instead we had to make do with nothing more than the knowledge that Andrew will be wearing a truly hideous shirt in Rovers' soulless stadium next season. And they seem to have borrowed our old mates, Forest Green Rovers' shirts for their travels too.
Aesthetics aside, we wish you all the best, Danny. Thanks for the season.
Talking of season tickets (and we all are, aren't we?), the club announced today that they are ringing forward the launch date from mid-November and instead they will be on sale this Monday. Nice art fellas, was it meant to be run on 4 May?
Season tickets will go on sale at 9am on Monday. 180 sold in the first day last season, will that be beaten? #GTFC #UTM pic.twitter.com/x8ntplcsBW
— Grimsby Town FC (@officialgtfc) June 2, 2017
There's been a little concern that we've missed a trick by delaying tickets sales, especially with the news that our friends down the A46 have sold loads more than we managed last year. We'll be running an article about season tickets next week but think about this: if a club puts its tickets early, it will know how much revenues this is generating and from that will know what its operating (and transfer) budgets might be for the forthcoming season. That would be useful if we were shopping around for a left back, no?
Also announced yesterday was the Ginger Pirlo's signing for Alfreton on a two year deal. Did he need to drop down to the National League North? Probably not but here's a club with ambition putting together a decent squad and I wouldn't be surprised if by the end of his contract, Diz is on the verge of another Wembley appearance. All they need to do now is lure Grovesy to North Street and they have a full set of recent Mariners legends. Best of luck, Diz!
Wrexham's Shaun Pearson was on the blower to Radio Humberside's Matt Dean last night. They had a good old natter about the circumstances of his leaving Town. It seems the negotiations referred to in Town's retained list went something like this, "We don't know if we want you yet, do you mind waiting to see if we can find anyone better? If nobody turns wants to come here then maybe we can do something later in the summer."
Players have to put their families first and Wrexham have got themselves a good 'un. I'm filing this away under things about Town that make me go aaaaargh.
More positive was the news that new striker winger Sam Kelly rejected advances from a number of clubs, including Third Division Shrewsbury. Who will be next through the door?
Oh, hello! Danny Collins has signed up for another year and reckons if we're more consistent we can push for promotion. His signing isn't really that much of a surprise though, is it? The gaffer obviously rated him; making him captain for the last few games of the season. Who will he team up with in the centre of defense? Boycey? Stay tuned.
By this time next week we'll be finding out how the country has voted in the general election. If you didn't already then please check out Casual Diary's appraisal of the main parties' football-related policies. They're just after your votes? Yeah, of course they are but isn't every policy and promise made at this time of year a bid to buy your vote? Football, like every other aspect of your life is affected by politics. You can't moan about how shit things are if you don't vote so get out there next Thursday and exercise your democratic right.
I'm done. Have yourselves a cracking weekend.