Cod Almighty | Diary
There, there
8 June 2018
Here's an exchange that is a better measure of whether someone is a football fan than games attended or knowledge of club trivia:
"Who do you support?"
"Errrr…Grimsby Town"
"A Mariner! How are you enjoying it back in the league? Blundell Park is a proper ground, I remember going up there when Brian Laws was the manager."
That's what we want to hear. We'd even forgive the mention of Brian Laws. This person knows their football and more than that, is probably an all round good 'un regardless of club colours. Unfortunately, we all know we're just as likely to hear this:
"Haha, Grimsby???!!! They're shit, why are you following them?" or the slightly more polished variant for use at dinner parties: "Yes, but who do you support in the Premier League?". Dinner-partying Zen Buddhists would be forgiven for leaping across the table to punch the mouth uttering this.
The Premier League is more important. More important because more money is better. In the world we live in right now, it is. You may carve out your own niche and believe differently but football just like society is being swamped. It's a pity we can't mix politics and football, otherwise we might object and block the greed of the top six Premier League clubs. Too much is not enough.
If the masses didn't want it, they'd do something about it. The problem with the world is the masses. The ones that world is run for and hence the rulers of the world. Who would have thought it would come to this. Paddy Pecker, Ladberks and Ladbible bantertwatting football fans are our rulers.
Oh man, politics and football. I'm so happy we don't mix them. Otherwise it could ruin our enjoyment of the World Cup. No, grab a Coke for the kids and pour yourself a nice cold glass of Gazprom for the Russia v Saudi Arabia opener. A trolling FIFA two-finger to decency. A test of just how far we have been anaesthetised. Two of the worst nations on earth (the USA and Israel didn't qualify, otherwise I assume they would have been the evening game) opening a tournament in a racist, homophobic country paid for by bribes. Are you coming round to mine for the game? I've got a new 88-inch Sony in for it.
If we can sleepwalk through Russia 2018, Qatar 2022 will be a doddle. 100 workers will die for every game played in the 2022 World Cup. For those not good with numbers, that's a Hillsborough disaster for every game. It's a mad world when we will rile and campaign relentlessly about the injustice of something that we cannot change yet crack open a beer and put our feet up when there is something we actually could change.
Play on, we don't mix politics with football around here. Wait, none of these workers are white are they? No, carry on. You know, if the victims at Hillsborough had all been from the Yemen branch of the Liverpool FC supporters club, Blundell Park would still have standing in the corners and the Ponny.
Yes, this is a GTFC fanzine. Planet GTFC is the centre of our football universe. It keeps me from spinning out of control to the icy depths of space and abandoning football altogether. The announcement of Michael Jolley's appointment made some ambitious noises. The news coming out of Town this week makes me believe the board might be trying to follow through on them. It's just enough tonic to keep me going for a while longer.
The thinking that sees the club flogging a DVD of a relegation battle is a reminder that the Humberston Comet could still plunge into the surface and destroy us all at any moment. However, even that is no bad thing any more. Non-league holds no fear. The further we are from the shit-fest at the top, the easier it will be to sleep. There, there.