Cod Almighty | Diary
Are we grassroots enough?
18 October 2018
Yesterday, Fulham owner Shahid Khan announced he is withdrawing his bid to buy Wembley Stadium. When the potential deal was originally announced it was claimed the FA would use the proposed £600million from the sale to invest in grassroots football.
This begs the question "what is grassroots football and where do Grimsby Town fit into that?" In the Collins dictionary grassroots is defined in the following way:
1. a. the ordinary people as distinct from the active leadership of a party or organization: used esp of the rank-and-file members of a political party, or of the voters themselves...
2. the origin or essentials
I believe most fans would concur that clubs like our own are part of the fabric of English football and identify the Mariners with that definition of grassroots.
But does anyone believe we would have seen any of that money had the sale gone through? Does that mean we aren't grassroots? Are Cleethorpes Town, Grimsby Borough and Immingham Town grassroots in a more bona fide manner? Where does grassroots begin and end?
It is a bit of an identity crisis that third- and fourth-flight clubs find themselves in. We are increasingly unable to compete with clubs in the top tier of the Football League, let alone the Premier League. Yet we are distinctly different – by way of professionalism – from what most people imagine when they hear the words "non-League".
We are, then, the antithesis and the embodiment of grassroots rolled into one. Worryingly, it all points to a breakaway second tier leaving us in the middle. I'd be interested to know what the insightful Andy Holt of Accrington Stanley would make of this diary's musings.
Under 23 Scout provides regular statistics on under-23 players across the Football League. He has highlighted that in Town's last match against Port Vale we fielded five such players in our starting line-up and had two more on the bench. Maybe, in the midst of all this, Michael Jolley is forging a new club identity for us. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a return to those days when we developed young players consistently; when two or three home-grown prospects like Harry Clifton featured every week. The club needs a project – something we can all get behind – so we can start moving forward and regain an identity.
Yesterday after training, Clifton popped into the club for a cuppa with the Sporting Memories Network people in the Mariners Trust bar. Another of those under-23s – Elliot Embleton – was away on u20 international duty with England. He featured in the win over Italy at Fylde's Mill Farm last Friday but was an unused substitute against the Czech Republic on Monday night. And today, an unnamed youth team product has been suggested as a potential first teamer by Neil Woods as well.
Despite the doom and gloom, Basque Diary is starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel.