Cod Almighty | Diary

The pieces falling into place

11 July 2025

Yesterday the video of an excellent chat with Jason Stockwood arrived. It's good to have him back fronting things. Comms are key and in this our now best ever summer, the only reasonable gripe was the lack of comms. It'll be interesting to see our behaviour in June of next year, will it be the knee-jerkers who shout loudest? Will the club alter its comms? Seems a stretch to think that a daily tweet of "Good things come to those who wait," will satisfy all, but turn it into a meme or a gif and you never know.

"It feels like all the pieces are in place." Bold words that show JS is very much willing to put his head above the parapet. I hope he doesn't come to regret that, and right now your A46 Diary is struggling to see how he will. We have a squad of talented, experienced, energised players. The numbers alone, 22 first team players, suggest that we will not be, at least for now, reliant on loan players, skinny, inexperienced keepers or just one striker. One of those, Carson, has been told he should find another club, so we must be on the lookout for another full back, and if we're to stick with the back three then we don't have much depth for central defenders, but we're looking ready, with a first 11 and options throughout.

Off the pitch, Stockwood’s admission that football clubs are not suitable for B Corp certification is honest and practical. He is still determined to revisit this ambition in the future, but for now, he's willing to trust the Football Governance Bill as a way of clarifying and stabilising the way football clubs will be managed. So, in the short term, reliance on the wealth and generosity of individuals isn't going to change, but we live in hope.

I love that Pym is here because of a holiday encounter with Croudson and that we can recruit through contacts as well as data. I love lots of things right now. Pieces. Blocks. Jigsaws. Buildings. Foundations. It feels like it’s all there. It feels special.