Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Friday 9 June 2006

9 June 2006

This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end

Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I'll never look into your eyes... again

So as we bid tear-stained goodbyes to another season filled with weird scenes inside our particular goldmine, it occurs to your Guest Diarist that all may not be lost. Maybe there is just the odd blessing to count. Another season at good old Blundell Park to look forward to. And no doubt as the last swallow thinks about leaving the Grimsby climes we will hear a new call from the Pontoon asking Grezza to give us a wave. And as sure as that swallow will be back next spring, Rodger will oblige. He's been down so goddamn long that it must seem like up to him these days, don't you reckon? Losing Rob Jones is tough, and it's a crying shame that his last match with the club was so disappointing - not for the result but for the individual performances. I still get flashbacks of that potentially suicidal Stick back-pass which signalled early in the game that our future was very uncertain, and that the end was always near. And Scotland is definitely no place to bring up a kid, Rob. You'll be back. In fact, just like Jim Morrison, you'll never really leave.

In the meantime Mr Rodger - for we must call him that now, gentle reader - needs to work his coaching miracle on Fen Butcher. Just as he did on Rob Jones, who was a poor excuse for a centre-half on arrival. And all that cash must be burning a hole in his pocket, although the club's biggest creditor may have a beady eye fixed upon it after our long-overdue slice of footballing fortune. A cup run, a play-off series, and a transfer fee all in one season - blimey! As Cod Almighty's very own match reporter Mr Tony Butcher so wisely observed in an email to me today, "undisclosed fee is clearly Football Speak for £150,000. Alan Pouton came to Town for an undisclosed fee... of £150,000. Livvo was variously undisclosed for... about £150,000". All comedy legends make one and a half very big ones then at some point in their career. But this time we were lucky enough to be selling rather than buying. Crumbs of comfort indeed, methinks.

Apropos of hardly anything, our young chums on the official Grimsby Town website have been moved to publish a terse statement about Luton's Michael Reddy. It basically says that young Mr Reddy is on his holidays and has so far not even bothered to send a postcard, never mind a transfer request. And that no-one wants to buy him at the moment anyway. Oh, and Tony Blair has every intention to serve a full third term as prime minister. And Jim Morrison is dead.

But wait. Even as I write, Grimsby Town accounts manager Steve Wraith has drawn a deep breath and stepped forward, blinking shyly, into the Town spotlight to announce that season tickets will be on sale from 19 June. And that they will cost the same as last year. To get the discount one has until 15 July to make one's mind up. As Mr Wraith puts it: "This gives those supporters who might not want to buy a season ticket time to weigh up how the squad's progressing and make a commitment." Risky, Steve - players can leave as well as arrive, just as shares can go down as well as up.

In other news, the World Cup starts today in Germany and the Grateful Dead lost their third keyboard player to another fatal case of death. To quote Ian Fleming: "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence and three is enemy action." Or did he say thrice? I must go and check. See yer.