Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Wednesday 31 May 2006
31 May 2006
Russell Slade loaded the revolver with a single bullet, spun the cylinder, raised it to his head and hopped onto an Easyjet to Faliraki. It must have been the turbulence that did for him.
The Mariners boss has lost his game of Russian roulette with his GTFC career despite taking a holiday to try and forget the massive failure of his team to compete in any meaningful way during last Sunday's fourth division play-off final against Cheltenham. Exasperated with Sladey's brinkmanship over signing a new contract, Town chairman John Fentydome asked the manager to specify just exactly what it was that he wanted, which the manager then did, shortly before packing the suntan lotion for his head and flying off on his jollies. But if Mr Russ was hoping his absence would make him temporarily unsackable, he will now be as disappointed as a Grimsby fan last Sunday night, as Chairman John quickly added: "Either way, we need to make a quick decision on who is going to manage the club next season", and at around 13:50 BST today GTFC announced that Slade's two-year tenure at Blundell Park was over. This one always looked unlikely to run for very long - a bit like most of Town's players at Cardiff.
Arriving belatedly on the scene like an obese CID officer after one too many doughnuts in the morning, the Grimsby Telegraph has picked up the Slade-to-Yeovil rumours that were picked up two days ago by the Western Daily Press despite a patent lack of any publishable material to substantiate them. Detective-Constable Telewag scrawls the name of Woking boss Glenn Cockerill onto its whiteboard list of suspects as "another possible target" as Slade's replacement, but the only evidence our bumbling but amiable copper seems able to muster is that "Cockerill's parents still live a stone's throw from Blundell Park". It's going to be a long, slow summer, isn't it.
Inarticulate fool and former Mariners full-back Graham 'Very Much So' Taylor has stepped back in to the discussion around Town's performance in Cardiff, which could barely have represented a more comprehensive surrender had Justin Whittle stepped cagily towards the Cheltenham team holding aloft a white flag. Taylor began his managerial career with the Mariners' semi-final opponents Lincoln, and at that stage of the play-offs his prior involvement with both clubs afforded us the unique insight that "I don't know much about the players because I have seen very little of them". In the run-up to the final VMS nailed his colours to Cheltenham by declaring that his passion for John Ward outweighed his friendship with the Mariners, and the one-of-a-kind pundit has now handed some further observational gems to the Robins' local paper. "I thought that Cheltenham did very well," he tells the Gloucestershire Echo. "In the first half, it was not the best of games and it was very tight. I thought Cheltenham moved the ball about more and were the better side." Somebody remind me not to listen to Radio Five Live during the World Cup.
Time for another dip into the Diary's murky inbox, where we put in our thumb and pull out words of praise for an already widely praised member of the CA team. "Another magnificent match report from Tony Butcher," writes Steve in response to TB's account of Cardiff. "Witty, accurate and entertaining, as always. Please pass on my thanks for what he has contributed to a memorable season. He truly captures the joy and frustration of a life supporting GTFC and reading his reports has often been more enjoyable than the matches. Perhaps that tells us as much about Sort It's tactics as it does about TB's considerable talent." Quite so, Steve; Tony could hardly be accused of taking the direct route, could he? "Thanks again, and I hope he returns next season (TB that is, not Sort It)." As it happens, your man has expressed a feeling of jadedness several times in the past few months, and the CA editors live in fear that he will announce his retirement at any time. How can we persuade Tony to carry on reporting? What innovations might keep him interested enough to persevere in his magnificent work? Email diary@codalmighty.com with your suggestions.
Today's final item of email to the Diary comes from Robert Hall, who writes: "I'm emailing you to alert you to a new football news aggregation website. Please see: [url removed]. The service filters the news into different 'feeds' for viewers who want news on specific topics. A user can also create a free account so they can create their own feeds based on their own criteria. We have sent you an email because we would like to start displaying news from your website. However, if you want to be featured in our service, we require that you provide a link back to us from your website. The image we would like you to link can be found here. [url removed], but if you'd wish to make an image yourself then feel free." Oooh, thanks. How about this one?
