Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Monday 5 June 2006
5 June 2006
"If we get the man we want, I'm sure the fans will be happy with the choice." Never let it be said that football club chairmen have no sense of irony, as the man John Fenty wanted to get was there all along in the shape of Town's long-serving but mysteriously unpopular assistant manager Graham Rodger.
Grezbo, now aged 39, has been appointed on a two-year contract with a two-year option (for whom or what remains unclear). He joined the Mariners from Luton in 1992, a talented central defender but as injury-prone as many other Alan Buckley signings. In just over 150 full appearances he scored 12 times - quite possibly all headers - before leaving for King$ton Communication$ FC (then known as Hull City), where he managed one run-out for the reserves before retiring knackered. He later returned to Blundell Park as football in the community officer before becoming assistant manager to Paul Groves in December 2001 and spending six games as caretaker boss when Groves' reign collapsed in chaos in February 2004. Despite winning three of these matches - including the astonishing 6-1 romp over Barnsley, which inspired this magnificent exhibition of journalism from the Sunday Mirror (right) - Rodge was disastrously replaced by Nicky Law for the rest of the season, and you know what happened next.
So he played for the club in the early 1990s - one of the Mariners' most successful periods since exiting the top flight for the last time nearly 60 years ago. He played pretty well. He became caretaker manager, and did a good job then as well. Any further knowledge about his coaching methods is not yet available to supporters. So why is it that for large periods of his coaching career thus far, Rodger has been about as popular in some areas of the Blundell Park seating as Jeremy Clarkson at a Green Party conference? The Diary, admittedly, does not find cause for optimism in the recent record of Town's reserves - who, managed by Rodge, contrived to pass the entire 2005-06 season without recording a win - but there are sufficient mitigating circumstances to warrant giving him a go, and it remains an unresolved enigma why certain sections of the GTFC 'faithful' have seen fit to call for the sacking of the side's assistant manager every time Tony Crane missed a tackle or they caught a cold; still less why they insist on calling him "Rodgers". For its part Town's official website has made an extra-special effort to celebrate Rodger's appointment and somehow managed to announce it using even worse English than usual.
The new manager's first task, of course, has been not to persuade Jones the Stick, Mildenhall my Lord and Luton's Michael Reddy to extend their contracts with the Mariners but to criticise his predecessor, and Rodgeski has obliged by dismissing Russell Slayed's style as only "fairly successful" and adding: "We need to be a bit more adventurous - especially at home... it is important that we entertain our fans". If Rodgerses is ever to win over his detractors, this represents a good opening gambit. It is to be assumed that Blundell Park will hear no more talk of resilience and work ethics for the next two years.
As far as those disappearing players are concerned, the media of both Lincolnshire and Edinburgh continue to insist that the Stick is about to up sticks to Scots makers-up-of-numbers Hibernian FC. Both the Grimsby Telegraph and Scotland's Evening News are talking of a fee "in the region of six figures", so we may be looking at £100,000 to £999,999 - or something thereabouts.
It would not be altogether surprising if Graham Rodger's black and white army (at last - a name that scans!) were to acquire at least one new recruit this summer as others are honourably discharged, and the Telewag reckons Doncaster's Ricky Ravenhill could be on his way in. The alliteratively monickered midfielder has scored 10 goals in 100 starts for the Yorkshire side, building up an frankly terrifying Crane-like disciplinary record along the way. Managerless Lincoln City have also been named in the search for Ricky's autograph, but the player is already considering an offer from third division neighbours Rotherham.
It's getting late, but there's always time for an email from Rich Mills - especially if he's picking faults with Deviant Diary. Rich takes issue with DD's careless assertion last Friday that the words "he's history, he's baloney without the mayo" were sung by Frank Zappa. "Tut, tut. Surely that was Ike Willis singing/talking on that track. Poor journalism like that's just going to lead you to a job at the GET and I wouldn't wish that on anybody. Anyway, I spotted your Zappa quote at the top so it wasn't wasted. I challenge you to include a relevant Zappa lyric in every Diary entry. No prizes, just satisfaction if you can do it every week. Let's be honest, as there's no news to talk about you've got to do something to make it interesting." Yes, Rich - no news at all, eh.