Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Thursday 21 May 2009
21 May 2009
I've told you a million times, don't exaggerate! Ha! Do you get it? Do you? Darren Ferguson clearly doesn't, as the oedipally challenged Peterborough manager has apparently been telling his local paper that the million quid price tag greedy Grimsby have put on ace young defender Ryan Bennett is a bit on the steep side. "We tracked Ryan Bennett for months but he signed a new contract which entitled them to ask for a fee and they wanted £1million, which was quite ridiculous," is what today's Grimsby Telegraph says Ferguson told the Peterborough Evening Telegraph. Yeah, except you've got it completely wrong, haven't you, Daz, because the whole million quid thing was just a bloody throwaway comment by John Fenty to Barry Fry, a figure of speech indicating simply that Bennett is not for sale, and Town always had an option to extend Bennett's contract by two years, which they were always going to take up, so if you were watching Bennett all season long expecting to be able to get him on a free or a tuppence-ha'penny tribunal fee at the end of it then you were wasting your time all along, weren't you, so you've made yourself look a bit silly there really. Still, thanks for stopping Bastard Franchise Scum getting promoted. Tom Newey's available if you still fancy him.
In the middle of yesterday a page appeared on Town's superb new official website with the headline "18 Days To Go". The page promised "You WILL NOT be disappointed," and enigmatically left it at that. Today the SNOS has elaborated, explaining that the guarantee of our happiness on Monday 8 June relates to the offer of season tickets for sale - rather than, as most readers, had assumed, a new link to a poker website, an announcement about an announcement about an announcement about the Fentydome, or the sale on eBay of an official GTFC teacup once thrown at half time by manager Graham Rodger and still intact. What's the plan, then, Town? Has John Fenty (Con) backtracked on his previous insistence that super-cheap Bradford-type season tickets would be impossible and decided to devalue the product after all? We wait with nothing less than total excitement.
The same page also announced that the Town's new replica kit will at last be made available to fashion-conscious fans on Sunday 7 June at a "special launch in McMenemy's". The event will reveal which of the two prospective shirts was chosen when supporters voted on the design in that poll a few month ago which we'd completely forgotten all about in the meantime. Sadly, the Diary was forced to abstain from this empowering exercise in supporter democracy, since there was no option to combine the sensible stripes from option 1 with the nice round collar from the otherwise absurd option 2, which makes it look like the wearer has bent sideways to retrieve a ball from the ground on the other side of a freshly creosoted fence.
"I thought it a very valid point in Wednesday's Diary," begins an email from Sibbo about the midfielders who are leaving or staying in the building. "Players such as Jamie Clarke and Danny Boshell may just surprise some of the supporters next season, if they remain in the building, as part of the building programme. Ryan Bennett struggled at the start of last season but as we all saw went from strength to strength as the campaign progressed. Rob Atkinson must take a lot of credit for helping steady the ship with some assured performances and with the influx of loan players towards the latter stages. I thought Nick Hegarty in particular came on leaps and bounds. Having better players around can give ordinary ones more confidence and therefore perform to a higher level. Not suggesting for one minute that Ryan Bennett is ordinary but at a young age, he needed someone with Rob's presence alongside him. Perhaps Grimsby won't be Wayne's world next season, but a keeper of his stature is vitally important. Expect our Mike will ensure we get a suitable replacement. The excitement is growing already for the new season and" - and there it ends, unfortunately, as the rubbish Cod Almighty feedback form only carries 1,024 characters. I'm going to change the link on the side of the page now, so that people don't use the feedback form to contact the Diary and email diary@codalmighty.com instead. Sorry about that, Sibbo!
The CA team is trying to ascertain whether the brilliantly named young American centre-half Dallas Moore is still with the Mariners or was recently released when they decided which young 'uns were getting kept on. If anyone knows, please contact the Diary using the email address above. Thankyou! We've found the citation Wikipedia was looking for about Town having a sell-on clause in the deal that took Rob Jones to Hibs, though. Today's Telewag mentions it in a 'meanwhile' section towards the end of the piece about Darren Ferguson - and if Wikipedia can't trust the Grimsby Telegraph then I don't think there can be any hope left for the world.
I don't know who's writing tomorrow's Diary - it might even end up being just your regular Diary again - but with a bit of luck there should at least actually be one. Thanks for reading and t'ra for now.