Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Wednesday 12 May 2010
12 May 2010
Nathan Jarman's contract has been cancelled by mutual consent. Whoops, no it hasn't! It's almost as if Town's superb new official website knew your original Diary was coming. We all remember March 2009, don't we, when the SNOS fucked up spectacularly even by its own fucking woeful standards in announcing that Phil Barnes, Tom Newey and Gary Montgomery had packed their bags and left the club, and then having to perform a quick u-turn when Mike Newell said: "They were [still with the club] when I left this morning." Well, the people paid out of your ticket money to run the site still don't understand the straightforward difference between a footballer being told they can leave a club and that footballer actually leaving. Hence the difference between the SNOS' declaration yesterday that Jarman had already gone and the SNOS' clarification today that, er, he hasn't, and instead simply features on a list of players who have been made available for transfer. So when Mike Parker takes responsibility for marketing, presumably he'll know exactly where to start.
"We expect the winning submission to be ensure adequate spelling and correct use of grammar." Priceless.
Whuh? Muh? Uh? Right. Matthew Bird, Leigh Overton and Jammal Shahin have been released and, as well as Jarman, Adrian Forbes, Nick Hegarty, Chris Jones, Paul Linwood, Adam Proudlock and Peter Sweeney have been transfer-listed. Parker is to become vice-chairman and invest a big wad to equalise his shareholding with that of John Fenty (Con), as well as overseeing the Myspace Mariners and all that (anyone heard of the "Young Scholars" before now? Thought not). They're stepping up the Woodsian emphasis on fitness with the appointment of a "Nutritionals and Sports Therapist". Oh, and Neil Woods is still the manager.
What do you make of it all, readers? The Diary is disappointed to see Shahin leave, having nurtured a disproportionate adoration of the young forward after his enthusiastic mid-season performances in an otherwise disgraceful excuse for a professional football team. But otherwise, for what it's worth, I'm almost as pleased as it's possible to be pleased with all this. Anything that lessens the executive control of John Fenty (Con) is a step in the right direction, and it is a huge relief that we don't have to undergo the tedium of another search for a manager. Or at least not until October, when Town are 18th in the Conference and Fenty says Woods is the right man for the job and then sacks him a week later.
Another positive sign is that plans for the Mariners' pre-season have already begun. A home friendly against Big Wednesday has been arranged and will take place on Saturday 17 July, kicking off at 3pm. The early announcement offers hope that Town will avoid a repeat of the dog's breakfast of a pre-season calendar last summer, when the club's shambolic organisation led to a programme of seven fixtures in seven days, forcing the team to withdraw at short notice from the final of the excuse for a huge piss-up Errea Cup.
I think that's all the news, so it's over to the Diary's inbox now for this eloquent email from Alan Richardson:
"I didn't go to Burton for a couple of reasons, but mainly because it had the feeling of inevitability about. Not because it seemed inevitable that we'd lose and succumb to non-League football. But because it was inevitable that there would be trouble. Had we won and Barnet didn't, then the trouble would have less severe - but there would have been trouble.
"Whenever Town play a big/important game, the inevitable happens. The scrouts and scumbags come out of the woodwork, drink far too much and behave like that. We've always had a problem, but as football has moved into the 21st century, some of our supporters seem to have got left in the 1970s and 80s.
"I have two daughters aged under four, who will probably grow up not being interested in football and supporting Town. I'm pleased about that. I would never take any child to mine to watch Town because there is a pretty good chance they will see something that I wouldn't want them to see, or couldn't begin to explain.
"Our club is now at its lowest point. Not because we are no longer in the Football League, but because most of the country think our supporters are thugs (and are either pleased to be rid of us, or dreading when we appear in their town next season) and our decent supporters are embarrassed.
"I'll try to be at the games local to me next year (Kettering, Rushden, Cambridge and Histon) and I really hope we are having a mid-table kind of season. Why? So that I can enjoy a day out without sharing it with the kind of scum (and I really do mean absolute scum) that blight too many of our big games.
"If John Fenty or Mike Parker ever get to read this (probably unlikely), please think about what I am saying. If you want to attract people through the gates at Blundell Park and make the area care about GTFC, you have to rid this club of people like this and make us proud again."
Never a truer word; thanks, Alan, for saying rather beautifully what we were all thinking. Indeed, with Baby Diary now approaching the 18-month mark, I'm also starting to wonder if the whole family might not be a lot happier if he never goes anywhere near a football ground. Thanks, all, for reading, and keep your thoughts coming in to diary@codalmighty.com. Bye for now.