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Diary - Wednesday 28 January 2004

28 January 2004

When arrogant sods get their come-uppance it creates one of the more pleasant sensations this poor crazy world has to offer, and Barnsley have got theirs. A statement issued last night by GTFC confirms that Michael Boulding is staying at Blundell Park for the time being - and delivers a gratifyingly acidic rebuff from Peter Furneaux to his Oakwell counterparts, who for the past week have been telling anyone who will listen that their move for the player was a done deal. "Their manager and directors should not try to interpret the contract between Michael Boulding and Grimsby Town," announces the Mariners chairman, with all the authority and gravitas of Lord Hutton. Tykes boss Gudjon Thordarson, it appears, had neglected to entertain the possibility that Boulding might actually prefer to play for Grimsby, and had been spouting off about a deal "going through by the end of the week" without ever having spoken to Quick Michael himself. Barnsley have now loaned Manchester United's Daniel Nardiello instead, who scored two and made the third in their 3-0 win over Blackpool last night, but let's not spoil the moment. Boulding will now probably leave for nothing when his contract expires this summer.

You probably know this already, but it's snowing, and footballers tend not to play in snow. The Blundell Park pitch, estimates Town's official site, "is covered in about three inches of the white stuff": a state of affairs that, should it persist for three more days, could throw the club's plans for a kickabout against Bristol City this Saturday into a swirling vortex of random terror and chaos. For the time being the snow will be left on the pitch "to insulate it against frost", reveals the site, which sounds awfully clever to the Diary, who only got Bs for physics and chemistry. Somebody ought to tell them Premiership clubs that if they pile enough snow on their pitches, they wouldn't need that expensive undersoil heating.

Mariners captain John McDermott - who, it is being scandalously whispered by certain elements of the club's support, is starting to look his age - faces an operation to fix up his knotted hernia or something, reports BBC Humber today. The record-breaking right-back had hoped to grit his teeth, and play through the pain barrier, and lots of other such manly clichés, but will have to undergo surgery or never walk again, explains Paul Groves.

Grimsby Telegraph football writer Stuart Rowson is apparently set to complete the cross-Humber transfer Macca never quite managed last summer, with a switch to the Hull Daily Mail (and with no new stories on the GT's website at nearly two o'clock he might have scarpered already). The Diary would like to join with Town's official website in congratulating Stu on his appointment, though given the very public disharmony between the two parties over recent years one suspects that the club's magnanimity may be borne out of sheer relief. Rozzer's new post will doubtless afford him much cosier accommodation in the KC Stadium press box, and an even better perk, from his perspective, will be that his work is no longer mercilessly picked apart by the Diary and its readers - one of whom, John Arrand, has a further observation on the Telegraph's reporting of Alan Pouton taking a bow for his new club. "Apparently, according to the GET, 'Alan Pouton enjoyed a miserable Gillingham debut'," writes John. "How does that work, eh?"

Last in today's Diary, and by all means least, is an email from info@myfootballnews.co.uk, with the subject line "Scrolling" and no body text. Yes, but is it art?