Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Monday 13 March 2006
13 March 2006
The Diary could only ever solve Rubik's cube by first breaking it apart with a hammer, so it should not come as a tremendous surprise that I am still trying to get my head around all these contracts given to GTFC players with 'the option of a further year'. Regardless, let us take a mallet to Rob Jones, as it were, and try and work out what all his current contractual hoo-hah is about. If I've got this right, Town can take up an option to jolly well extend the Stick's deal to 2007 whether he likes it or not, but they're trying to sort out a brand new contract that's even longer than that, and they'll have to come up with something he likes, otherwise he won't sign it. And he hasn't. The reason, according to a piece in the Grimsby Telegraph which seems to be based on the interview Jones gave to Radio Humberside at the weekend, is that he wants "parity with some of the others in recognition of what I have done this season". As straight-talking as he is straight-tackling, Town's towering centre-half seems to have been round the squad finding out what everyone else is earning and concludes that "it is strange" for Chairman John to talk about not breaking wage structures when "there are several players earning more than me". The Telegraph's use of the phrase "broken down" appears to be an excessively pessimistic paraphrase, though, at least so long as it refers to Jones' contract talks and not his ability to control his tongue when exasperated with match officials.
As subscribers to the official Grimsby Town SMS service will already be aware, tomorrow night's visit to Rochdale in the Fizzy Pop League Four will be subject to a pitch inspection in the afternoon. Two recent trips to Dale have been curtailed by flooding and swamp-like conditions at Spotland, and on Tuesday Town could again be denied the chance to enjoy the one playing surface in the top four divisions to rival Stamford Bridge for rubbishness - and with it the chance to go top of the table - this time because of snow. Subscribers to the official Grimsby Town SMS service will be among the first to discover the result of the inspection, scheduled for noon tomorrow. Granted, you could just listen to the radio, but then you get to spend 50p for the two text messages on something else instead of paying Curtis Woodhouse's wages.
Luton's Michael Reddy is expected to miss "up to 10 days" of football as a result of the injury that took him out of Saturday's confidence-boosting win over Barnet. Town's leading scorer was subbed off half an hour into the match - which, naturally enough, was quickly followed by Town scoring three goals - and Mr Russell Slade has told the club's official website: "The substitution was because of a groin injury which he complained about at the end of last week." He clearly didn't complain loudly enough then, eh, Russ.
Events on the pitch may have gone well for the Mariners over the weekend, but proceedings in the stands cannot be said to have run entirely to plan. Despite a respectable attendance given the no-show from the visitors, the figure fell almost 1,000 short of the 6,000 target established by the appropriately named Target 6000 campaign; and Bill Hammond's admirable intentions proved about as effective at making a noise as Nicky Law was at avoiding relegation, with barely a peep heard out of the Lower Beer Stand and no sign of the drum/bugle combo Mr Hammond threatened last week. Perhaps Bill was struck down with laryngitis around Saturday lunchtime - or perhaps GTFC just invented him, like they did Glen Downey.
Finally today, the Diary is cold and lonely. My regular email address is up the spout and one week after we pleaded for help, Cod Almighty's usually very reliable and brilliant internet hosting company is yet to respond. Even our trusty feedback form is proving less than 100 per cent useful right now. All of this means the usual flow of emails to the Diary has dried up; and without you, as Brian Molko rather brilliantly sang, I am nothing. So end our misery now, readers, by directing communications to our hastily established temporary back-up email address ca.diary@googlemail.com. Cheers!