Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Tuesday 24 July 2012
24 July 2012
"We must be guided by the player". This is the bit I don't understand, or like.
Aswad Thomas is the victim in this case, and it has been big of him to sign for a club where he has been racially abused by a fan, unless you take the view that racism is so prevalent that he has to do this if he wants to play at all (and I don't). I can just about see the logic in having the racist have to confront her victim to apologise, and hopefully teach her a lesson (although from her picture she's not a kid, and if she hasn't learned basic respect for other people by now she never will).
What I don't understand or like is putting Thomas in the position of deciding (which is what the statement seems to imply) whether or not to ban the racist from the ground. This simply isn't his job. He's a newly signed player, and only 22, and it seems he's being asked to weigh in on a decision which (among other things) may cost his cash-strapped employer a fair amount of money over this and future seasons. What's he going to say: 'Nasty piece of work, chuck her out for good'? Even if (very understandably) that was what he really felt? For the second time at BP, he's been put in a very unfair position.
Your original/regular Diary is grateful to Phil Watson for having emailed us with this more insightful and incisive take on Town's racism scandal than I'd be capable of. The club, meanwhile, has issued a statement denying that it has asked the courts for Karen Stevens not to be banned from Blundell Park. We'll have to see what unfolds, then, after sentencing on 14 August. If this statement is true, then there has been a very serious misrepresentation of its position in the media. And at the very least it would seem extraordinarily remiss of GTFC to have become aware of this only when fans emailed to ask what the hell was going on.
Some of the Mariners' young 'uns went for a kickabout at Louth Town last night, winning 2-0 in front of a club record crowd of 364. Their first team counterparts travel to Plucky Scunny tonight for a Lincolnshire Senior Cup tie without Liam Hearn, who is either nursing a sore calf and achilles or being wrapped in cotton wool ahead of his impending £8million move to Chelsea. Tonight's game, while all but guaranteed to reveal nothing about Town's prospects for 2012-13, at least gives those GTFC fans with self-esteem issues a chance to point out to what a rotten town Scunthorpe is to live in, particularly when compared with the thriving metropolitan utopia of, say, Freeman Street or West Marsh.
But it's the misleadingly named Lincolnshire Senior Shield that's the minor county cup tournament on everyone's lips today. When I say "everyone" I mean, of course, Boston United chairman and Grimsby Town obsessive David Newton. Newton is fed up of his aristocratic club having to get their knees dirty against the lowlife of Lincoln United and Stamford, and wants to revamp the Shield by getting Town, Scunny and Lincoln City involved an'all. Your original/regular Diary, meanwhile, is simply losing the will to live as a result of having to write this paragraph.
FORMER Grimsby Town players Alan Connell and Tommy Forecast have both returned to the Football League. No-one will be surprised to see Connell snapped up with such alacrity once Swindon Town made him available for transfer. I'm surprised Bradford City had the funds available to do it, though perhaps I shouldn't be. I'm also surprised Connell was Swindon's leading scorer last season, given the bit-part role their fascist manager was determined to confine him to. Though perhaps I shouldn't be. Everyone will be surprised that Forecast is still under contract with Premier League Southampton. And no-one will be surprised that he's been given another crack at professional football with a season-long loan to Gillingham. We'll all be absolutely gobsmacked instead.
Finally today, GTFC cheerleader Dave Boylen is changing colour. One, two, three, get some factor 50 on before GTFC put you in charge of equal opportunities policy.