The Diary

Cod Almighty | Diary

39 and counting

26 June 2017

Trentside Diary is bored. Bored as the most bored teenager when the wi-fi has gone down and they're faced with an afternoon at Nan's with no electronic devices. I'm bored by the lack of football, bored by having nothing to follow except speculation and bored by worries that we don't yet have a team. There isn't even a World Cup or the Euros to keep us distracted.

The only saving grace is that we're all in the same boat. We look to seasons past and hopes for the coming season and exchange our thoughts on Twitter.

We have been invited by Devon Diary to nominate teams we despise and I have to add my tuppence worth:

  • Man Utd and Liverpool for their sense of entitlement and the 90 per cent of fans who are glory supporters
  • Newcastle because they believe they are a big club, and they're just not
  • MKD Franchise scum because no football fan should ever forgive them
  • West Ham because (politics alert) we're all subsidising them in the London stadium.

Talking of which, a current refrain from a group of fans is "keep politics out of football". Why? Whether you like it or not, politics runs through every facet of life and that includes football. The World Cup going to Russia and Qatar: that's politics. Police officers changing their statements at Hillsborough: that's politics. The 'management' of football crowds and the kettling of fans: that's politics.

On lighter things, Town have signed Nathan Clarke, a defender, who followed Slades from Leyton Orient and Coventry. We also have Asser Lutu, who comes in as head performance analyst. That must mean that Town have a whole team of other performance analysts, or maybe one, beavering away in the darkest reaches of BP to make sure that nothing is missed in our quest for promotion in the coming season. I wish them all well. Did we get the strength and conditioning coach, or did I just dream that?

There has been speculation that we are in for Tyler Walker, son of Des, for a year's loan from Forest. Mart, my go-to Forest fan, describes him as having "loads of skill, nice touch and finish, but needs a bit of meat on him and fire in his belly". Unfortunately, if he goes to a fourth division club he is likely to go back to Port Vale, where he spent part of last season. But maybe we can lure him in with promises of regular visits to Steel's.

Season ticket update: we've sold 1,000. I'm not really sure how this compares to last year; perhaps our head performance analyst can work on that. It's great that we're welcoming 114 new season ticket holders. Let's give them something to enjoy. Now we have the fixtures we can plan our season and dream of relegating FGR on the final day of the season.

There are 39 days till we kick off at Chesterfield and I for one am counting the days. Perhaps we could have a Cod Almighty calendar with a chocolate football behind every door?