Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 24 March 2011

24 March 2011

Ah, spring. The transition period between winter and summer. We all know there's nothing like transition to brighten up a season. Grimsby are always at it: once a year transition pops up and shits all over stability. Transition is sexy, it's thrilling, and it's dangerous. It sweeps up on the sitting duck of stability, ruffles his feathers and then blows him out of the water. Before you know it you've got two new managers who you had never heard of a couple of weeks ago, two blokes from a part-time outfit down the road. Now suddenly you're all optimistic, because this could be it, these could be the management duo to be successful, it's new, it's sexy and it's definitely dangerous.

So riding in on this tide of optimism, this wave of new beginnings, come Scott and Hurst, the management duo of the future. Your Part-Time Diary is trying to drag some positive opinions out of this permanent apathetic malaise that the club has drowned me in. There's just been too many false dawns, too many poor decisions at the top, too many Viva La Revolucion T-shirts. These things have curbed my enthusiasm. I wish them all the best and of course hope they succeed, but we've seen all this before, and we all know how that turned out, all those times.

There is still some wrangling about the legitimacy of the appointment of our shiny new manager types. John Fenty (Topcon) says he isn't going to give Boston any compensation because his new employees had resigned from their positions and it was just all a happy coincidence that they ended up at Grimsby a day later. Grimsby had asked permission to speak to them and were refused, so Scott and Hurst took it upon themselves to resign and gamble on being offered the job(s). You can see why the Boston chairman may feel a little aggrieved. According to David Newton there was no "mechanism within their contracts for them to resign", so there could well be a case for compensation. Never easy, is it? Although I take heart from the fact that Boston wanted to keep them, a good sign surely. No doubt it'll come back to haunt us next year when they get promoted and stuff us.

The dynamic duo have been talking a good game in the Telegraph today. They seem sure of themselves, positive, and they undeniably have an excellent record lower down the pyramid. It seems like more of a positive appointment than Woods ever was, though not through any fault of Woods'. It was the whole feeling around the club at the time, after Newell's sacking and the all the fucking lazy players he bought in. Woods was snuck in under a barrage of negativity and with the aim of trying to keep afloat a sinking ship. Now the ship has sunk and maybe these are the pair that can move us forward? Or is that revolucion talk? Because, of course, before Woods it was Newell, all shiny and new and positive.

Well, who the hell knows any more? The play-offs seem a distant dream so our managers can just get on with some of the winning they are known for, sorting out their own team - another bloody team - and maybe the board will get itself sorted out, maybe everything will be OK again, or maybe not. Who knows? Who cares? Thanks for the penny, George.