Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Monday 23 June 2003

23 June 2003

First of all, a big thank you to Mr Miles Moss for finely fulfilling Diary duties dast Driday. Damn. As Miles explained at the time, I was offline all day because BT asked a group of very loud men to dig holes and stuff outside my house and try and chat up Mrs Diary, and decided not to give me any advance warning. And yeah, I know, there was no Diary at the weekend, but I was just having a life, and you're not going to begrudge me that once in a while, are you. Not that there was much to report on the GTFC front in any case.

So, yeah. BBCI Humber, which is what we really ought to call BBC Humber Sport, today threatens to reignite the inferno that is Town fans' outrage at misleading headlines by running a story in which Georges Santos reiterates that he may not return to Blundell Park and headlining it Santos to return to Blundell Park. Which, in the race for qualification to the misleading headlines Champions League, is surely battling it out with Daily Mail splashes about asylum seekers. Turns out, anyway, that sightings last week of the turbulent continental at a Grimsby gym are not to be taken as meaning large Georges will be a Mariner next season, as he was only picking up his toothbrush or something. The player insists - despite an apparent lack of interest from other clubs - that his future remains undecided, and his agent is on holiday, so there's still nothing doing.

One-hit wonder Phil Jevons could return to the Town team next season. The inconsistent striker was set to see out the final year of his GTFC contract in the reserves after the club recently admitted its inability to meet ITV Digital-era appearance payments due to both the player and his former club Everton; but the Grimsby Telegraph reports that moves to renegotiate Jevons' terms are progressing smoothly. "Phil Jevons wants to play football and he is prepared to negotiate a new contract with us," confirms Town chairman Peter Furneaux. The player has, of course, just returned from a season-long loan with third division Hull, where he was found to be not as good as Jamie Forrester; but Furneaux adds hopefully: "He had some personal problems which caused his form to dip but he says all this is behind him now and he wants to play."

Steve Beer emails the Diary with some happy thoughts on Town's new midfielder Marcel Cas. "I've just seen Cas's goals on Mariners World from when he was at Notts County, and they are really incredible goals," he writes. "I think anyone who sees them will be filled with excitement and optimism for the new season - I definitely was. Watch the second goal, the way he just ghosts past all the defenders with such pace. He reminds me of Kevin Donovan, but faster." The Diary remains dubious as to the reliability of video footage, what with all the nonsense about that Saddam Hussein statue; but I could do with some reassurance about Cas, because I was in Nottingham at the weekend and the County fans seemed to think he was crap. I really must get a half-decent web connection and subscribe to Mariners World; saying that, I'd have to donate the Jarvis shirt to charity or summats.

Over to Mark Wilson, then, to undo all Steve's good work. "I am pleased to read that Peter Furneaux is enthusing about Mr Cas," he writes. "I asked a work colleague, who is Sheffield born and a die-hard Blade, what he thought of our new signing and he replied that he 'had never heard of him'. Oh good." Thanks Mark!

Today is the first day of Wimbledon, and we're not talking franchise football. I dunno why everyone wonders why Britain is so rubbish at tennis: obviously it is because only posh people play it, and posh people are congenitally rubbish at sport. That aside, the Diary is delighted to receive a mail dealing with the sport that briefly obsessed Martin Amis when he wasn't banging on about deadheads and nukes. "Dear Diary," it begins, "I have just been watching Greg Rusedski win the tennis in Nottingham. His American opponent was called Mardy Fish. Now if this guy hasn't got ancestors from Grimsby then I'm a Dutchman. Yours sincerely, Pietr van Buist."