Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Tuesday 14 June 2005

14 June 2005

Cast your mind back two or three weeks, reader, and you will recall that the officials of Grimsby Town Football Club were in negotiations with "an unnamed midfield player". "We are looking to strengthen the squad as soon as we possibly can," said Mr Russell Slade at the time, "but at the same time, we have to make sure that it is the right type that we bring in." Whether or not he was the right type, Jim Goodwin ended up signing for Scunthorpe instead, and so Russ's search continued - right up to the present moment, when Town officials are again holding talks with "an unnamed midfield player". "Of course, we want to get the squad strengthened sooner rather than later," says Mr Russell Slade today, "but we have to make sure we try and bring the right type of player in." That French referendum on the European constitution looks like being too close to call, doesn't it? I bet Michael Jackson gets found guilty though.

But on days like today, when there seems to be little to report concerning present and indeed future Mariners, our attention invariably turns to Blundell Park's heroes of the past. And sometimes Nicky Southall as well. It's just as well, then, that BBC Humber is reporting interest in the ex-Town ex-winger from Hull's Peter Taylor, widely feted as one of the sharpest minds in English football management today. Taylor has been paying close attention to Southall recently and concludes: "I know that he's also a free agent because I think he's got it in his contract at Gillingham that he doesn't have to take up the offer that they offer him." So he doesn't have to sign a new contract if he doesn't want to? It's player power gone mad!

Before today's final item I will explain that the Diary is gonna be leaving you for a couple of days after today. With any luck there'll be a guest or two here to fill the space, though, so you'll still get your daily fix of morbid sarcasm and bitterness.

You will all sleep more soundly in your beds now that Leicester-based Town fan Martyn Wyburn has emailed back to answer the Diary's recent query about the fish and chip shop in his city that bears the fair name of Grimsby. "Yes it's still on Welford Road, but if anyone working there has ever been within a mile of Grimsby I'd be surprised," he explains, adding: "Apart from having to make do with Championship and sometimes Premiership football here (when we all know the real stuff is actually played in League 2/Div 4), they just don't seem to know how to cook fish. The batter is always a bit greasy. Although having said that, the Grimsby Fish place is the best." There's an idea! Everyone email diary@codalmighty.com and nominate your favourite chippies - in Grimmo and elsewhere. This could keep us going for a few days when I get back, or at least until that midfielder gets a name.