Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Monday 16 January 2006

16 January 2006

Remember the miserable bastard who rang up the Football Forum after the Mariners' defeat to Carlisle earlier this month? He hadn't been to the game or anything like that, but he just wanted to tell the Humber-area public that all the players Town would sign in January, to replace all the ones they would be selling, were going to be rubbish. Maybe it was him, or maybe it was just hundreds of people like him, but rumours seem to have been rumouring that Ben Futcher's arrival at BP implies the imminent departure of same-sized centre-back Rob Jones. In response the club has gone to the trouble of posting an item on its official website not only to insist that the Stick is sticking around but also to explain that GTFC have the option to extend his contract and those of Michael Reddy, Paul Bolland and other dead ace players. The miserable bastard who rang up the Football Forum is now thought to be selling his house, cashing in his pension and taking voluntary redundancy, then giving all the money to Scunthorpe United on the condition that they use it to sign Jones, just so he can say he was right.

Kind-hearted Kingston Communications FC chairman Adam Pearson has responded as you would expect to Russell Slade's declaration of interest in Tigers winger Kevin Ellison. The Town manager apparently blurted his intentions to Mariners World late on last week, and Pearson has displayed the same lovably charitable streak he showed last summer when his moneybags club pulled out of a proposed lucrative friendly against the administration-haunted Mariners rather than relinquish their share of the gate receipts. "Adam Pearson says Grimsby can't afford Kevin Ellison," were the words repeated several times on Radio Humberside on Saturday, bringing to mind a similarly sensitive and restrained response by his manager when Town were enquiring after one or two of the 298 strikers in his squad last season ("Grimsby are wasting their time," said Peter 'Paid Five Million For Ade Akinbiyi' Taylor). The north bank outfit has come a long way since almost being closed down five years ago, and it is truly heart-warming to see its chairman extend such empathy and lasting appreciation once again to the neighbouring club that offered the use of its ground when KCFC were locked out of Boothferry Park.