Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Wednesday 17 January 2007
17 January 2007
His shortened name is Ricky, his ball play's not that tricky, his situation's sticky, Richard Ravenhill. Soon after Town announced yesterday that one of their 27 tough-tackling midfielders had left the club to join Darlington until the end of the season, Darlington announced that, no, he hadn't actually, and he'd just signed for a month, albeit in anticipation of a permanent transfer later. So what's going on? The Mariners' official website now informs us that the player "has signed for the Quakers on an initial loan deal, which allowed him to play at Bury last night. The move to the north east will now become a more permanent one", and I think we can all agree that this clears up the ongoing uncertainty and replaces it with lingering ambiguity. Because Ravenhill was playing on loan for Chester at the beginning of the season before the Mariners signed him from Doncaster, some supporters have questioned the validity of the move under article 5.3 of Fifa's regulations for the status and transfer of players - the law preventing West Ham's Javier Mascherano from moving to Liverpool - which states that "a footballer cannot play competitively for more than two different clubs between 1 July and 30 June the following year". Ravenhill's switch to Darlington is clearly exempt from the ruling, however, by virtue of the word 'competitively'.
Not for the first time, Town's official website has some news about the Fentydome. Ahead of the council planning committee meeting that will decide whether to approve the new stadium proposal, says the site, "North East Lincolnshire planners have recommended" that the planning committee say yes. So these planners are different from the planning committee. Who are they, then? We are not told, and the piece proceeds to throw up the usual smokescreen of jargon which has successfully restricted the Diary's critique of the project to shallow fun-poking rather than serious analysis. Interestingly, though, the planners' advice to the planning committee is to "prevent any development proceeding without the certainty of funding being available to complete the stadium", which I think means they don't want to run the risk of doing an Oxford, whose unfinished United Stadium stood untouched for more than four years until the suits got the sums right.
Finally today, former Town winger Jimmy McStay has died. The player turned out for the Mariners between 1948 and 1951, and since the Diary didn't make it to Blundell Park until a couple of decades later I can't tell you much more about him, but the club's official website does a good job when it really counts by providing an excellent tribute and summary of McStay's time with the Mariners - well worth a look. T'ra.