Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Tuesday 17 June 2008

17 June 2008

For Idle Diary, supporting Town as they approach their fifth season on the League's bottom rung is akin to shaving your nasal hair (or plucking it, if you are more sado-masochistic): it's uncomfortable in the lead up, but you'll be relieved once it's over. "You either surf or you fight."

The first twangs of the tweezers came yesterday as Alan Buckley plucked Robbie Stockdale from his left nostril. "I came up last week and spoke to [the] manager," revealed Stockdale. "We had a good, long discussion and his ambition to get promoted is something that matched mine." Already the boy smells victory. Luckily no-one told the one-time Middlesbrough striker-cum-right-back that he has moved to the asshole of the world. After the player's two fruitful years at Tranmere, it made sense to Idle Diary contact a reliable Tranmere-supporting mate about Stockdale: "A great signing for your guys there - possibly our best player last season."

So after months of watching a snail crawl along the edge of a razor, has Alan Buckley finally got a dependable replacement for the retired Sir John McDermott? The signs are good, but with so many departures at the end of last season one man doesn't make the team. Stuart Watkiss seems well aware of this and reveals further down the Stockdale piece [on the Tellywag site] that "we are a fair way down the road with another deal. It's another defender and hopefully in the next few days we'll be able to seal it." I love the smell of signings in the morning.