Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 17 September 2008

17 September 2008

Whoever ends up becoming the Mariners' 914th manager this decade, the Diary hopes it isn't Andy Ritchie, because he has made his interest in the position known in a devious, underhand way. This is not a charge that can be levelled at John Deehan, who has applied for the post in the proper, respectable fashion, by sending a correctly addressed curriculum vitae to Blundell Park, at the same time as giving a big interview about it. Best known for his spells in charge of Norwich and Wigan in the 1990s, but having kept busy since as assistant manager at Aston Villa and Sheffield United and director of stuff at Lincoln and Northampton, Deehan is quoted at length in today's Grimsby Telegraph and says all the right things about young players and getting back where we belong. It remains to be seen whether his ability to talk a good game will compensate for his inauspicious background as a midlands-born former centre-forward.

Ritchie, in case you missed it, was heavily 'linked with' the Town job by a couple of scuzzy tabloids yesterday despite not having applied for it and no interest being expressed in his services by officials at Blundell Park. Why, however could such a thing happen? "I'm obviously pleased to be linked with the job but I haven't heard anything," says the radio pundit and former Barnsley, Oldham and Huddersfield boss. "Whether I will do in the next few days I don't know. I certainly haven't applied for the job. I haven't had any contact with them [except indirectly, when I rang a couple of my mates in the media and asked them to make up some story about me being the frontrunner for the job]."

Meanwhile back at the ranch, Deadly John Fenty has given a video interview about the departure of Alan Buckley to the club's superb new official website. (It says it's available even to non-Mariners World subscribers but some people can't watch it and are getting error messages about licences being exceeded.) The Town chairman appears to suggest that AB's departure was by mutual consent in his choice of terminology ("I wouldn't like to call it 'sacked'... that's not the case with Alan"), and uses the phrase "going forward", but also pays a proper nice tribute to Buckley's past achievements with the club. "A raft of applications" to sit on the BP hotseat has already arrived, explains Deadly John (Con) at some length. If you're reading, John - unlike the man who doesn't "go on your internet" - feel free to tap out a few words for our page of happy Buckley memories.

"Defenders Robbie Stockdale and Richard Hope edged closer to match fitness," begins the Grimsby Telegraph in a brief account of last night's 2-1 defeat for Town's reserve team at York. Both defenders, who have missed nearly the whole season injured so far, played the full 90 as Big Danny North scored for Town, so he seems to be steadily edging closer to match fitness as well.

"I am GUTTED that Alan Buckley has been sacked," is the first sentence of an email to the Diary in the characteristic style of Jane 'JANE BANKS' Banks. "But more than anything, I hope the PLAYERS are SATISFIED that due to their DISMAL EFFORTS they are now MANAGERLESS! The ball is FIRMLY in THEIR COURT NOW, it is HIGH TIME for them to PLAY THE GAME PROPERLY, and be AWARE OF WHO IS AROUND THEM, instead of kicking the ball 'anywhere will do' not knowing where their team mates are on the field of play and passing the ball accurately. Just because they play professional football doesn't mean they have 'made it' into the big time. They need to PRACTISE HARD ON THE TRAINING FIELD. At the end of the day not only are they AMBASSADORS for the club they are playing for, but AMBASSADORS FOR FURTHER THEIR OWN CAREERS! The ONLY way to get the Fans BACK into the club is by WINNING GAMES AND PLAYING SCINTILLATING FOOTBALL, not running to one side of the pitch, and looking GOBSMACKED when a member of the opposition takes the ball off their feet, and our players STAND THEIR LOOKING STUNNED WONDERING WHERE DID THEY COME FROM! Come o" - and there it ends. I'm hoping that at this point the feedback form simply ran out of space, but it might be for the best if one of Jane's neighbours could just pop round with some oxygen and make sure she's OK.

Lastly today, a despairing Rich Mills has emailed to say: "Great Diary yesterday once again but shame about the news. Why ditch Alan now? What can they hope to do to make things better? Support is low; the club is low on investment and yet for some reason persists in targeting a new ground as the answer to its troubles. I hate to say it but I can see us going down this season and I don't think we'll bounce back." Hey, cheer up, Rich. Those pies at Kidderminster were bloody lovely.