Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Monday 8 December 2008

8 December 2008

Idle Diary writes... Despite taking the positives from Saturday's late 2-1 defeat against Port Vale - "we played well, in the right spirit and were committed; we passed it about well" - manager Mike has pointed the finger at the number one itch he attempts to scratch out of the Town squad he inherited: mental strength. "You can't keep saying 'we'll get out of this' and 'we'll turn it around'," said a rueful ReNewell, "you have to make it happen. It is something you have to get into the club and you only do that by getting strong characters in. We have done that with a few. Hopefully, any we bring in the future will have that character and winning mentality. It is something that is either in you or it isn't." And if it isn't? A drill to the skull and an injection of steroids into the frontal cortex may be in order. Adam Proudlock, now a Grimsby Town goal scoring hero, seems to tick the boxes for Newell, while Robbie Fowler won't get the chance to.

New chief scout Brian Stein reinforces Newell's call for resilience towards the end of an all-too-short interview. However, the main gist of Stein's chat is the need for Town to start bringing youngsters through their set up, youngsters that can make the grade. Millwall's youth system has been discussed in the past couple of issues of WSC, the London club having abandoned its youth system in the face of "negative return": if you haven't got youngsters coming through into the first team (in theory saving transfer fees) or netting the club some financial return then is a youth system justifiable? It's an issue Stein is certainly aware of as he puts his credentials forward, and is clear it won't just be promising kids from the local area, but also from further afield. And if you consider most recent four graduates to be first teamers - Danny North, Pierter Bore, Nick Hegarty and Ryan Bennett - there's an even split of the local and not-so-local there, Hegarty coming in from Ossett (was it? I know there's a cracking brewery there) and Bennett from Ipswich. Once they breakthrough, get burger guts and develop over-inflated egos is another thing... The First Team of Tomorrow, by the way, won 4-0 against Boston United to go top of the Puma Youth Alliance League. Anyone watching the future of our club these days? We'd love to hear your scout reports.

Despite assertions on Friday that Jean-Louis Akpa-Akpro would play a part in the weekend's game, international clearance was not received by the English FA in time. Akpa-Akpro wasn't missing from our inbox this weekend as one reader wrote in response to Friday's Guest Diary: "'M. Akpa Akpro, despite sounding like a mysterious 1950s cleaning product'? Slightly offensive to those who have proud African names. How ignorant." Mr Guest Diary responds that the anonymous reader may have a point, but affirms "I just think it is a weird name. Like Windass is a weird sniggery name." As are Paul Heckingbottom, Danny Higginbotham, Arsene Wenger, The Wankdorf, Fred Titmuss, Nicky Butt, Toby Oshitola, Randy Lerner, Barrington Belgrave, Danny Shittu, Stefan Kuntz, Willy Topp, Kaka, Jan Venegoor of Hesselink, Angel Rangel, Johnny O'Toole, Shane Supple, Paul Dickov, Julian Dicks, Sean St Ledger, and Troy Archibald-Henville. All just funny names, regardless of anything really. Readers, what do you think?

If you fancy seeing Akpa-Akpro in action (hopefully not as terrified as in his picture on the SNOS), the stiffs play against Big Club Leeds's Reserves tonight. Maybe David Ross will be there, sat alone in the massive empty stands kept warm in an expensive Italian wool overcoat, since he has resigned as director of Carphone Warehouse, clearing the way for him to take over at Blundell Park.

Sorry. Only shitting you about him buying Town.