Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 29 January 2009

29 January 2009

One of the things the Diary likes best about Mr Michael Re-Newell is the way his remoulding of the Mariners' squad has prioritised each area in turn, according to urgency, so that once he'd addressed the woeful inadequacies in, for instance, central midfield - which weakened the whole team - he moved on to the less crucial but still pressing issues facing, say, the left flank. Having now shored up most of the team, the deceptively dynamic Town boss is peering at the goalkeeping position through narrowed eyes. It emerged yesterday that Re-Newell made an approach last week to loan Tony Warner from King$ton Communication$ FC's - a move which our leader explains was a precaution in response to Phil Barnes tweaking something in training, but with the reassuringly named Southend keeper Clark Masters is in line for a trial at Blundell Park, one wonders how long it may be before Barnes develops the same kind of mysterious 'injury' that has befallen the likes of soon-to-be-ex-Mariners Matt Heywood and Tom Newey.

Speaking of Mr Re-Newell's exertions in the transfer market, the superb new official website reminds us today that he is "still hoping to bring in fresh faces" before one of the season's 481 transfer deadlines comes around this Monday. With no evidence for an impending move to sign Ant and Dec, one must assume the manager is seeking to add more footballers to his rapidly expanding squad. But will he be able to get shot of some of that dead wood? "I can't speak about outs because that depends on other clubs, but maybe we need to freshen it up before the window closes," says Re-Newell, whose ability to renew a football club is clearly matched by an equally impressive capacity for renewing prepositions by using them as nouns.

That, I'm afraid, is all you're getting from your regular Diary for a little while, because it's Guest Diary day tomorrow and after that I have to go off and do some real work for a bit - although hopefully not too much if Mr Ladbroke continues to pay out on our belief in Mike's renewed Mariners. Bye for now!