Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 19 March 2009

19 March 2009

Just a quick 'un today, as Little Brother Diary and his missus have rolled up to visit Baby Diary. LBD is drinking tea from the GTFC mug, while I've given his missus the Rushden & Diamonds one. Keep 'em guessing, that's what I say.

Lots of people are talking on the internet. This is not, in itself, a good thing, and its moral and philosophical value when they are talking about Town and/or Chester going into administration depends, like periscopes and wonky mirrors, on your point of view. As with everything else, nobody really knows anything - apart from the fact that idiot chairman Stephen Vaughan has offloaded yon Deviants to a property developer called Gary Metcalfe, and they're going to revamp that shithole ground with shops and offices and all that shit, and best of all - get this - a four-tier stand. I thought I'd just dreamt the part about the original developers going into liquidation and the new plans emerging when Chester opted to save money by placing the rebuilding project in the hands of a wedding cake company, so maybe they're just building one four-tier stand and leaving the other three sides of the ground empty.

I suppose we'd better look at what Mr Re-Newell has said about Tom Newey, Phil Barnes and Gary Montgomery leaving the club. Did I say leaving the club? Sorry. I meant Tom Newey, Phil Barnes and Gary Montgomery being told they can leave the club. I never said leaving the club. The manager has at last spoken to the Grimsby Telegraph about Tuesday night's addition to the Mariners' canon of communications cock-ups, but he's being as cagey as a particularly intensive battery farm: "It is best for all parties. There wasn't a bust-up, I have formed an opinion of the players over time. I understand it is frustrating for players when they are not always in the team. But I need to know that everyone is pulling in the same direction, even when they are not in the side." Those are just a few of the lines we need to read between, and only time will tell whether Newell's spectacular gamble pays off. Which is why I didn't particularly want to talk about it today - that and the fact that, with around 36 hours elapsing between the news haphazardly emerging and someone from GTFC actually telling us something about it, the club didn't particularly want to talk about it either.

"This get into Saturday's game for a fiver lark - is it a coupon/voucher-based promotion in the Telegraph?" asks Si Wilson in a thinly veiled attempt to get me to do my job properly, disguised as an email to the Diary. I think so, Si, yes. See you on Saturday if you get your caravan on the Fitties booked in time.