Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 22 October 2009

22 October 2009

Kevin Drinkell was the Diary's first GTFC hero. When he broke into the side I learned how much Town fans love to see a local boy in the team. When he signed for Rangers for nearly a million quid I learned how badly Town had been ripped off by the Football League tribunal that had ordered Norwich to pay us a bag of buttons for him about five minutes earlier. So it's always good to see Drinks back in the spotlight. Whenever the Mariners need a new manager, he's the Grimsby Telegraph's go-to guy for a quote about keeping it local. You know - go for a man with Grimsby connections. And there he is today, calling for Mike Newell to be succeeded by "a manager that has some affiliation with the place". Kev proceeds to decry the modern reliance on temporary players, returning to Norwich for an example: "When Brian [sic.] Gunn took over last year he had almost a team full of loan players." That'll be the same Bryan Gunn who was sacked in August following the Canaries' 7-1 defeat to Colchester, shortly after being given the job because he had some affiliation with the place.

Michael Shelton has emailed the Diary on the subject of yesterday's happy but necessarily fleeting diversion from grim reality. "I remain to be convinced that Hope Powell is the right man for the job, so to speak," he quips. "However, I think there would be a delicious irony to the man who proclaimed that there was no place for women in football being succeeded by a woman, especially if said succeeding woman succeeded. The GrimTel would love it - just think of all those ready-written headlines. 'Town Hope for turnaround' as she takes over, 'Town won't give up Hope' as she suffers a bad run, 'Bob Hope' as she ducks to avoid a football coming towards her head, etc." The Diary would have enjoyed it just for watching the exploding heads of Grimbarian misogynists - but by the same token some might also see a delicious irony in Drinkell - "drink all" - succeeding a manager who was rumoured to have [Stop right there! - CA lawyers]

Late breaking news! Our friends at The Fishy are reporting that Ryan Bennett is in talks with Peterborough, who were comically rebuffed with a £600,000 offer for the Town defender back in the summer, basically on the say-so of then manager Mr M Newell. Nobody else is yet carrying the story, so if it's true it would be a tremendous scoop for the Fishy folks; I guess we'll find out tomorrow, but I must say if I were a Peterborough fan then I'm not sure I'd want Bennett around after the withering put-down he issued to their club after signing a new contract with Town. The deal is reported to be a three-month loan to O'Posh turning permanent when the window re-opens in January, which seems to the Diary an effective if rather extreme way of correcting the error made by Newell in handing Bennett the captaincy.