Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Monday 19 October 2009

19 October 2009

"Players, who think another two games and we will have a new manager and a new opportunity to hang on, must think again"
- official website of Grimsby Town Football Club, 10 October 2009

"Despite the intention for continued support beyond the recent poor results & disappointing performances the club has dismissed Mike Newell due to irretrievable breakdown"
- official website of Grimsby Town Football Club, 19 October 2009

So Deadly John (Con) has shot his load again, just a week after promising to hold his fire - and, as ever, Town fans are left in the dark. "Irretrievable breakdown" of what? The mental health of the supporters? The chairman's Mercedes? It can't be the form of the team, because Fenty just referred to "continued support beyond" that. Once again, Grimsby Town Football Club are treating their own supporters with contempt through their failure to communicate the most basic of information with anything vaguely approaching competence. And human nature abhors an information vacuum. Unless this one is filled with hard fact, rumour will proliferate quickly - and it will further damage the club and further poison the relationship with its fans.

The sacking, of course, follows the same contradictory pattern as that of Alan Buckley one year ago, when Fenty's statement of support for the manager after a Saturday game was shown to be utterly hollow when the chairman dismissed him barely 48 hours later. In a very real way, then, the identity of Newell's successor doesn't matter a toss. Why? Because it would clearly take even the best available manager more than a year to turn round the incompetence and culture of failure that now permeate the club from top to bottom. And when, towards the end of 2010, the new boss has has not achieved this, Deadly John (Con) will presumably be unable to resist his itchy trigger finger once again.

So let there be no doubt. After seeming to rally now and again lately, Fenty's credibility now stands at absolute zero. And the biggest question facing the club today is not who the next manager will be - but whether, on those occasions when they can actually figure out what the frig he's going on about, the fans will ever again be able to believe a single word their chairman says.