Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 25 February 2010

25 February 2010

Armchair Diary writes: Yesterday, your regular Diary wanted to ask Fentycon whether he was right with all his managerial appointments and today JF(C) must be asking himself the very same question as the news of Newell's lawsuit against the club breaks. The official writ document will be printed in full in today's Telewag apparently but as I live over 200 miles from their circulation area I'll have to make do with the details on their website. The fans can get a glimpse of what went on behind the scenes during Newell's stint as manager but I can't help but wondering if any of this is actually shock news. It's a small town club run by small town businessmen and it has been alleged for many years that the board were in it for the gin and tonic as much as anything else; those rumours were doing the rounds back when Bill Carr was chairman. We've all seen Fenty's emotional outbursts when someone on a messageboard dares to criticise him so would it be any surprise if Fenty turns out to be an angry drunk?

For me the most interesting part concerns the various sums of money quoted in the lawsuit. A basic salary of £1265 a week doesn't seem like much for a football manager. OK, that is just his basic wage and we don't know too much about the bonuses he would have had in his contract but he wouldn't have got much from win bonuses, although more than Neil Woods has, admittedly. And what's this "player transfer compensation fee" he's claiming? It sounds like hush money to me, a way for Fenty to shut him up while the club sell his best players out from under him. Maybe this is common in lower league football, who knows? How Newell can claim that 25 grand when Bennett was sold after he was sacked is puzzling me though. Will he try and claim his win bonus next time the Mariners win a game? And if Newell was on that salary what does it say about the players' wages? You have to assume (or at least I do) that the gaffer will be on more than his players so they must be on a basic wage of say £1000 a week, max. If the Diary's right about clubs like Macclesfield, Accrington and Dagenham then their players will only be on three or four hundred a week. That ain't much. Who'd be a footballer, eh?

One final word on managers before we move on: Russell Slade is still looking for a job after missing out on the Bradford post. With Town having gone 24 games without a win, will Fenty sack Woods in a drunken rage this weekend and re-appoint Slade? Stranger things have happened.

Let's talk a bit about players now. Robbie Stockdale played an hour of the reserve's team 3-1 victory over York yesterday with Ashley Chambers among the goals, which is handy as he's been moaning about a lack of first-team games so perhaps he'll figure at the weekend against Dagenham and Redbridge. The youth team also showed the senior squad how it's done, dishing out a 6-0 drubbing to Mansfield. Rumours that Woods will be picking this weekend's starting XI from the youths and reserves are probably unfounded bearing in mind I just started them but you never know. Our opponents this weekend have signed Yoan Folly on loan from Plymouth so expect him to feature this weekend. And if he does well expect the tabloid hacks to make something of the fact that Grimsby Town are nicknamed The Mariners and Paul Mariner is boss of Plymouth Argyle. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Finally, do you remember jug-eared Andy Parkinson? He's joined Daryl Clare at Gateshead but I'm buggered if I can find where I read that earlier so you'll just have to trust me on that one.