Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 29 July 2010

29 July 2010

Now then. Your Guest Diarist here, still substituting for Armchair Diary, who is testing out the NHS to see if they are as clever as that House bloke off the telly. Well, we have two bits of news today for those of you who rely on us to find out what's happening in the Town world. One is definitely good, and one is definitely something you will have an opinion on. You may hail it as a great step forward, or it may send you in to an incredibly boring rant which cites this as another example of what is wrong with GTFC. People of the latter persuasion are kindly directed to the nearest Town messageboard where spleen-venting is positively encouraged.

The truly great news is that Blundell Park is to host an England u17 match against Australia on Friday 27 August. A chance to see the future: a chance to relish names like Callum McFadzean, Jasper Johns and Courtney Husband. And if you like the idea there are other games to be played at Scunny and Lincoln as the whole tournament has an east midlands theme. And it is only three quid to get in!

More controversial, as I mentioned, is the appointment of good old Dave Moore to the title of assistant manager and physiotherapist by manager Woods. There are definite advantages to this idea - a strong menacing character (although, sadly, 'beasting' seems to have been largely replaced by Prozone, a fitness system that sounds like a tranquiliser); Town through and through; a really nice bloke; someone the manager knows and trusts; the ability to drop him back to just being a physio when Fenty sacks Woods on 12 October; a man with surprisingly wide experience with a number of clubs and so on. And, ermm, of course the saving of a salary.

On the other hand, I hear some of you yelp, this means we have a manager who is just a coach, a number two who is just a physio, and a head of yoof who is just an injured right-back. Oh and cheap options, lack of ambition and getting someone in just to be a yes man. Et cetera. But maybe the manager being a coach is quite a good reason for his assistant not to be. And Moore-o can deliver to the team secret strategy messages when he scurries on with his magic sponge. And when all is said and done, getting in that 'bright', intense young man Mr Casper with all his badges, ideas and ambition brought about the square root of naff all in terms of discernible change. We were still unfit and largely clueless and kept losing.

So you form your own opinion, folks. But please don't cite in your arguments a few niggling pre-season injuries as testament and living proof that Mr Moore is going to be completely responsible for the downfall of our beloved club. Someone else is in the frame for that already. See yer.