Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Monday 17 January 2011

17 January 2011

Mardy Diary writes: Ah, the dreaded vote of confidence. It is that, isn't it? I can't completely be sure - it's a bit vague if you ask me. It could be one of Fenty's efforts at appeasing the fans, or it could be a public warning to Woods that results are needed for the next couple of games. Whatever it is, the interpretation out there by the fans and by the media is that it is a vote of confidence. Although I guess the point where Fenty suggests he's not considering sacking the manager is the point when Woods should be worried, given Fenty's track record in this matter.

But whatever your view on Woods - and the view seems pretty negative wherever I look at the moment - do we really want to get in to this cycle of changing manager yet again? I'm getting pretty bored of this approach across football - not just at Grimsby. Yes, teams change manager and then do better as a result of it, but they also change manager and do the same or worse. It's just a bit of a reactive measure more than a proactive measure and often covers up greater failings at a club. And for a club on such a spectacular downward spiral as Town to expect that this sort of collapse can somehow be turned around in months - and we still are in months here - is just impatient. The problem at the moment is that the team are inconsistent, but that isn't something that can't be corrected over a bit more time. If that consistency doesn't start to come before the end of the season, then is the time for concern. But personally, I'll wait until the end of the season before I start making a judgement about how our season has been.

Woods clearly isn't happy himself - he's practically holding back tears in the post-match interview with Tondeur. There's no question of his desire to win, or his passion for the sport. He's also made a few good signings and can spot a decent player. There's been the odd duff signing - but that's always the way and you can look at any of our managers and pick out the signings that didn't work. But something else is missing - whether that's a commanding midfielder, or a solid target man, or whether it's just a lack of motivation in the current squad, it's hard to see right now. The latter doesn't seem so much of an issue to me this season - players like Connell, Coulson and Eagle don't appear to lack motivation and desire. I also can't really point to any players in the club who I think aren't trying - there are players who are inconsistent or who aren't quite up to the challenge, but I don't see a consistent lack of effort from anyone.

Is it Woods' tactics or man management or this or that or the other? Hard to really say when we currently sit ninth in the table and have managed some good results and performances this season. Clearly we can perform, we can dominate teams and we can score goals - across the team. It's just on those days when we don't turn up that everything seems so bleak, that something seems wrong, that something is missing. But one run of results can change a season (for good or bad), one signing can make a team, a key injury can ruin the balance of your squad, one decision made rightly or wrongly can turn a season. In hindsight these actions can be picked out: when a season is over and is analysed, the key moments always stand out - the season-defining results or actions. Foresight though - that's all just guesswork. Not that some people couldn't guess correctly, or make a good, measured guess - but then the success of that guess can't really be ascertained unless we reach some sort of conclusion. Sack Woods now and no-one will know if the season would have petered out to nothing or turned around by the end. It will still be guesswork.

There's a limit of course. If we were battling against relegation in the Conference, or we'd had a couple of seasons of mid-table nothingness, then a change may be needed (if there are no real signs of improvement). Our successes since I've been watching Town (mainly Buckley, and in context, Slade) have come from a slow rebuild and some level of stability. Both Buckley and Slade had first seasons that were up and down but ended with some sort of consistency and results that suggested the next season would be better with one or two additions. Now I don't know yet if Woods will fit that category - like I said before, I want to wait until the end of the season before I make a judgement on that. As far as I'm concerned, last season was a write-off anyway - the damage was done and the team left by Newell was one of misery, unprofessionalism and disdain for the club. Woods made signings, but getting any sort of team together for a club in such disarray can't have been easy. I'll admit, though, that a manager may have been able to come in, and with a bit of luck scraped together the results that saw us safe (isn't that what Newell did in his first season?) - but this would have been papering over the cracks of failure, and the same problems would have returned over and over again.

Not that I'm suggesting that relegation was a good thing, I hope you realise. What I mean is that there was a lot wrong with the set-up of the club that needed putting right. I'm not sure that has been correctly addressed yet either - but these things take time and proper investment. It's just that when I look at successful clubs from the lower division, my eyes are drawn to Rochdale, Scunthorpe, Dagenham - clubs that achieved success through continuity and astuteness, and not just about throwing good money after bad.

So do I want change? Yes - and I want that change for us to become consistently good. At the moment though, I'm still in the 'wait and see' frame of mind. Time will tell.