Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Wednesday 5 January 2011
5 January 2011
Well, now. Your original/regular diary is quite sure that GTFC fans aren't getting carried away with our team's wild horse ride of a start to 2011. Granted, it's not every year that the the Mariners begin by scoring 13 goals in two successive games (the Grimsby Telegraph has a statty piece about it today, but the club's official programme was super-quick off the mark with a couple of Tweets right after the Histon game). But with the sickening slump the club has undergone over the past eight years, our feet are sure to stay at least as firmly on the ground as Leapy Lee Peacock's.
All of which level-headedness and leaden-footedness brings us to the transfer window. Those of a more giddy disposition might wonder why, in the wake of two such stunning results, Neil Woodses needs to strengthen his squad very much, if at all. But as we saw last week, the mild-mannered Mariners manager was about to sign O'Peterborough hold-up forward Liam Hatch, only for the player to accept less money and a shorter contract to remain with his current loan club Darlington. Scoring for fun Town may be at the moment, but there ain't a lot of effective cover and competition for places up front, and a bit of height wouldn't go amiss. To continue the theme of not getting carried away, let's bear in mind, too, that only Dean Sinclair's hamstrings currently separate GTFC from the midfield mediocrity that has blighted most of Woodses' term in charge. So some further squad building in the centre of the pitch would be useful, perhaps with a player like the limited Leary being quietly moved on elsewhere.
Much talk, meanwhile, is surrounding the position of Rob Atkinson and Straight Peter Bore. Both players' current contracts expire at the end of this season and the excellent recent form of both has apparently had the scouts flocking to BP. "I was in charge during the January window last season and we didn't get one call or enquiry for any player we had," reveals Woodses today in a compare-and-contrast statement that may well be the least surprising in the history of human communication. The Diary can't be arsed to check whether Atko and SPB will have turned 24 by May and hence free to leave on Bosmans (nor, it seems, can the Grimsby Telegraph), but even if they're not, any compensation awarded by a tribunal for Atkinson would be pretty minimal given that he's only been here ten minutes. Which is another pretty sobering thought given that he and Bore are Town's two longest-serving players.
As for Bore, let's hope we can take him at his word when he says signing his new contract at GTFC "will come in good time". The frighteningly heterosexual winger/right-back/forward told the Telegraph the other day he'd turned down a new offer because "Talk about contracts can sometimes disrupt me so I just want to concentrate fully on football. I don't believe in thinking about things outside; I just want to get my head down and concentrate." Given the extraordinary patience extended to Bore by Grimsby Town Football Club over his career so far, it'd be a pretty nasty sight to see him cut and run just as that loyalty was at last beginning to pay off. Still, it's not like Town have never had to cope without SPB before. True, his form has been excellent for most of the past year. But there were long periods previously when Town had to cope without him even when he was starting matches and standing on the pitch.
That's all for now, but if you're interested in genning up on the latest situation at Wrexham - Town's destination this Saturday, of course - then Twohundredpercent is the place, and there's a petition to try and save their ground as well. Thanks for reading and bye for now.