Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Tuesday 1 February 2011
1 February 2011
"A day of high drama," summed up the BBC website as the transfer window slammed shut last night. As your Idle Diarist logged off and slumped up the stairs wearily to bed for the night, it felt more like something long, drawn out, and a load of hot air. As drama goes, it seemed more like a long, drawn-out affair punctuated by drooling and stomach-churning sycophancy from the likes of Henry Winter.
What a load of guff. Sooner or later there is going to have be some financial leveller, said the financial expert on Radio 4 this morning, arguing that clubs being propped up financially by rich benefactors just can't continue. Sooner or later, he continued, there are also going to be restrictions put in place by the sport's governing bodies, and there will be clashes between all of those parties. "Football is what it is today because of all our money!" will be the investors' battle cry. Money, money, money, root of all evil. If people think this is football, they can fuck off.
By the way. "With Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll signed, this means Liverpool have Lou and Andy up front... 'Yeah I know'." If I hear or read that one more time I swear I will kill someone.
Town fans spending the previous evening in a mood of suspended, erm, suspense in the hope that Neil Woods would perform an 'Appy 'Arry last-second swoop will have been disappointed that there was none. But as their collective breath was exhaled, there was also relief that Alan Connell didn't depart. We're not the only fans who seem surprised and relieved that their goal machine striker hasn't moved on. Dover's Adam Birchall has 31 goals so far this season, for a team that currently lies eighth in the table - prime statistical evidence for a mid-season move. But apparently not. Why? Who knows. Surprised Slippery Fingered Steve Evans didn't come in for either player after his "you can never have too many strikers" remark last week.
Talking of which, please stop the bad men and women talking about Crawley's "dream" tie against Manchester United. Please. It's not a "dream". It's a summation of all that evil about the modern game. Since two forces of evil clashing will not result in a temporal vortex into which both entities will be sucked into forever, which is the lesser evil to root for? THE ONE THAT ISN'T RULED OVER BY EYELINER STEVE EVANS OF COURSE. Crawley. Steve Evans. Romantic? If people think this is football, they can fuck off.
Signing Tommy Forecast? Ha ha ha! Poor souls. At least it wasn't us again. A case of lesson learnt there (Town) and lesson not learnt there (Eastbourne).
To warm you up for tonight's game check out our preview. We do these things for you, dear reader, so please do. If you can't make the match - hey, it is on the other side of the country, after all - and want to stay in touch there will be local BBC radio coverage tonight, available through the BBC website. Listen in, like we will be.
Intriguingly the "expert summariser" for the radio coverage will be Chris Casper - it'll be interesting to see if Casper reveals any nuggets of insight into his time as Neil Woods' number two last term. And it'll also be interesting to hear his insight into this season's side. And that Mike White's quite good as well. Better than Burnsy. (You can quote us on that, Mike.)
After tonight's match there are 11 days until the next game. Time after such a hectic month for fans and team to relax a little, and time to prepare for the next spurt of games. But tonight is time for the team to haul their tired, aching bodies out onto the pitch for one more 90 minutes (plus time added on for stoppages) to play within their limited means to just a few thousand fans. Just one last effort, team, one more Herculean effort. Then you can rest, knowing you gave it all, you earned your wages this week, and our team is that little bit closer to the play-offs. Just like Alan Connell says. That, ladies and gents, that is football.