Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Friday 4 March 2011

4 March 2011

We're only just over 24 hours away from a game of football. And thank our lucky stars for that. Your Guest Diarist is totally and utterly sick, despondent and angry about the infantile behaviour of all five members of the Grimsby Town board. I'm sick of reading their words, many of which I don't believe; I'm sick of reading the tens of thousands of words fans are writing about the subject - fans whose anger target has veered erratically from one director to another this past week; and I'm sick of worrying about who will be appointed manager.

I don't actually care much - a desultory discussion in Cod Almighty towers this morning rapidly concluded that Town are only any good with bald managers (although it should be said that Mr Nicky Law provides the exception that proves the rule). Although nothing means anything at the moment, the rumour mill seems to have decided clearly that Messrs Cooper and Brabin are not interested. Why would they contemplate a club drifting, rudderless? A club whose board hasn't the guts to tell its fans the truth about their ideas. A club with no coherent policy save 'get back in the Football League as soon as possible'. A policy which has stalled due to impatience, poor decision-making, wasteful spending and the consequential lacklustre set of results. But it's not money we need so much: it is competence.

How to resolve the voting structure on the board is difficult. One can understand the two who put the cash in and own 80 per cent of the shares wanting the majority. But if it was another two who were conniving to do despicable things to the club, like asset-milking or whatever, you'd want the other three to have the capability to vote their ideas down, wouldn't you? Whichever - the board need to lay their ideas out in front of the fans and then have a meeting to discuss them properly. Soon. Very soon. Give us the truth - we can take it.

Despite all this, Dave Moore breezed through his pre-match interview in that stiff-upper-lip, soldiering-on way that he has. Hughes' achilles remains dodgy and Cummins is suspended but everyone else is available. Moore has had twenty blokes in training some days this week. So he has plenty to choose from. Apart from central midfield, that is, of course.

Mr Moore wouldn't be drawn on the team. If he had contracted the Fenty virus he'd have said: "I'm remaining tight-lipped on that one, Dave." Maybe he's going to spring the lineup on the squad at noon tomorrow. Moore says he knows Wimbledon can play with two or three systems but he doesn't hazard a guess at which one will start against us tomorrow. Let's just hope it's a half-decent match where we can forget about the bad board behaviour and the fact we have slipped this week into genuine mid-table obscurity at last. And let's pray that the club has dropped that utterly embarrassing goal music.

Speaking of which, Phil Watson has been on to suggest a solution: "Easy: sell Connell, and we'll never hear goal celebration music again." We've also heard from David Elvidge following the recent outage of this website: "It was great to find CA back this morning. When I could not access the CA website I concluded it was either (a) Chairman Fenty getting you closed down; or (b) the Diarist was in such a foul mood that a web filter had blocked CA because of excessive strong language (too many f...s spoil the wrath). By the way, could the CA weather forecaster confirm that the perpetual cloudy sky and raw conditions over north Norfolk are due to a depression that has drifted down from Blundell Park?"

So go to the game tomorrow. Kick up a fuss if you have to. But try to make it have a meaning. Say you are unhappy, but unhappy with all of them. Because behind all the fine words, all the weasel words too, all the half-truths and disingenuous talk, there is not a single director who can emerge unscathed. Who has told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth this week? The club is damaged, the search to attract a quality manager is definitely impaired, and the fans are feeling bruised, battered and increasingly cynical. But go - if only for a game of football. See yer.