Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 4 May 2011

4 May 2011

Supporting Grimsby Town Football Club can be a confusing business at the best of times. There are those occasions when the budget for players' wages is cut, and then it isn't. There are the days when one of the directors is leaving at the end of the season, and then he's leaving immediately. And don't get your original/regular Diary started on that time when the team playing a friendly at Gainsborough and the club's superb new official website directed travelling fans to Southport.

This week is no exception, as the above screen grab from the Newsnow service illustrates. And yet it really shouldn't be that hard. Let's break it down. How many players have been released, exactly? And how many more are likely to leave? The contracts of Cummins, Hudson, Hughes, Leary, Peacock, Sinclair and Watt are about to end and the club has not offered new terms. So there's yer released seven. The contracts of Atkinson and Straight Peter Bore are about to end and the club has offered new terms so as to secure fees when they fuck off to Rotherham. So there's two more going, and at least GTFC learned the Bosman rules in the end after the Butterfield debacle. The contracts of Ademeno, Duffy, Fuller, Makofo and Samuels are not about to end but Shorty and Shouty have already seen enough, and the players have been "told they can look for other clubs".

As Idle Diary noted here yesterday, "told they can look for other clubs" is a sort of modern parlance meaning "transfer listed" - but it's a term that seems to be used only in instances where the club holding the players' registrations does not expect to receive a fee. Indeed, it's hard to avoid the impression that at least some of the managers' £900,000 kitty for 2011-12 is going to be blown on getting shot of Rob Duffy.

Meanwhile, Andi Thanoj, Charlie I'Anson and Sam Mulready have been offered short-term pro deals. And as ever, you can use the Cod Almighty contract tracker thing to keep up to date with the squad as it continues to contract and expand over the coming months.

So are there any surprises among the departures? Not really. It's a shame to see Lee Peacock sent on his way just after his return to full fitness made possible some excellent performances towards the end of the season. But everyone on the messageboards says his wages were too big, and when was a messageboard ever wrong about anything? Some might have been surprised not to see a single one among Town's existing central midfield retained, but so ineffective has the team been in the middle of the pitch for at least the past two or three seasons that this total wipeout will seem to many the only way of rebuilding the side. Insert your own cynical joke here about Shorty and Shouty's preferred style of football requiring little in the way of midfield personnel anyway.

Here at Cod Almighty we'll be doing our best to keep you diverted over the summer. As ever, we'll try and keep the Diary ticking over on a daily basis. But we need your help to do that. And that means your emails. Fire 'em off to diary@codalmighty.com and we might just succeed.

The first such email to the Diary this close season comes from David Elvidge, who writes: "Just a note to thank you all at CA for your excellent coverage of Town's first season in the Conference and not least for a fair number of hours spent at a keyboard. It's much appreciated by this ageing north Norfolk rocker who, whilst not being able to get to many matches, still manages to feel part of the fan scene through the Diary." Thanks, David - it's bloody hard work sometimes achieving a CA/life balance, so we appreciate your appreciation.

David continues with a titbit about his local paper's excitement over the recent GTFC debut for Kings Lynn-born Sam Mulready, and adds: "I leave you with the thought that not long ago Norwich City were in spiralling decline, yet have turned things around and will be in the Premiership next season. We've all done it so many times before, but dare we hope that next season will indeed be a new beginning?" We daren't, David, no. It's a comforting thought. But turning round this wretched mess of a football club will take two seasons a la Slade, and Deadly John (Topcon) still shows no sign of mending his ways. See you for the 2012 sack race!