Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 30 June 2011

30 June 2011

"I would like to wager that the offers Fenty made for both Pearson and Church will be equal to or more than what Boston will get from the tribunals - they may yet prove to be fairer offers than we're currently imagining. However, I fear we'll never know what Fenty offered (unless he starts talking in a car park). I'm not trying to defend Fenty against the Diary's accusation of double standards - he certainly has them - but simply pointing out that the circumstances between Connell and the Boston Two are different."

That's Diary regular Richard Lord chipping in with twopenn'orth about the ongoing travails between that newly-nice Boston United and Grimsby Town. Your Guest Diarist, standing in for Mardy Diary (strike-hit) who was standing in for Part-Time Diary (holidaying somewhere hot), is already on record questioning Town's conduct in the delicate matters of pinching a club's managers just before the play-offs and then not having the good grace to accept they were under contract because "there were only a few games left". But of course you have a point Richard. The buying club representative tends to walk out of a tribunal suppressing a smirk while the selling club's teeth can usually be heard grinding.

The Boston Standard yesterday laid claim to the fact that Boston didn't sign Pearson for free as Chairman Fenty has asserted in the Telegraph. The Standard says that Boston handed over six grand for the lad when signing him from Stamford two years ago.

And Fenty (Con) seems determined to make things worse by spilling the beans again to the local paper today and announcing that Boston have had the temerity to ask for £25,000 in compensation for Boston losing their managers at a vital point of their season. They resigned! Just coming up to the biggest managerial success they've had so far, they resigned. So naturally, as they were free agents, GTFC stepped in and offered the pair a job. This, in essence, is what our chairman is spluttering.

Now I'm not going into the ins and outs of contract law and the daft way the whole professional game operates with regards to employees' contracted status. All I am going to say is that Fenty's version - that two blokes decided to resign and then, lo and behold, the next day a plum job for them came up. Well, the words 'a bit disingenuous' spring to mind.

In other news from yesterday Luton's Gary Brabin has gone on the record saying he likes Alan Connell but Luton haven't made a bid for him and it would appear that Grimsby have donated 500 free tickets to Rotherham to be used by Millers season ticket holders for the pre-season friendly at Blundell park. Conspiracy theorists can create their own causal scenario for this event. See yer.