Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Wednesday 8 June 2011
8 June 2011
They may have initially figured some way down Deadly John (Topcon)'s list of managerial targets, but since their eventual appointment we've been promised several things from Shorty and Shouty. They're "intense". They won't settle for anything less than 4.3 billion per cent commitment from the players, or something. And if neither of those attributes sees the Mariners 18 points clear at the top of the Conference Premier by the middle of August, we can at least console ourselves that they are proficient in the use of information technology.
Your original/regular Diary is reminded of the duo's computer skills today by a story in the Grimsby Telegraph. After this week's acquisition of Mansfield D/M R/C Gary Silk, Shorty and Shouty are keen to downplay expectations of a busy week or two ahead in the transfer market. "Fans are obviously anxious to see new faces at the club," one of them has told the local rag, clearly mindful of the hundreds of Town fans who in recent weeks had been taking to the internet in a blind, frenzied panic because some other clubs signed the odd player here and there before Silk's arrival at Blundell Park and there's only the entire summer to go before the new season begins.
So what else has changed? Will the new management team put an end to the culture of inflated wages attracting lazy players, which has fatally undermined the efforts of the last 49 managers to arrest the club's decline. Certainly it would seem so from Shorty and Shouty's latest announcement. "We are not in a position to just go and throw money around," says one of them. "We don't want the vultures to start circling, working out what they can get out of you as clubs and players."
Well, that sounds promising. So if we're not throwing money around, how was it that Town managed to sign Silk, a popular and contented figure at his previous club? Oh, what's that you're saying, Mansfield manager Paul Cox? "I offered Gary what I felt was a fair offer, but his representative turned it down. I'm not going to get into an auction. It's unfortunate. I understand he has been here a long time and made a lot of appearances for the club but we have a wage structure to keep to." Oh.
Besides a bigger wage packet than Mansfield were prepared to offer, another immediate salient point about Town's new right-back is a highly active Twitter account. Diary reader David Elsey has emailed, advising us: "Check out Gary Silk's Tweet this morning about him giving Rob Duffy a lift to go on his honeymoon. Bless." And there I was, opening the Diary inbox, and expecting an entirely different outcome when I saw David's email entitled "Taxi for Duffy".
Duffy remains on the books and on the transfer list, but two players who have departed (despite the chairman's insistence that he wouldn't be paying up contracts) are, of course, Charles Ademeno and Dwayne Samuels. Phil Watson has emailed the Diary to say: "Sorry to see Samuels go - he looked a really good prospect when we signed him. Surely he was the sort of player (at 20) who we should have worked to make better, rather than giving up on him after just nine starts. Add him to Andy Taylor, Jammal Shahin, Greg Young, Darren Mansaram and others who deserved better." This seems a very good point to your original/regular Diary, who grew inordinately fond of Shahin in particular when he was the only Town player on the pitch during that FA Cup defeat by Bath City who appeared to give a shiny shite. Email diary@codalmighty.com if you've anything to say - about this or, indeed, anything else.