Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Tuesday 12 July 2011
12 July 2011
Well, we are down to a single reader, as a chap emailed us yesterday to hurl abuse, also claiming our readership was down to two. So I'm assuming Dave Bell won't be bothering with this today and therefore, it's just your Guest Diarist and you, gentle reader. Let's look for some positive stuff, eh?
Hey, the Telegraph ran a half-decent article yesterday! The piece explains where the managers are with their squad and confirms the Duffy and Makofo situation (no interest, no movement except the two chaps working hard in training). And the only bit missing is any information at all about poor old airbrushed Josh Fuller. Two years ago he was Andi Thanoj. Think on, Andi - if the end comes, you probably won't know for a month. And certainly not from reading the club's website or the local rag.
And what of Town's vacant friendly Saturday, made possible by those lovely people at Hull withdrawing their very generous offer at little notice? Well, Barnsley have been as badly done to as Town with their proposed game against 'Dutch giants' Feyernoord being prevented by South Yorkshire Police, who claimed they had fears on public safety grounds or some such tosh. So a friendly between the two clubs has been arranged at Oakwell (not the Valley, as some briefly surmised at one point yesterday) on Saturday 23 July. Tickets a mere twelve quid.
I'll sign off with Richard Lord who has been in touch to offer his thoughts on the whole daft world of GTFC and its PR:
"GTFC needs to understand that Cod Almighty, The Fishy, Grim Outlook, Facebook, blogs, and Tweets are each fantastic ways of complementing the football club. They are communication tools that should be used in this modern social media-minded era by football clubs to engage with their fans. They are not enemies, nor are they competitors. They are extra ways of communication and they should be embraced. They are good things, but until GTFC sees them as such then we're going to have situations such as Connellgate happening again. And again.
"I've immersed myself in public relations for the last few years and the biggest thing I've learnt so far is that you have to change your mindset. It's not acceptable to be defensive. PR is not spin. If you think it is, then you were clearly taught it in the 90s, or not taught it very well at all. PR doesn't aim to hide the bad and promote the good. PR is simply relating to the public; giving them the information they need to make their own minds up. PR is the process of information-giving. PR is about being honest. It's about being transparent. It's about being professional. It's about building and gaining the trust of customers, journalists, fans, supporters and stakeholders by being honest. There is nothing wrong with saying: 'We hold our hands up, we made an honest mistake, we apologise for the confusion and this is what we'll do to make sure it doesn't happen again.' It's not a weakness any more. People respect others who are able to identify their own flaws.
"It saddens me that, over time, GTFC has built up an 'us against the world' mentality when it shouldn't be that way. If the football club ever wants to use my expertise in PR then I'm more than willing to get involved."
Thanks, Richard, for that. Will the club take your clearly reasoned, sage advice? It would be a first, but let's hope so. By the way, GTFC, we'll gladly pass on Richard's email address if you want it. I won't publish it here because the arse-ache should be ours and ours alone of receiving abusive, badly spelled emails from people who refuse to recognise that the club makes mistakes, denies them, makes ill-thought-through attempts to deflect the blame and then makes a childish, pathetic attempt at a cover-up.
Anyway, never let it be said that I'm incapable of apology. I am sorry that Cod Almighty had the temerity to report the complete inconsistency between what the club, the chairman, the BBC and the local newspaper said 12 months ago and what they said last week. Now, let's draw a bloody line. See yer.