Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Thursday 13 October 2011
13 October 2011
This time 12 months ago Grimsby Town fans were not happy. We'd just lost 3-2 away at Kidderminster and slipped from seventh to eighth in the league. This week our club is only 12th in the league, but Shorty and Shouty are largely being spared the venom that was unleashed on Neil Woodses. Why? Because unhappiness has been replaced by worry. Failures off the pitch have distracted from failures on.
This time 12 months ago Deadly John (Topcon) and Mike Parker seemed the best of chums, matching each other's 'investment' in GTFC pound for pound, presenting a united front to the fans and local media, and talking optimistically of the club's future. Since then, of course, Parker seems to have become the latest in a long line of people alienated by Fenty. Whether it's his piss-poor executive decision-making, his spectacular inability to use the English language effectively, or just his wearying passive-aggressive manner, the most recent chairman just doesn't seem able to hold down a relationship.
So Mike and his millions are withdrawing from the club, at least in the short term. Fenty is looking to scale back his 'investment'. And the fans are in an almighty panic: we don't know where the next wealthy saviour is coming from. Because that's Grimsby fans' instinct when the club is under threat. We don't mobilise our own power and rally to our supporters' trust, as other fans do. We find reasons to whine and bitch about GTST and look to the skies for the next swooping superhero. Whether it's Bryan Huxford, Ivano Bonetti, David Ross, or the nearest lottery millionaire, we don't care. Please, Cash Man, only you can save us now. One contributor to a messageboard even posted recently, with no apparent irony, that we should welcome Peter Ridsdale with open arms.
Your original/regular Diary reckons it's time for a change. It's time for Town fans to get up off our knees. No more begging for Cash Man to save us. No more pathetic gratitude to fish finger salesmen with a fortune built on a one-off lucky break. It's time for some pride. It's time for some belief in a club built on what we as supporters put in. It's time to run the club within its means. If that means a team of inexpensive grafters, I can live with that. Because the alternative is Barry Conlon and Peter Sweeney. If that means a few years in non-League, I can live with that. Because the long-term alternative is liquidation.
Grimsby Town Supporters Trust is inviting us to discuss on its Facebook page whether its logo and slogan need to be updated. 'In Cod We Trust'. You're damn right they do. We've trusted in these entrepreneurial deities, these gods of the market and the factory. And time after time they prove more interested in their own pitiful dick-swinging contests than the football club they profess to love. Well, no more. In our own strength as supporters we trust. No more saviours, no more fairytales. No more falling for the myth of 'investment'.
The club has tried paying over the odds. On the pitch, it's failed completely. Off the pitch, it's threatening the very existence of the club. Now's the moment to try something different. As crazy as it sounds, now's the time for the club to try spending only what it earns. And this is not so crazy: it'll mean a club that's no longer the plaything of petulant millionaires, squabbling like toddlers over a toy. It'll mean a club that's truly ours.