Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 10 November 2011

10 November 2011

Early yesterday afternoon the superbly monikered Emmanuel 'Manny' Panther tweeted thus: "Hmmm looks like I could be talking about playing football again...." And he will be: on a short-term loan at Grimsby Town. Manny is a holding midfielder who last played for Aldershot, but is best remembered by your Guest Diarist for his time at York where he was held in pretty high regard. The son of a Nigerian boxer, born in Glasgow and with "not your average footballer too socially aware for my own good" as his Twitter strapline, Manny sounds like the right sort of guy to teach Liam Hearn the art of non-discriminatory social networking.

The shorter of the two Town managers has also made a half-decent fist of explaining the rationale of Church's departure to Alfreton. Church lacks experience at this level, Church needs matches, he says in an interview with the Grimsby Telegraph. Church needs to develop certain areas of his game, he adds - implying that he can work on those at Alfreton. Some have said you shouldn't loan players to your fellow league strugglers but Shorty's argument that Church needs experience at Conference Premier level makes sense. To me, anyway. And it won't do the tribunal case any harm either, will it?

I'm sure John Fenty will be pleased that there's something other than his own performance for Town fans to discuss. These are the dog days of November alright. Of the three major shareholders of GTFC, Mike Parker won't declare his hand other than to imply he's done his bit and that's it; John Fenty is hopelessly entangled in an incredibly ill-judged shouting match with the messageboards; and the supporters' trust is leaderless - clutching a share certificate with a big number on it, with no idea what to do next. An accident of timing, to be sure, in the case of GTST. But none of this helps us fans to feel confident about the club's future, even in the short term.

It was nice to note that a couple of the Yoof got a game in the practice match against Plucky Scunny yesterday. Whether Jamie Green played left midfield with an eye to the future or just to balance that starting eleven up, we'll have to wait and see. I thought that the Green positioning might just be significant yesterday, but the signing of Manny Panther puts a different complexion on things.

I'll be back tomorrow to preview Town's 'big cup match' so I'll leave you now, gentle reader, to make what you can of the anti-cyclonic November gloom. See yer.