Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 22 February 2012

22 February 2012

Your West Yorkshire Diary was as irked as the next football fan when Huddersfield Town chairman Dean Hoyle decided to sack Lee Clark. But what astounded me more was the reaction of the Terriers fans. You see, I lived in the town for four years and I always had them down as an affable bunch with a sense of perspective, with their feet planted firmly on the ground. That was until I saw this status update from a Huddersfield fan on Facebook just hours after Clark was sacked:

Loves how the self righteous footballing world are suddenly experts on HTFC - wind your necks in u haven't got a clue!

What disappointed me more was how his friends agreed in the comments that followed, which surmised that Lee Clark had been given millions to spend and hadn't got the club promoted - oh, and they hadn't been playing well since Christmas. And at the start of this week they all kicked off again because their chairman appointed the unpopular Simon 'Larry' Grayson, whose association with rivals Leeds United runs deep. They'll accept promotion, they say - but they won't be singing his name. How gracious of them.

On the face of it, Huddersfield sacked a manager who spent lots and failed to achieve the promotion they craved, and replaced him with someone whose CV includes two promotions from the very division they are in. Sod the record-breaking undefeated run. Sod the 49 per cent win ratio. Sod the development of Jordan Rhodes. Sod the two successive top six finishes. Clark didn't get Huddersfield promoted, and by their third defeat in 55 matches Hoyle - and a section of the fans - decided that enough was enough.

Huddersfield fans and their chairman are playing a dangerous game. They've lost perspective. They've become so fixated on getting promoted that they've failed to acknowledge that things could be much, much worse. The club has just dismissed a young manager with undoubted talent and traded him in for someone who was sacked by his last club for falling short of their own lofty ambitions. It's a bizarre gamble which I hope doesn't come off for them.

Money doesn't dictate that Huddersfield should be in the top two - or top six. As we Town fans know only too well, at the start of the season we're not allowed to mention we had one of the division's biggest budgets and were tipped for promotion. Relegation to the Conference was unthinkable and practically impossible, but it happened.

But then, maybe this is the Grimsby disposition - we automatically consider the worst-case scenario after being left disappointed on so many occasions. Even John Fenty (Topcon) doesn't budget with worst-case scenarios in mind and instead ploughs ahead with visions of 4,000 crowds for non-League football at £16 a pop and plans for cup runs and a promotion back to the Football League. Realism has escaped this sport - but look at me, saying it like you don't already know.

It seems odd that we're allowing all this time in February to pass by without squeezing in a league game so that we can take the pressure off a hectic March. I don't recall a time when the Mariners have been required to play nine league games in one month before, but if you recall an occasion please do let us know. Thankfully, Shouty appreciates the pivotal nature of next month and he told the Grimmo Telegraph just that.

News elsewhere is a bit thin on the ground today - but the ever reliable SNOS tells us that our management duo will finally receive their January Manager of the Month award from someone called Dave Boddy before the FA Trophy game against York on Saturday. Which one of them gets to keep it, do you reckon? Surely they don't share a cabinet. Perhaps they'll keep it on a rotational basis according to a detailed plan which exists as an Excel spreadsheet on someone's computer somewhere. Liam Hearn will also collect his Player of the Month award.

Meanwhile the SNOS is asking who should be the next Mariners legend to have his name on a brick outside the entrance to Blundell Park. How about someone whose fitness, dedication and professionalism was never called into question and who is still probably fit enough to play the full 90 minutes of all nine games next month and not expect a pat on the back for it?