Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 26 June 2013

26 June 2013

Afternoon all. As I'm sure a lot of you Twitter users do, your London Diary often checks the #GTFC hashtag to see what Town-related news (or lack of recently) there is. During the season, when we play games in the FA Trophy which the BBC doesn't cover on its website, Twitter is often the only place to follow the game. And sometimes if I'm out and about I prefer to follow a game on Twitter as opposed to a corporate branded app on a smartphone. Sometimes, I can even smell the Pontoon.

The Twitterati will also have noticed recently that the #GTFC hashtag is not only being used by other teams, sometimes correctly, but also recently by people in Turkey. Has John Fenty set up a franchise out there that we don't know about? Nah, it's actually to do with Gökhan Tepe. He's a Turkish popstar and he has a fan club. They call themselves the Gökhan Tepe Fan Club – GTFC. Ridiculous. I bet they don't even wear red socks. So, that's why the #GTFC has a Mediterranean feel about it. You're welcome. Don't mention it.

Anyway, talking of stability (we weren't, but I need a link), I did some workings out and it seems that Shorty and Shouty have been the longest-serving Grimsby Town managers in the last ten years, at a whopping 827 days – which is 2.26 years in real money. Nice fact, but depressing, isn't it? Two and a quarter years? I've had longer dreams, but I'm glad the lads are here. I like them. If you were wondering who was in second place (I don't care if you weren't – I've just spent an hour doing the maths), it's everyone's favourite, cap-wearing Russell Slade, on 746 days.

So, a bit of stability is what we need and it'd be great if we could keep the services of Mr Liam Hearn. The only reason I mention this is because there's vague talk of Mansfield maybe putting in a offer if they maybe lose Matt Green. Green has been on trial with Birmingham and talking to a number of clubs. Let's hope that we can hold on to Liam, build on what we've got and hopefully climb out of this league. Oh, and can anyone play centre-back? We still need one of those.

The club has announced that the Conference fixtures will be released on 3 July. Why so late? It annoys me that our fixtures are released so much later than the League's. Don't they know I've got weekends away to Salisbury and Aldershot to plan? Let's just get out of this league yeah? Yeah? Hold me Liam, hold me.