Cod Almighty | Diary

I'd rather listen to Thin Lizzy, oh

5 June 2014

Yesterday London Diary was delighted with the opportunity to talk about a player Town had signed, as box-to-box midfielder Scott Brown charged into Blundell Park and started running quickly between the two penalty areas of an empty pitch. Today your original/regular Diary is delighted with the opportunity to talk about two players Town haven't signed. And when I say delighted, I mean – well, probably not delighted, but something. I've been at this gig 12 years, man and boy, y'know. Me old typing fingers aren't what they used to be. Eastleigh? We're all worried about Eastleigh now? I remember when all this were Fleetwood.

As you know, Paul Hurst has been trying to sign York. First of all he brought in Scott Kerr, Alex Rodman, Chris Doig, Patrick McLoughlin and Jamal Fyfield. Then we didn't get promoted, so he gave up trying to rebuild York City's promotion-winning squad of 2012 and targeted Nuneaton winger Wes York instead. York made some flattered-by-the-interest noises – Wes York, this is; not York City – and all looked set fair for the first injection of pace into a Mariners side since the signing of Michael Boulding in 1934. Sadly for us all, though, Wes York has now signed for Wrexham instead. But hey, at least it's not Forest Green. Or Eastleigh. Or Fleetwood.

Or York City. That'd have been messy.

Another player Town haven't signed is Aristote Nsiala. Aristote Nsiala is apparently a very good central defender who plays for Southport. Scott Brown also played for Southport last season. When Scott Brown signed for Town the other day, Aristote Nsiala made some throwaway comment about joining him. Within ten minutes, an estimated 61,009 Town fans on Twitter had put two and two together and come up with 61,009, with the slightly embarrassing result that the Grimsby Telewag has run one of those 'rumour mill' pieces about Nsiala probably not joining Town. He won't. He'll probably join Fleetwood.

And finally today, an enormous bang was heard this morning across north-west Cambridgeshire. The source of the sound is not known, but Blundell Park accountants were recently seen in conversation with a number of known ballistic weapons suppliers after Peterborough United's latest failure to settle on outstanding payments for the Ryan Bennett sell-on clause.