Cod Almighty | Diary

I took sixteen weeks to recover

16 October 2014

Hello, then, Steve Marsella. What do we know about Town's new goalkeeping coach/scout? We know that he has a cool name. Having a cool name is only really good enough on its own when you're playing Football Manager, so let's have a rummage around, shall we?

OK, so Marsella joined Hibernian in November 2013 and left a month ago. Your original/regular Diary is not keen on Terry Butcher, so I'll unreasonably blame him for that. Before Hibs, he was with Inverness Caledonian Thistle (Marsella, not Butcher; still less your original/regular Diary). According to an excellent piece published by the Edinburgh Evening News shortly after his move to Easter Road, Marsella has been coaching for various clubs since about 1991 – including QPR, Accrington Stanley, Notts County and… Grimsby Town.

Is anyone aware of the new coach/scout's alleged previous spell with the Mariners? Shout up and tell us if you are. Either way, it looks like all this experience has given Marsella a contact list bigger than Tony Crane's arse. I reckon he'll be off as soon as he gets a better offer – just like Steve Croudson before him – but if he stays with the Mariners much beyond Christmas, we might finally start to sign some players from teams who aren't York City.

The BBC's incredibly helpful and informative annual Price of Football survey has yielded its three annual responses: (1) oooh, isn't the Premier League expensive; (2) oooh, isn't that London expensive; and (3) oooh, actually, sometimes you can go and watch Burnley/Wigan/Bolton/AN Other relatively less supported Lancashire Premier League team for about the same price as crappy old smelly non-League Grimsby Town. It should go without saying that this is easily explained by the 60 million quid you get for finishing bottom of the Premier League, so I won't say it.

But surely there's something in the Price of Football project that's not stating the obvious? Surely the BBC has a shrewd, insightful pundit who can always be relied on to make a pertinent, original and in no way no-shit-Sherlock contribution to the debate?

Oh.

Last up today, Paul Hurstststs says he's received compliments about his team's style of play from "neutral people" who watched a recent GTFC game [insert joke about scouts from FC Basel, Neuchâtel Xamax and Grasshoppers Zurich]. "They were really impressed with us," enthuses the Town boss wildly. Regular spectators will be unsurprised to learn that the match in question was last weekend's plucky 1-0 away win at high-flying Wrexham rather than, say, the previous month's home defeat by struggling part-time Southport. See yers.