Cod Almighty | Diary

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

25 August 2016

Transfer deadline day is on Wednesday 31 August, and Paul Hurst is looking for players. He seems resistant to the idea that he may need a back-up, or even competition, for James McKeown in goal. Depending on how long Sean McAllister will be out for, we may want an extra midfield option. Hurst is definitely keen on a fourth striker. Above all, he wants a central defender, and not just any central defender. One with plenty of Football League experience.

Maybe it's being Middle-Aged Diary, but there is a particular appeal about the player who comes to Blundell Park for a glowing sunset to put an end to a fine career. Naturally, I am thinking of Paul Futcher, signed as an apparent stop-gap but who, having won the first promotion of his career in his first half-season, stayed on for three years. It was Futcher's misfortune to play at a time when the English central defender was defined in terms of their disruptive capacities. Had he been older or younger, his grace under pressure would surely have ensured full England recognition.

There are two other prime candidates for an Indian Summer XI: Trevor Whymark and Garry Birtles. For Birtles, I urge you to re-read Al Wilkinson's chapter in We Are Town. Whymark I missed out on seeing. I urge you to write in with your memories to fill me in.

It's rarer now for top-class players to drop down the leagues, and when they do, their motivation sometimes lets them, and us, down. But even the players who have simply survived through a decade of lower-league battling bring with them the intrinsic air of being "a footballer". It may not be what they do but the way that they do it that has fans murmuring their appreciation. To our autumnal team, I'll add yesterday's birthday "boy" Craig Disley, together with Justin Whittle and Gregor Robertson.

For a goalkeeper, we need look no further than Steve Sherwood. We have had better keepers, but if you were picking someone to keep goal when the future of civilisation depended on the result, it's Sherwood you would choose. That's not a hypothetical match, by the way. The future of civilisation did rest on Grimsby v Exeter at the end of the 1990-91 season.

We are short of a right-back (yes, I know Macca went on far longer than we could reasonably expect, but he still doesn't count) and midfielders. Tony Ford could qualify for either berth, except that when, at the age of 35, he left Grimsby for the second time, it turned out he was only just getting started.

No doubt you will have your suggestions how we can complete a Grimsby sunset XI.