Cod Almighty | Diary

Strength in numbers

8 September 2016

I would write a diary today, but I haven't got a thing to say, as Morrissey so nearly sang. It's not that there isn't lots going on, but you have read enough for today about both the stadium and the 'Whole' 'Game' 'Solution'. (Quite a feat to come up with a programme title in which every word is misleading.) Besides, judging from the Mariners Trust summary of the feedback it has received on the latter, you already agree with anything Middle-Aged Diary is likely to write.

That isn't to say though that, if you haven't yet, you shouldn't still send your views to the trust. That would be like deciding not to bother shouting "Maaa-ri-ners" because the person sat beside you was doing it already. Our strength is not only in the justness of our cause but also in our numbers.

An interview with Dean Henderson features in the Telegraph. His loan signing prompted Rich Mills' United XI, featuring not only Allenby Chilton but two players he signed from Old Trafford, Jeff Whitefoot and Johnny Scott. We tend to associate a manager going back to a former club for new signings with Alan Buckley, but it obviously predates him. Indeed, Grimsby's first proper manager, Haydn Price, brought with him five players from Mid-Rhondda.

More recently, loan signings often seem to come from the same clubs, perhaps because of their geographical convenience – York and now Barnsley are common wells for Paul Hurst to tap – or because of contacts between the two managers.

So why don't you spend the time I have just saved you by posting a short diary to come up with the Grimsby team who had the most players who had played together at another club. In modern times (by which I probably mean since Haydn Price), I suspect it's going to be a team of circa 2000 with Paul Groves, Stacy Coldicott and Kevin Donovan in midfield and Lee Ashcroft up front, not to mention Town's sponsored cyclist David Smith.

But I'll leave it to you to prove me wrong.