Cod Almighty | Diary

Thanks for the memories

19 October 2017

A depressing facet of modern life is the performative stupidity of politicians, pretending not to understand a point that a child of 10 might easily comprehend, thinking that acting thick, disparaging complexity and expertise, makes them a man or woman of the people. It doesn't of course: it makes them an obnoxious, patronising git, deliberately lowering the level of public debate.

So for that reason, and because I promised on Tuesday that a win at Cheltenham would buy Russell Slade a couple of weeks' grace (I know no one else remembers what Middle-Aged Diary has written 20 minutes after they have read it, but humour me), I will resist the obvious jibes about Reece Hall-Johnson who, three days after signing for the Mariners, has gone out on loan to Chester.

Yes, that Chester, the one managed by Marcus Bignot whose record as Town manager read 'played 27, won 9, lost 11' when he was sacked after five months. One imagines John Fenty sent Hall-Johnson along the M180 with the message "Tell Marcus I always did like him. It was strictly business." If the diminutive goalkeeper after whom Hall-Johnson is named (he hasn't denied it) could later sign for him at the Hawthorns after, to outside appearances, being shafted by Alan Buckley at Town, why shouldn't we lend an ex-manager a future player?

So signing a player we have no immediate use for could make sense. And the move at least means we can hold out hopes that Max Wright, Chris Clements and Akwasi Asante really do have a chance of establishing themselves in Slade's plans.

But there is this. When he sacked Bignot, a key part of Fenty's case against him was that he recruited without dismissing, that the squad became bloated with Bignot's players and those Hurst players he had no use for but whom he could not offload. Now Fenty is allowing Slade to do exactly the same thing. The next time someone tells you we need Fenty because the club can't break even, you might want to remind them of that fact.