Cod Almighty | Diary
Strap yourself in, it's a bumpy ride
6 February 2018
When Middle-Aged Diary wrote my last entry, on Thursday, I had one statement to consider. Since then they have proliferated; if we could score goals like we issue statements we'd be raising our fists in triumph, not anger.
On Friday, the Mariners Trust "clarified" the role its representative on the board, Jon Wood, played in the discussion on Russell Slade's future that was the subject of Thursday's statement. As clarifications go, let's just say Blundellologists are still puzzling over the order in which the board decided to retain Slade, Jon represented the views of fans and the board collaborated on communicating it's decision.
On Saturday, the trust was at it again, this time to announce that Paul Savage has resigned both as chair and as a member of the trust board. Alan Rutter takes over as interim chair.
Cod Almighty and Paul have had one or two snippy exchanges recently, but no one is in any doubt that he has a deep and abiding commitment to Grimsby Town, and about the exceptional ability he brought to the cause. Whatever the board might have told us last November, Operation Promotion was the necessary glue between club and fans that got us back into the Football League. And without Paul there would have been no Operaton Promotion. He owes no one anything, but the club is poorer without him.
The trust says that Paul has resigned because of a disagreement about the direction of the trust. That is curious, and frankly a bit worrying, as the direction of the trust is still the subject of the supporters' survey. The deadline for taking part in the survey has now been brought forward to Sunday 11 February. So if you haven't responded yet, please do so now.
Sunday brought us the not-so-rare treat of a statement from John Fenty, and, to be fair, it was quite a good one, thanking fans for the conduct of the protest before Saturday's game and then our support for the players. It was a concern when he wrote that he would be "partnering" Wood and Rutter to analyse the results of the Mariners Trust survey but the trust was quick to say he'd be doing no such thing.
Fenty showed commendable grace in handling the people who covertly recorded a conversation they had with him on Saturday. There is a technical word for people who do that kind of thing: shysters. Then there is another term for people who, having taken the trouble to set up such an operation, can do no better than burble out "The Checkatrade trophy wasn't broke, so don't fix it" and leave unchallenged wild assertions about why Paul Hurst left and the likely reaction if Slade hadn't been allowed to bring in his umpteenth striker. The term is fuckwits. Far from opponents of Fenty, they came across as groupies, awed to be in his presence.
Further praise for Fenty: he made no attempt to tar all his opponents with the brush of the fuckwitted shysters and, in an example to politicians everywhere, did not try to claim he was 'taken out of context'. He says he'd have expressed himself differently had he known he was being recorded, promises to remain open to fans, and does not retract any of the views he expressed. Truth be told, all the views he expressed - objectionable as they were on B-teams and the role of the trust in particular - were already in the public domain, so the covert recording achieved less than zero.
Oh, yes, we are a football club; the fact we are seeing so much of the inner workings at the moment is a sure sign we are getting it badly wrong. So lets end with some football.
On Saturday, we had the much-anticipated visit of Max Wright's Scarborough to Trafford FC, and the Urmston Mariners were there in force, our position near the clubhouse ideal to take in Wright, stationed in an advanced role on the right. A lithe figure, he looks a very decent player. He could take on, and beat, his man and he put in a succession of mostly accurate, dangerous crosses. One in the first minute almost produced a goal. He could also weigh his options nicely. It was his threaded pass that led to the corner from which Scarborough took the lead. It would be wrong to say he was head-and-shoulders the best player on the pitch, but he certainly stood out. I hope the next time I see him it is in the shirt of Grimsby Town.