Cod Almighty | Diary

Who is the speaker in The Sick Rose

6 March 2018

He's emerged into the limelight at a critical moment for Grimsby Town FC and it's no exaggeration to say the very future of the club rests on how he performs at the helm. But before we come to Philip Day, settle down with your original/regular Diary for a little chat about Michael Jolley.

If talking a good game could win you three points, Town would not only be safe from relegation already – there'd be cautious muttering of a late charge for the play-offs. It's clear from the press conference, and even more so his excellent, must-watch interview with Matt Dean, that Jolley's talk is as sharp as his tailoring. The supporters are as impressed as the directors. But we've been here before, and not long before. It won't be enough for Jolley to be Bignot without the jokes. He'll need to be Bignot without the jokes and with the tactics.

And, well, that's not impossible. The third thing you should watch is Jolley's explanation of how he masterminded a shock 3-1 win for his Eskilstuna side against runaway league leaders Malmo a few months ago. I don't know, this might be the sort of thing all managers do with varying degrees of success, but just having him explain it so nicely makes me feel a bit less jumpy about the whole potential relegation-and-eventual-death-of-the-football club issue.

Now if you'd told me a couple of weeks ago that I'd shortly be placing all my hope for the salvation of my club in the hands of a Cambridge-educated economist with a background in trading on the financial markets, I'd have struggled just a little to believe you completely. Behind Jolley's slick demeanour, though, there's a groundedness that I'm warming to. When difficult results come, his Yorkshire nationality will doubtless become a stick for the insular to beat him with. But I appreciate the fact that, like all born-and-bred south Yorkies, he used to play in the sand down Meggies as a kid.

So how come it was Philip Day and not John Fenty who introduced the new boss? Is Day also behind the sudden, unexpected improvement in the official statements on Town's newly superb new official website? And what does this mean for the future of the club?

In among all the other extraordinary things about GTFC – not all of which are terrible – we sometimes overlook the possibility that our club is unique in not having a chair. Since he nominally relinquished the position in 2011, John Fenty's non-chairman/'major shareholder' status has become normalised to the extent that we neglect to interrogate it.

The club's chain of command is a mystery. There's little indication as to how the responsibility for week-to-week operational decisions falls between Fenty, the other directors and the chief executive. The hiring and firing of managers is relatively transparent: decisions on this seem to be taken collectively by the board, with equal weight given to each director's vote. But as supporters we have not considered the possibility that the murky and slapdash organisational structure at Blundell Park might be a factor in the recruitment and retention of team managers. One of the first things you want to know about any job is who you're answerable to.

Either way, the set-up at GTFC needs getting right for us to benefit from the talents of any manager. And it's worth noting that Michael Jolley left his last job after a difference of opinion with the Eskilstuna directors about the future direction of the club. Fenty may be as fed up of us as we are of him, and if this leaves the more articulate and empathetic Day to assume greater influence, then this may in turn start to clear the way for the talent at Blundell Park to bear fruit – from the dug-out to the pitch, hopefully via the youth academy.