The Diary

Cod Almighty | Diary

Farewell

9 May 2018

Social media, like fans, like people, have their good and bad faces.

We read a lot about trolling and we can't help reading a lot of mindless negativity - the performative stupidity that refuses to engage with what someone is saying and instead sets up a crude parody they can knock down instead. Following #gtfc on matchday can be unbearable, every other message on your timeline reading 'FFS' or 'sort it' or 'you useless wally'. Almost complete strangers take the opportunity to share you with you their deepest, darkest fears. When Town are losing, an anxiety shared isn't halved, it multiplies.

But there is another side. Karleigh Osborne, the one player we so far know that Grimsby have released, has left this message on Twitter:

A lower league footballer, if he is lucky, has about a decade to make a mark. Each season in which not much goes right for him must feel like five years in a dead-end job on the perennial knife-edge of a short-term contract would to you or me. A season spent largely as an unused sub, or in reserve team games, must be hugely frustrating. Yes, that message is a gesture, but it still takes effort to write with no hint of self-pity, of blame, of negativity as Osborne tries to navigate a path that will keep him, with a family to provide for, in the game.

Frustrating for him, Frustrating for us too, let's be honest. Today we speculate whether he might have made more of a mark had he had the chance to form a settled partnership in defence. But the chances are we won't be thinking too much about Osborne in two years' time. So, acknowledging that charitable thoughts come easier when we have avoided relegation, all credit also to the Town fans who have responded to Osborne's tweet with nothing but best wishes and empathy.

The person who comes up with a lunatics' filter for social media will deserve a Nobel Prize, for when you can filter out the pernicious rot, there is a lot that renews your faith in humanity.