Cod Almighty | Diary

Bite into this meringue

10 May 2018

It's Thursday and we've got the usual dearth of Grimsby Town news to report. How do you round up stories that don't exist? We know which division we'll be playing in next season. We know who won which awards at the player of the year event. We know which players have been offered new deals, which have had theirs extended and which have been released.

Your West Yorkshire Diary, perhaps naively, believed there may have been more insight behind those contract decisions on offer when I saw the Grimsby Telegraph's headline "Why these Grimsby Town players were offered new contracts by Michael Jolley". But, not for the first time, the local rag roped me in by suggesting there would be quotes from our manager only for them to deliver nothing more than an opinion piece – which is more or less aligned with how members of The Fishy see it.

The motive behind that article was probably more to do with filling space than offering readers something new. Ironically it filled no space. It was like biting into a meringue to find a massive air pocket.

But I'm just being grouchy and I'm guilty as charged because, yes, I'm doing exactly the same thing. Writing because that's what we do. Something needs to be written today and it's my turn. It's easy to forget that, before this all-consuming 24/7 football culture arose from the internet becoming a thing, no-news days were much more frequent. What the hell did we do when there was no-news back then?

Finding something to write about isn't usually hard work in a week when Fenty releases a statement but I'm doing my absolute best not to get involved in that tripe. I'm aware that those who oppose his regime are sounding as repetitive as him, although that's not to say our thoughts and opinions are any less poignant. To use a metaphor, I like to think I can walk past a group of dissenting fans and not get embroiled in an argument every time, especially when there are better things to be writing about – like nothing.

But in my quest to deliver something genuinely new and insightful to you gorgeous people, I did notice something that didn't get a lot of traction at the time. In a season when we absolutely hammered the loan market, the team Jolley somehow galvanised to get us out of trouble was made up of under-contract players. Yes, Jamille Matt may have scored a decisive goal, as sub, but the starting XI for the last few games were Town players. And I liked that.

Jolley fielded players who were either with us next season or were in with a chance of re-signing for us next season. Basically, it was a case of "you guys determine which division you play in next season". Our fate wasn't put in the hands of those who had parent clubs to go back to. Your McKeowns, Collinses, Cliftons and Cardwells were far more likely to care about the future health of the club over, say, that Villa bloke who never played for us anyway – even if he had England caps.

That's not to say those loan players didn't care, but the slapdash way Slade went about playing loanees ahead of fit and healthy contracted players never sat well with me. Then again, nothing that man did in his second spell in charge sat well with me. I still don't understand why he drove Jamey Osborne out of the club (and if he was such a high earner, as has been rumoured, then how the hell did Solihull Moors manage to get him back without us being out of pocket?).

And as for the enigma of Sean McAllister, you can file that alongside Downey, G.

Excitement for the new season will build, gradually – it always does when there's a void – and, given the way we ended the season, I think Fenty will want to buy Jolley a barrel, never mind a pint. After enjoying the Notts County game it's made me consider that 2018-19 could be entertaining, and I'm sure plenty others will be feeling the same and filling in their season ticket forms.

In the meantime, we can sit back and watch others sweat it out in the play-offs. I notice Paul Hurst's Shrewsbury lost form at exactly the worst time for their play-off adventure. But, if you're a Shrews fan, you'd maybe take confidence in the way we limped to the finish line in 2016 and then edged past Braintree in the semis before powering our way to promotion against Forest Green in the final. I don't think there are many more managers out there who have more play-off experience than Hurst. This is his fifth in six seasons (and I'm sure he was involved in at least two more when he worked with Shouty at Ilkeston and Boston).

Good luck to the bloke. It'd be fascinating to see how many ex-Mariners could be playing in the second division next season when they were playing for us in non-League just a few years ago.