Cod Almighty | Diary

Notts County on Humber?

19 December 2019

Anyone but Fenty, right? John Fenty after all has had 19 years to show what he cannot do. And one of the things he can't do is acknowledge any mistakes, still less learn from them.

But there are even worse owners out there. Some names set the heart racing - not with excitement but with fear. Alan Hardy and Colin Dodd are two such.

Hardy you'll remember is the former owner of Notts County who steered the club out of the Football League. He thus matches Fenty and surpasses him in almost taking the club out of business. He does show some capacity for self-reflection, but it is rather of the Prince Andrew variety of confessional: he was just too trusting, too supportive, dammit.

Yesterday, Leigh Curtis of the Nottingham Post published a story saying Hardy was involved in a consortium in talks about buying Grimsby Town. Hardy is largely a figurehead, but when the figurehead is someone best known for publishing a picture of his own penis, it makes you wonder what the rest of the group have to hide.

The main man is Colin Dodd, a property developer. He tried to buy Notts County because he was interested in developing the land around Meadow Lane. That failed, so now he has his eyes on Blundell Park.

There is definitely smoke here. On Sunday, Hardy tweeted that he was "Looking forward to making an exciting announcement in the next 48 hours which may surprise a few people!" Well that 48 hours, and 48 hours more, have passed so perhaps Hardy just wanted to share another part of his anatomy. But there is some kindling too: it is a fact that Dodd has set up a firm called Blundell Park Project Limited.

Is it then with some relief we read that Fenty has told BBC Humberside that renewed takeover talk "has no foundation whatsoever" although he is "aware of speculation"? Should we all hold onto nurse Fenty for fear of finding someone worse?

Hardly that either. It is perfectly possible to acknowledge that John Fenty is no Oyston without then immediately concluding he is the messiah. There is no sign that three wise men are making their way up Grimsby Road.

The fact is we are invested. Middle-Aged Diary in writing this. You in reading it. All of us in shelling out for tickets and travel, devoting our Saturdays and a large share of our consciousness to thinking, hoping and fearing for the future of Grimsby Town FC. An entity that, spiritually and morally, belongs to all of us, but in legal actuality is in the hands of one man. 

It needn't be like this. Other contries do not try to run their community clubs as though they are private enterprises. Even some British clubs have moved beyond that, with some success as well, though the lure of the saviour with a bank balance to match his ego (it is pretty much always a man) is sometimes strong. But we aren't there yet. So we have to devote emotional energy to second guessing what attitude Fenty will take to the next chancer who comes along.