Cod Almighty | Diary

Help like this might finish us off

8 October 2020

Trentside Diary writes: It's been a challenge to write diaries over the last couple of weeks. Like the summer break when there is no football to write about and not too much happening at Town, but with the added frustration of watching our rivals push on with their season. There's only so much excitement you can muster up for a loan signing when you aren't playing football. It feels like the whole of the rest of the world is at a party and we've got our noses pressed against a steamed-up window. But we'll be back inside soon, at least until the next positive test.

Like other diarists, I am increasingly concerned that this season will see an eventual downturn in crowds at Blundell Park when we are finally allowed back in without restrictions. I hope this was factored in when the board decided they would sit out the 14 days rather than stump up for regular testing, as other clubs have done. It's could be a disappointing long-term cost. I can think of quite a few people who used to be regulars or season ticket holders at Blundell Park and then for some reason stopped going. They rarely come back. There's a hard core of us who have been going for decades but Town needs all fans, even if people can only make once or twice a season. I hope the club are already giving some thought to decent offers for flexible tickets next year or whenever we can go back. We need people getting into the habit of going as soon as it's possible.

It's equally worrying that there has been nothing in the way of support from the top flight, whether it's verbal or hard cash and similar level of disinterest from the government. Sean Dyche has obviously forgotten that if the lower leagues didn't exist he wouldn't be where he is today and there have been similar comments from elsewhere. Suggestions of "bailouts" not happening in other businesses makes me wonder if it will happen; I can't help think probably not.

The bit that commentators have forgotten but all genuine football fans understand is that this is a business like no other. If you have supported a club all of your life, you are not suddenly going to decide to go elsewhere if your club folds. Many of us have a second club, clubs we like, but not in the same way as "our team". If Town folded, I wouldn't be rushing off to Scunthorpe or Lincoln to watch them on a Saturday. It's not how it works.

We're committed to our club. If the managers in Morrison's spoke to me like certain board members spoke to fans at that fateful forum, I wouldn't be setting foot in there ever again but it doesn't work like that in football. We've been going longer than they've been directors and we'll be going when they're gone. I wouldn't be expecting Asda to bailout Morrisons but they are competitors for my hard-earned cash whereas a football club has your heart and we're all a footballing family. Family help each other out when times are tough.

More concerning is the chief executive of Manchester City suggesting that the way this would all be resolved is if lower leagues allowed B teams in. He's unhappy that youngsters in their teens are lost to Germany to get playing time. This is obviously a man who lacks imagination and B teams is the only solution he can come up with. Some top English clubs have obscene numbers of young players on their books and are so scared that someone else might snaffle them up. Am I worried about them going to Germany to get their football? No, good luck to them.

There really is nothing to prevent his club from loaning out these youngsters to lower league clubs to get their match time. Look at Harry Kane, look at Dean Henderson. They've both benefited from being loaned out. Why should teams in lower leagues be forced to accept the crumbs from their table for competition. This idea reared its head a few years ago when we were trying to get out of non-League and I remember thinking at the time, "How insulting for players like Craig Disley and Shaun Pearson to have their years of hard graft pitted against young prancing ponies from the Ivory Towers". A loan is one thing, playing teams of individuals who are already singled out for "better things" but need to get their boots dirty is just offensive. UTM!